مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - SECONDARY STUDENTS’ TECHNOLOGY USAGE IN GEOGRAPHY LESSONS AND THEIR DAILY LIFE

Abstract :

Today, the use of various technology tools which are used in almost every area of life is one of the important issues in education as a requirement of a constructivist educational approach in developed countries all over the world. Therefore, the use of technology in geography education has become an obligation rather than an option today. The purpose of this study was to reveal the level of technology usage both in secondary school geography lectures and students ‘daily lives and to compare them in Turkey. Data collection tool was a technology usage survey prepared by the authors. The survey was conducted in secondary schools in Turkey’s randomly selected seven different cities including Istanbul, Ankara, Denizli, Hatay, İzmir, Manisa and Tokat in the academic year 2011-2012. Analysis and comparisons of the answers given by students were carried out using Mann-Whitney and Kruskal Wallis Tests. As a result, it was revealed that the use of office applications, internet and video CD in geography lectures was at the level of once a semester and the use of Google Earth, Google Maps, and GIS was at the level of less than once a semester”. However, students’ usage levels of these technologies in their daily lives were higher than the usages in geography lectures. Moreover, some statistical differences were revealed among school types and between state and private schools in terms of technology usage in geography lectures.