Computer Education and Instructional Technology

Özet Toplumsal sorunların çözülmesi hem bireysel hem de toplumsal boyutlarda değişimler gerektirmektedir. Bu bağlamda bireylerin çevresindeki insanları etkileyebilme, fiziksel ve sosyal çevreye katkıda bulunabilecek eylem gerçekleştirme kapasiteleri, söz konusu sorunların çözümü için büyük önem taşımaktadır. Eylem yeterliliği, bu kapasiteleri kapsayan bir kavram olarak ortaya atılmıştır. Kavram, öncelikli olarak Kuzey Avrupa ülkelerinde çevre, sağlık ve barış eğitimi gibi konularda çalışılmıştır.

Web environments provide learners with a great amount of information and various environments and opportunities that they can use to navigate, yet problems may occur as a result of the abundant choices and flexibility provided by these Web-based environments. Among these problems disorientation and cognitive overload in hypermedia are important bottlenecks. But recently emerging semantic web is considered as an important solution point for these problems. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the potentials to decrease or overcome the problems related to disorientation and cognitive overload of Semantic Web substructure and its components in the Web environment. For this purpose, this study first discus Semantic Web, disorientation in Hypermedia, and cognitive overload. Following this, Semantic Web components and the features of these components are examined to evaluate the potentials to decrease or overcome disorientation and cognitive overload in hypermedia learning environments.

In the present study, a mobile learning system for the professional development of academics was developed by design based action research, and the perceptions and experiences of the academics using this system were examined. In the first phase of this design-based action research, the research question was defined. In the second phase, a m-learning system called “Mobile Academic Research Support” (MARS) was designed as a solution to the problem, and the IOS mobile application for this design was developed. In the third phase of the study, the MARS application was regularly tested and evaluated by the academics over eight weeks. At the end of the research process, the results were reflected upon. It was found that the primary and important professional development needs of the academics were at the scientific research level. It was also observed that the m-learning system developed for the professional development of the academics regarding scientific research was appropriate to the overall purpose, accessible, adaptable and appealing; that it served both as a m-learning and as an academic support system; that its content was satisfactory; and that the tools used in the system were useful. In addition, it was observed that the academics were able to use mobile technologies for learning. Also, it was stated that such a system could provide positive contributions to the professional development of academics.

The technology advances rapidly; as a result, education and instruction are getting digitalized. So it could be estimated that; pre-service teachers who are future teachers, should have digital skills. This is the main point of this study which aims to visit pre-service teachers in Turkey from the perspective of digital fluency, give insights about digital fluency, scrutinize its difference from digital literacy and provide literature review on the previous studies about digital fluency. At first, the connection between digital fluency and the 21st century analyzed, then the differences between digital literacy and digital fluency are described. Worldwide and specifically Turkish
literature review revealed that, certain studies foresaw the increasing importance of digital fluency based on development of digital devices, and Turkish literature was limited to some scale development and descriptive studies solely determining the digital literacy level of the participants. Thus, it could be stated that further and
up-to-date studies are required, which would be conducted with pre-service teachers and current assessment instruments should be developed to determine digital fluency level, considering the rapid advances in technology.

This study was aimed at investigating the views held by preservice teachers from the department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology (CEIT) and those of 6 th grade students about the process of online digital storytelling activities as it applies to the students' education. The study was designed as a case study. The data were collected through direct observations, semi-structured interviews and surveys. The participants of the study were eight senior preservice teachers from CEIT and 47 6 th grade students from Eskisehir Cagdas Private Elementary School. The study followed two stages. In the first stage, the preservice teachers from CEIT were trained in online digital storytelling; and in the second stage, the preservice teachers performed online digital storytelling activities with 6 th grade students. According to the findings obtained in the study, the preservice teachers thought that carrying out digital storytelling activities in an online environment engages students' attention, accelerates the digital storytelling process, increases communication between students and contributes to the development of students' digital stories. In addition, both the preservice teachers and the elementary school students agreed that digital storytelling developed the students' 21 st century skills. On the other hand, the preservice teachers complained about the fact that digital storytelling activities lasted for a long period of time; that the students were reluctant to participate; and that the students copied their scenarios from the Internet; meanwhile, the students mostly complained about technical problems, about the lack of sufficient sources related to the their stories and about the extended time-taking aspect of the activity process.

Increasing applications of online learning in educational settings created a need for development of a theoretical framework specific for online learning environments. Community of Inquiry (CoI) Framework, developed by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000) in this direction, has aroused attention by researchers and practitioners of the field (Garrison & Arbaugh, 2007). Online learning applications have come into our educational lives in Turkey as well, both formally and informally, and many universities have developed and put into practice distance learning programs, several certification programs and MOOCs. The aim of this study is to recommend a guide to faculty who applies/considers to apply online learning, based on CoI Framework, which may help them in the process. This guide bases on CoI indicators, current communication technologies, and actual problems faced in online learning environments. This report involves prerequisites and competencies for faculty and suggestions for the field is given at the conclusion.

Günümüzde eğitim araştırmalarının bulguları incelenip değerlendirildiğinde, bulguların uygulamada ve kuramın oluşumunda çok az etkili olduğu görülmektedir. Bu bağlamda ortaya çıkan tasarım tabanlı araştırma, öğretme-öğrenme hakkında kuramların somutlaştırılmasına; kuram, tasarım ve uygulama arasındaki ilişkinin anlaşılmasına yardımcı olmaktadır. Tasarım tabanlı araştırma, özellikle e-öğrenme ortamlarının tasarımı ve araştırılmasında çok önemli bir potansiyele sahiptir. Bu çalışmada, ilgili alanyazın doğrultusunda tasarım tabanlı araştırma yönteminin temel ilkeleri ve araştırma süreçleri ele alınmakta ve tasarım tabanlı araştırmanın e-öğrenme ortamlarının tasarlanmasında ve araştırılmasında nasıl kullanılabileceği tartışılmaktadır.

Quality standards have to be determined by comprehensive research in order to constitute functional infrastructure. But, there is some uncertainty about the quality for online education in reality. In the literature organizations dealing with online education like NEA, SREB, NACOL, Sloan-C have improved quality standards for online education. There is no obvious information about whether quality standards developed by other countries have been used for online education in Turkey. For that reason, quality standards must be determined for online education to guide how to constitute functional infrastructure at online education foundations. Also to what extent do students taking online courses give importance to the standards and at what level do higher education institutions giving online courses apply the standards must be identified accurately in Higher Education Instutitions serving online course. This study aims to present a Phd thesis proposal to be evaluated by experts of quality assurance.