Ata Taspolat

The purpose of this research is to examine the pre-service teachers’ use of mobile technologies in teaching activities. In this study, the survey method, one of the research methods, was used. The 199 prospective teachers studying at the Faculty of Education, a private university in Northern Cyprus, were included in the workgroup of the research. The 5-point Likert-type scales were used to measure the frequencies of using mobile technologies in instructional activities, motivation, and attitudes towards mobile technologies, competencies in mobile technology use, and its social effects. It was found that social factors had the lowest effect on the use of mobile technologies. Additionally, no gender-based difference was found in the mobile use frequency, motivation, attitude, competency, and social impact of prospective teachers. Moreover, the frequency, motivation, attitudes, competency, and social impact levels of students from the Department of Computer and Instructional Technologies are significantly higher than those departments from Guidance and Psychological Counselling, Special Education, Music Teaching, Elementary School Mathematics Teacher Education, Department of Pre-School Teaching, Classroom Teaching Department, Social Sciences Teacher Education, Turkish Language Teaching. It was concluded that having problems for mobile learning activities that can be used in the scope of mobile learning significantly influences the frequency of use, motivation, attitude, competency, and social impact of the students. Along with this, it was found that the following factors, given in order of importance, are influential on the frequency of the use of mobile technologies by prospective teachers in instructional activities: motivation, attitude, competency, and social impact.

The flipped classroom method, which could be considered as one of the crucial new generation teaching approaches, is a permutation of the educational activities that are carried out inside and outside of the classroom environment. The main purpose of the present study is to determine the impact of the flipped classroom approach on students’ academic achievement and their attitudes toward programming and methodology at the higher education level. The current study employed a mixed research method as findings were transcribed on the basis of quantitative and qualitative data sets. Academic achievement tests and attitudes toward programming scales were used to collect quantitative data, whereas a semistructured focus group interview was used to collect the qualitative data set. The findings demonstrated that a statistically significant difference existed among the students in the experimental group and students within the control group regarding their attitudes toward programming and academic achievement. The results of the study reported that the experimental group had more positive attitudes and higher levels of academic achievement when compared with the control group. The advantages of the flipped classroom model include the elevated teacher–student interaction, raised independence in terms of accessing courses regardless of time and place, the opportunity to save time particularly during practicing, student-centered structure and increased motivation. This method also has many disadvantages. These include the need for technological requirements, students not watching videos, poor attendance to the course, and the lowered student–teacher interaction, especially outside the classroom.

The flipped classroom method, where in-class and non-class activities are translocated, is accepted as one of the new generation teaching models. The aim of this study is to reveal students' views on the use of social media in the teaching process based on the flipped classroom approach. This study is a qualitative action research and opinions of the participants were taken through semi-structured individual interviews. The study found that although the initial thoughts of the students about the social media supported flipped classroom method were negative, the final and the general thoughts were positive, that it improved in-class/ non-class communication and interaction, facilitated learning and increased motivation. The negative aspects of this method were found to be distractibility stemming from advertisements and notifications on social media, irrelevant negative comments, need for internet connection or excessive use of internet and feeling of being under constant surveillance. Video ads uploaded on YouTube and the students' consuming up their mobile data plans come to the fore as a disadvantage. The majority of the students expressed Kahoot activity as an incentive for watching videos.

Students’ Views on the Teaching Process Based on Social Media Supported Flipped Classroom Approach

Nowadays, video plays a significant role in education in terms of its integration into traditional classes, and is the principal delivery system of information in classes particularly in online courses as well as serving as a foundation for many blended classes. Hence, education is adopting a modern approach of instruction with the target of moving away from the traditional instructional approach to video-based learning (VBL). VBL is a powerful approach used in education in order to enhance learning results as well as the learners’ satisfaction. The aim of this study is to explain advantages, disadvantages and design tips of instructional videos according to new trends in education. This paper would be useful for anyone interested in designing, preparing and implementing instructional videos.Keywords: Video-based learning, technology boosted education, VBL pros and cons, review of study, instructional video.

The current study was conducted to investigate the impact of using social media and internet on the academic achievement of prospective teachers. Focus group of the research could be expressed as 204 prospective teachers that were studying in 2016-2017 fall semesters. To collect data, Attitudes Towards to Social Media Scale was employed. Result of the study revealed that, prospective teachers’ attitudes towards to social media had an influence on academic achievement. Furthermore, it could be stressed that prospective teachers with lower attitudes towards to social media were more likely to have lower academic success when compared with the prospective teachers with higher attitudes towards to social media. In addition to these, results of the current study also expressed that prospective teachers with social media accounts were achieved better grades when compared with the prospective teachers who did not have any social media account. Lastly, it could be indicated that prospective teachers’ attitudes towards to social media was at a moderate level.