OPINIONS AND ATTITUDES OF STUDENTS TEACHERS' TOWARD ICT USE IN EDUCATION

Abstract

The evolution of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and their integration in the education lead to specific changes both in the pre-service and in-service teachers’ training programs curricula developed during the last decades in Romanian universities. ICT in education is seen both as a necessity, since universities need to have well trained graduates integrated in the society and on the job market, and as an opportunity because it gives students access to significant resources at very low costs of time and money. Initial teacher training for Romania primary teachers is nowadays accomplished by a three years program at the university. Starting with an analyze of the ICT student teacher training policies developed during the last two decades in several European countries, this article will discuss the main measures taken by the Romanian universities in order to integrate information and communication technologies in education and will present the results of a study which aimed to analyze student teachers’ attitude regarding ICT use in education and their opinion regarding ICT access at resources in the faculty where they are enrolled. Involving 60 students from the Pedagogy of Preschool and Primary School from two Romanian universities, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi and “Ştefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, our study also captures the main difficulties encountered by students when using ICT.In the end, we will discuss several implications of the results of this study on the specific information and communication technologies teacher training policies and strategies developed in the Romanian universities.