Dijital Eğitim Platformları Arasında EBA’nın Yeri ile İlgili Fen Bilimleri Öğretmenlerinin Görüşleri

Abstract

The importance of technology has become increased and rapidly affected all living spaces in our age. The development of technology is much faster than in past centuries. The digital revolution that has taken place has caused many positive and negative influences in education. Various and comprehensive projects are being put into practice for the adaptation of education and technology in Turkey. The EBA (Educational Information Network), social education platform, is recognized as one of the leaders of these projects. Such a significant investment of public enterprise is seen worthy to investigate according to its development, durability, competitiveness, and usefulness. The opinions of the science teachers interviewed about EBA have been tried to be revealed with this study. The aim of this study is to reveal the technology-friendly science teachers' comparisons of Educational Information Network with other digital education platforms in terms of content, visuality, curriculum conformity, usability. Trying to understand comparatively why the teachers use which software, the positive and negative aspects of EBA can be seen. The use of technology in education takes its place among the essential components of educational institutions day by day. In such an environment, it is also important that what teachers think about the EBA application, which can be considered as the first comprehensive initiative by the Ministry of National Education. Evaluating the perspectives of science teachers about EBA application can also benefit upon the development and continuity of EBA. In this study, interview technique, one of the qualitative research data collection methods, was used. Purposeful sampling method was used to interview. Participants of the research are 20 science teachers who work in various cities (Tokat, Sivas, Amasya, Erzincan, Ordu and Manisa). While choosing the participants, teachers who use technology effectively, have mastered the technological tools and received in-service training about EBA was tried to be preferred. Some of the participating teachers have the ability to design digital content. Semi-structured interview form was used as data collection tool. Pilot application of the interview was done with 3 science teachers working in Tokat. After the pilot application, changes were made to the interview forms in line with the opinions received and the forms were presented to the experts for their validity. Interview questions were sent to 5 specialists who were working on the field and the interview form was corrected according to their opinions. In order to collect the data, interviews with 20 science teachers face to face and on internet were conducted by using the latest form of interview protocol. An appointment was made prior to interviews and it was stated that the interview could take an average of 30 minutes. In the analysis of the data, content analysis method was used. Teachers generally think that the digital materials used in science teaching, including EBA, are not at the expected level yet. In terms of findings, the Education Information Network is not yet at the expected level of competence when compared to other digital educational materials. The Education Information Network social education platform is less used than other digital materials. Content up-to-dateness and curriculum conformity were not found to be adequate by teachers, compared to other digital educational materials. The news and periodicals sections have become popular and most frequently expressed parts of the Educational Information Network, which are not very common in other digital educational materials. Teachers generally use digital education materials for test-solving, narrating the subject during the lesson, seeing the news, and downloading digital content. In order to increase the competitiveness of EBA and to make it more usable, it must have an up-to-date and sufficient content. Teachers argue that the content a digital platform is especially influence the user habits. EBA platform is not seen as fully functional by science teacher because they expect some other properties such as preparing and recording pre-class plans. It was stated that the EBA platform had to be rearranged to prevent time loss. Another issue that is thought by teachers is that increasing color and images may be more beneficial. The science teachers who participated in the research argued that EBA would develop and become permanent if it can become a free platform where the sharing increases, the content enriches, and the free discussions can be done. In other educational software, while the content created by a team is usually shared as a product, EBA has the ability to collect all teachers under one roof by working with common mind. It is thought that more careful content filtering will increase the quality when sharing is done. At a time when the government had such large projects in educational settings; the development of EBA as a software candidate that will fill up the empty area is a good opportunity. In general, by identifying the preference reasons of the frequently used educational software, the deficiencies of the EBA can be eliminated. EBA seems necessary and important because it is thought of as software that will fill in the hardware in the schools. Within the context of the Fatih project, the majority of the schools have interactive boards, so a good software to be used is also desired by teachers. However, it is also important that it fulfill the criteria that teachers and students expect. The teachers interviewed about the EBA found that the EBA platform is valuable and promising in general.