Malaysian Online Journal of Educational Technology

Metaverse/Meta-Education Belief Scale

Ahmet Erol — 2023-03-29

The "metaverse," which bridges augmented and virtual reality as mixed reality and includes technological phenomena such as artificial intelligence, continues to be an agenda topic. It is foreseen that the concept in question will accelerate the changes in education and teaching activities, as in many other fields. In this research, a measurement tool was developed to determine pre-service teachers' and teachers' beliefs about education in the metaverse (meta-education), especially considering the concept of the "metaverse" that entered our lives with the information age. During the development process of the measurement tool, an item pool consisting of 59 items was created by scanning the relevant literature. The opinions of five experts were received for the draft scale. Two items were added to the draft scale, and ten items were removed based on expert feedback. The scale was arranged as 41 items before the application. During the pilot application process, 203 were collected. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used for the scale's construct validity. The EFA result shows that the scale consists of 22 items and a single factor, and 44% of the total variance is explained. The item-rest correlations on the scale ranged from .64 to .77. The Cronbach alpha coefficient of the scale was found to be .90. Based on these findings, the scale can be used to determine adults' beliefs about meta-education.

Examining the Effect of Increased Screen Usage Time on Preschoolers' Cognitive Process Skills During Covid 19 Period

Özkan Sapsağlam — 2023-03-29

Today, due to various factors such as facilitation of access to digital technologies, widespread internet use, rapidly increasing urbanization, and digitization of education, children meet the screen at a much earlier age and screen usage times increase rapidly. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the whole world, the introduction of distance education has been another important factor that increases screen usage time. According to the results of the research, long-term screen use can cause eye health problems and sleep problems in children, inadequate and unhealthy nutrition, mood and behavioral disorders, impaired cognitive functions, and attention deficit, and hyperactivity disorder. This research aims to examine the effects of screen use on the cognitive process skills of preschoolers who are 5 years old. The research is designed according to qualitative research methodology and case study pattern. A total of 34 children (17 female and 17 male) who are the students of a kindergarten affiliated with the Ministry of National Education, three preschool teachers, and 34 parents (father/mother), were the main study group. Purposeful sampling technique was used in the creation of the working group. The research data were collected through a questionnaire for parents, a child observation form for preschool teachers, and a structured observation form developed for five-year-olds. The semi-structured observation form filled out by the researchers was filled out considering observations of children during seven different activities with children and children's cognitive process skills during activity tasks. The data obtained were analyzed by the content analysis method. As a result of the research, it was observed that children with a high screen usage time were more frequently disconnected from educational activities, had trouble focusing (such as forgetting the row and column they stayed in, mixing the star they were following, not noticing the lack of shape, having difficulty finding the color they were looking for in painting), shorter attention spans and time to engage with the activity.

Teachers' Views about the Use of Digital Stories in Language Teaching Courses of Primary Schools in Turkey

Mehmet Fatih Kaya — 2023-03-29

The aim of this study was to determine the views of primary school teachers who gave language courses (mother tongue and foreign language) at the primary school level, about the use of information technologies, digital story preparation, and its use in lessons in the language teaching process. In the study, the phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. The participants were primary school teachers and English teachers who took part in the Digital Story Preparation training given within the scope of the European Union Comenius Regio. Among the 30 teachers who joined the training, 14 voluntarily participated in the study. At the end of the training, a written form prepared to consult the written views of the teachers was used as a data collection tool in the study. According to the research results, the teachers had positive attitudes and thoughts about the use of information technologies in the language teaching process and used them in the preparation, teaching-learning process, and evaluation stages of their lessons. However, their tendency to use ready-made e-learning content was found to be high. In addition, it was concluded that the practice-based Digital Story Preparation training they attended was beneficial and that the training contributed positively to their own professional development as well as to their thoughts and attitudes regarding technology integration into education.

Does Digital Storytelling Have an Effect on Writing Outcomes?

Esra Ergül Sönmez — 2023-04-30

Writing has a significant role in students’ academic and lifelong learning. Therefore, educators constantly seek novel ways to develop students’ writing skills. This study aims to examine the effect of digital storytelling on secondary school students' creative writing skills and writing self-efficacy. The participants were 15 6^th grade students in Turkey. The study was carried out using a one-group pretest-posttest model, which is one of the pre-experimental research designs. “Writing Self-Efficacy Scale” and “Creative Writing Evaluation Scale” for secondary school students were used as data collection tools. Following an instruction on how to use Wevideo tool, students created digital stories about given topics once a week, over a month period.The analysis showed that posttest scores for digital storytelling were significantly higher than pretest scores, but no significant difference was found for writing self-efficacy. These results indicated that the digital storytelling procedure applied in this study improved the participants’ creative writing skills. However, no significant variation was observed in the writing self-efficacy scores. In light of the study findings, some recommendations and implications were made to practitioners and researchers.