Huseyin Uzunboylu

Is SMS still alive for education: Analysis of educational potentials of SMS technology?

Abstract Mobile phone, especially SMS concept is a fairly old technology. In spite of the fact that there are some applications of using SMS capabilities of mobile phones in education, the usage is not widely in all educational areas. Still, there is a need to understand how SMS technology could be applicable for education in different ways. Hence, in this study, authors’ investigate possible educational use of SMS by providing a detailed analysis of the technology and examples of different research studies of successful implementations in education. This study may be a guide for school administrators and policy makers to understand educational technology potential of SMS by providing benefits and drawbacks of the technology.

A Collaborative Mobile Learning Environmental Education System for Students

Mobile learning, a relatively new concept, has gathered momentum and attracted the interest of educators, researchers, and companies developing learning systems and instructional materials. A principal goal of this study was to develop a suitable system for environmental education via mobile technologies. Students sent text messages using the Short Message Service (SMS), and pictures using the Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) of mobile phones. A web-based environmental education system has been developed by the authors on a Universitypsilas server, called the New Mobile Technologies and Environmental Education System (NMobTec-EnvEdu). The exploratory study investigated the results of integrating mobile technology with e-learning and traditional classroom environments; specifically, the use mobile telephones, data services (i.e., WAP, SMS, MMS, e-mail), and messenger. By gathering information and exchanging pictures using mobile telephones, text messaging and transmitting pictures of local environmental blights, studentspsila attitudes improved toward maintaining a clean environment, and they identified ways to prevent pollution.

“Hello world”, web mining for e-learning

Abstract As the internet and mobile applications are getting an important role in our lives, usage of mobile services also took place in educational field since the internet is widespread, which is usually called by the terms “e-learning” or “distance learning”. A known issue on e-learning is all the content’s being online and less face-to-face communication than traditional learning; this brings the problem of chasing student’s success, and advising and managing student’s way of studying. Hence, a recent hot topic, data mining, can be applied on student’s data left on e-learning portals to guide the instructor and advisors to help students’ being more successful. Recent researches done on this topic showed that e-learning combined with data mining can decrease the gap between itself and traditional learning — referred as semantic web mining in general.

Deciding which technology is the best for distance education: Issues in media/technology comparisons studies

Abstract Distance education decision makers; who will be shaping the future of distance education; should understand the role of different technologies and their unique attributes closely. In order to achieve this task accurately, they also need to know the superiorities of different technologies to each other. Media comparison studies have been conducted to see these superiorities and to help deciding “which technology is better?” In some studies researchers make some fundamental errors and flaws in media comparison studies for distance learning. Hence, there is a need to determine these issues in order to make decision process work better. In this review study, issues on media comparison studies in distance education discussed with theoretical backgrounds. Also in this study, reader could find what kind of flaws can occur in media comparisons studies and what cause to these flaws as well as some suggestions to avoid these flaws. In this study, five of the most significant errors scholars have made in writing and discussing distance education research in technology/media comparisons studies are determined. This study aims to help distance education policy makers, distance education researchers and instructors by making them aware of these issues in comparison studies. Hence, they could make a more accurate decision when implementing distance learning solutions in their institutions.

Lifelong Learning Competency Perceptions of Teacher Candidates According to a Teacher Training Program

Abstract The purpose of this study is to analyze the competency perceptions of teacher candidates relating to life-long learning in terms of several variables within the scope of a teacher training program. The sample of this study consists of 965 teacher candidates having education in the 3rd and 4th grades in the Faculty of Education of Celal Bayar University in the 2014-2015 academic year. “The Life-long Learning Competency Scale”, developed by researchers as a data collection tool and Screening Model were used in the study. Analysis of the data was performed with an SPSS 17.00 program. From the results obtained from this study, it is seen that a significant difference has been created in the “personal enterprise and entrepreneurship competency perception” attitudes of teacher candidates in terms of the gender variable. Hence, the reasons for these differences should be sought in detail by studies carried out in the future.

Results of a Citation Analysis of the Career Counselling Field from an African Perspective

The study examined research and trends in career counselling published in selected professional sources during the period 1980–2010. Citation analysis was used in this study to investigate documents which were indexed in the Web of Science related to career counselling. Career counselling and related keywords were used jointly in the search for documents. There were a total of 730 documents judged to be relevant to the field of career counselling and were citation analysed. The number of citations related to the career counselling field has been increasing continuously since 2000. Research publications on career counselling are projected to increase for both South African authors and the authors of other African countries.

Pre-service Teachers’ Self-efficacy Beliefs in the Context of Teacher Education Program

Abstract This research’s objective is to investigate self-efficacy beliefs of student teachers within the context of the teacher education program and in terms of certain variables anthropologically. The population of the research constitutes 965 student teachers studying in the Faculty of Education under Celal Bayar University in the academic year of 2014-2015. A descriptive survey model was used in this research. In order to collect necessary data for the research, the Self-efficacy Belief Scale was developed by researchers and used in this research. Results demonstrated that significant differences were found between the answers of pre-service teachers to the Selfefficacy Belief Scale according to demographic variables of gender, type of program and average academic achievement, but a significant difference was not found between the answers of pre-service teachers with respect to the demographic variable of class level in terms of self-efficacy belief.

A Piece of Qualitative Study About Digital Natives

Abstract This research is conducted to examine how the concepts of digital natives and digital immigrants are represented in the literature. Therefore, qualitative research methodology was preferred for the research. Data collection was done through literature review. Keywords such as digital natives and digital immigrants in education are used to search for details about digital natives and digital immigrants in education settings. Thus, literature review is analyzed to find common points in the researches. Findings show the importance of new technology and the usage of technology in education settings, and also how the digital natives learn within this age. To sum up therefore, it is proven that being a digital native and being a digital immigrant are two different things in an education setting. In recent studies however, issues such as being a digital native and being a digital immigrant are to be adopted as novelties and learnt within a multiplatform. Thus, learning platforms and techniques are constantly changing with respect to technological changes, and the students are also influenced, as their way of learning keeps changing.

Training in Medical Tourism, a Necessity or a Perspective? A Needs Analysis of Stakeholders on Training Issues in Medical Tourism

Abstract Medical tourism, having a very long history, is a form of tourism related to health issues of peoplewho travel to other places in search of a better and cheaper medical treatment. Human relations and services takeform and develop in accordance with the needs of individuals and societies. In line with the demands for quality, thescope and quality of the education sector has also increased. However, the results of this study reveal that there isno available source on systematic and program-based education services related to medical tourism in literature.This study, including stakeholders working for the North Cyprus health, tourism and education sectors in cooperationwith the medical tourism context, focuses on the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders, need of educationand calls attention to the lack of systematic and program-based education for medical tourism related activities.

Performance Evaluation of Schools: Content Analysis of Studies Published Between 1972 and 2017

ABSTRACT This research was conducted using the Scopus database to examine the methodological dimensions of studies of the performance evaluation of schools, and to reveal the general trend. To this end, between the years 1972 and 2017, 353 studies published in Scopus 2017 on the performance evaluation of schools were examined using content analysis. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistical methods, including frequency and percentage. In terms of the findings of the study, the number of studies has increased, especially in the last ten years, with most studies being carried out in 2015. Moreover, when the subjects of the studies were examined, the subjects in the field of Social Sciences were investigated the most and the quantitative methods were the most commonly used approaches. Students and teachers were the most commonly preferred study groups.