An analysis of awareness of students in the utilization of technology

Abstract

With the rapid advancements in technology, people are being more tied with the technological tools and materials that meet the requirements of the society. The increase of knowledge with support from technology augments the factors that facilitate life. Therefore, the use of technology has turned to be affecting human life in all aspects. Technology is utilized in the field of education, too. In the information age we live in, students increasingly use more technology everyday. Technology-related educational methods are advised at all stages of education and these methods are included in practices, generally in proportion to economic capabilities. Hence, it has been necessary to identify the attitudes of students towards the technological tools used in the field of education and many related studies have been carried out. Many scientific research studies have shown that technology supported educational practices in chemistry education enhance student performance as compared to traditional methods. In order to identify how and to what level technology awareness has developed among the students who have undertaken technological practices, an item pool of 50 technology-awareness statements were presented to 162 students studying at Hacettepe University Department of Chemical Education. Responses to the 50 statements in the item pool have been evaluated with the Cluster Analysis method. Groups consisting of statements that define certain opinions about the use of technology have been formed and a broader statement has been used to categorize these groups of statements. According to the cluster analysis, the first group consists of “the statements that define the points of view of students and teachers about the use of technology”; the second group consists of “the statements that define in which situations technology utilization can prove to be successful”; another group consists of “the statements that define the measures to ensure an increase in the utilization of technology” while other groups consisted of “statements containing general opinions about the use of technology” as well as “the statements that proclaim negative stances about the utilization of technology and opinions at different dimensions”. Through the determination of what kind of groups are formed by which questions by looking at to what extent candidate chemistry teachers agree with the technology statements related to the utilization of technology, and through the identification of which arrangements should be made about the use of technology accordingly, we believe that the results of this study will contribute to the development of chemistry education.