Selçuk Özdemir

Board's IQ: What makes a board smart?

The amount of investment that has been made in interactive whiteboards (IWB) in the Turkish educational system during the past several years is quite striking. This investment is part of a plan to integrate information and communication technologies (ICT) into the Turkish educational system, with the goal of increasing the qualitative and quantitative aspects of schooling. Prior to IWB investments, hundreds of thousands of computers, projectors, and printers were distributed to schools in efforts to raise a generation able to respond to the demands of the 21st century. In addition, 98% of secondary school students and 93% of primary school students were provided with Internet access via ADSL. The aim of this study is to analyze the emerging trend of smart board investment in Turkish primary and secondary schools, with consideration of problems that hinder the effective use of IWBs in classrooms as compared to previous ICT integration efforts by the Ministry of National Education. The research is designed as an evaluative case study. The required data are collected through online questionnaires, teacher and pupil interviews, and document searches from teachers and students from various Turkish primary and secondary schools. It is not surprising that the factors hindering the use of IWBs in education are similar to the inhibiting factors in previous ICT integration projects. The findings show that when the needs for in-service training, digital education materials, support, maintenance, and administration are not addressed, educational ICT is unlikely to deliver the expected results.

Integrating information and communication technologies in the Turkish primary school system

The paper reports on an investigation into the 1998–2003 Phase 1 of the information and communication technologies (ICTs) component of the Basic Education Program, a major project jointly funded by the Turkish Ministry of National Education (MONE) and the World Bank designed to integrate ICT into the national primary school system. The study involved a search of the literature regarding ICT integration in primary schools, an analysis of MONE and World Bank documentation and face-to-face interviews and a questionnaire survey to gauge the experiences and views of the administrators and computer coordinators involved in the project. The findings revealed major shortcomings in the project, and the paper concludes with recommendations for addressing these shortcomings in Phase 2 of the project, which is now under way, again under the aegis of MONE and the World Bank.

How Teachers and Students Depict Interactive Whiteboards and Tablet PCs in a 9th Grade Classroom

This paper describes a pilot project with the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness of tablet PCs and interactive/smart whiteboard for 9th grade students and their teachers. The pilot study was designed to explore students’ and teachers’ perceived effectiveness of using tablet PCs and interactive/smart whiteboards. The participants included a total of 136 teachers from various state funded schools and 732 9th grade students, who were provided with tablet PCs and interactive/smart whiteboards and were trained in their use. A survey was distributed to the participants at the end of the semester. This paper describes the pilot project and the survey results. We observed that (a) teachers think that interactive/smart whiteboard would have more impact whereas students consider tablet PCs would have more, and (b) students are more anxious about using tablet PCs and interactive whiteboards during instructional processes than teachers.