Mobile learning
M.S. Ghoraishi khorasgani
Abstract
role in COVID-19 crisis is mobile learning. Mobile learning has emerged as a powerful tool in teaching and learning which is considered as one of the beneficial and practical solutions to prevent the closure of the universities. Despite the significance of mobile learning as a tool that has changed the ...
Read More
role in COVID-19 crisis is mobile learning. Mobile learning has emerged as a powerful tool in teaching and learning which is considered as one of the beneficial and practical solutions to prevent the closure of the universities. Despite the significance of mobile learning as a tool that has changed the learning strategies by helping the learners to manage their learning with a flexible approach and to provide new horizons in the field of education system, it has its own challenges. Therefore, identifying these challenges can help provide solutions and make the most of technology in the teaching-learning process. Accordingly, the present study has identified the challenges of mobile learning from the perspective of students.Methods: The present study is applied in terms of purpose and phenomenological in terms of qualitative approach. The target population were undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students of Al-Zahra University who had some experiences in using cell phones for e-learning. Accordingly, after utilizing purposive sampling, 32 students were interviewed until the theoretical saturation was reached. To analyze the interviews, the Colaizzi content analysis method was used. To validate the data, peer review method was applied and the reliability was checked through using the two-coder agreement which was equal to 86 between two codes.Findings: The findings showed that out of 315 extracted codes, 68 codes were dedicated to physical challenges, 35 codes to psychological challenges, 31 codes to quality learning challenges, 63 codes to hardware challenges, 52 codes to infrastructure challenges, 39 codes to skill challenges, and 27 codes to supportive challenges. Physical challenges include: headache and dizziness, extreme eye fatigue, exacerbation of neurological diseases and sleep disturbance. Psychological challenges include: stress and anxiety, depression and hopelessness, and lack of concentration and distraction. Hardware challenges include: keyboard problems, battery and charging problems, microphone and audio problems, file download problems, IC problems, and low mobile memory problems. Infrastructure challenges include: poor internet and facilities and equipment. Skills challenges include individual skills. Learning quality challenges include: quality of teaching and research. Supportive challenges included: organizational support, family support, and faculty support.distributional injustices, and that many students in disadvantaged areas have encountered serious challenges in attending virtual classes and conducting educational and research work. Since for most students using a mobile phone is the only option for attending virtual classes, it is recommended to eliminate or reduce physical challenges through scheduling classes at regular intervals, using brightly colored slides, combining text, videos, and using a combination of online and offline techniques. To meet the infrastructure challenges, it is recommended to use free high-speed Internet and also to purchase or rent powerful servers to provide e-learning services. University funding and the purchase of appropriate facilities including computers and mobile phones can help address many of the hardware challenges. To address skill challenges, training skills in working with educational software and academic messengers and holding various introductory and advanced workshops are essential for students. Moreover, to address supportive challenges, it is suggested that the universities seek financial resources from various organizations and charitable support and allocation of appropriate budget; after identifying low-income and underprivileged students, low-interest loans or grants should be allocated to these students for buying computers and mobile phones and by providing underprivileged students with free loans the supportive challenges can be overcome more than before. Also, instructors should understand the students' conditions by identifying the mentioned students in their classes and deal with them with more flexibility and educational aids. The families’ understanding of the educational conditions and providing a convenient environment and facilities to the best of their abilies can minimize psychological challenges to the least. Despite the fact that paying attention to infrastructure and hardware challenges as a prerequisite for the quality of learning is crucial, to meet the challenges of quality learning, solutions such as allocating useful activities to increase students' learning, doing teamwork with a fair division of tasks to avoid the pressure of work on students, appropriate and timely feedback from instructors, and a variety of written and oral assignments are highly recommended. Finally, it can be noted that by overcoming these challenges, the psychological challenges of stress and frustration in students will also be alleviated.
e-learning
A. Habibi Azar; J. Keyhan; B. Talebi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Qualified and experienced teachers with high professional and educational ability are very necessary and vital for quality education. In this regard, professional development programs with lifelong and continuous training courses in various formats, including in-service training ...
Read More
Background and Objectives: Qualified and experienced teachers with high professional and educational ability are very necessary and vital for quality education. In this regard, professional development programs with lifelong and continuous training courses in various formats, including in-service training courses, are held for teachers. Despite the importance of these courses, a review of the findings of many studies suggests that in-service education courses were not so effective for many teachers. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the challenges of holding in-service training courses in education from the teachers’ perspectives.Materials and Methods: The method of the present study is qualitative with a phenomenological approach in terms of lived experiences. The participants of the present study were all teachers working in West Azerbaijan Province. The research sample was selected by using non-probability purposeful sampling method with considering the criteria such as teachers' reputation, obtaining technology-related rewards in provincial or national festivals, and teaching experience of technology training courses in the Department of Education. The sample size was determined by considering the theoretical saturation rule. In order to receive the feedback of adequacy and theoretical saturation, after each interview, the data were immediately transcribed, handwritten, and encoded. After 22 interviews (13 women and 9 men), the data reached the theoretical saturation. The data collection method was the semi-structured interview. Two techniques of voice recording and note-taking (with the emphasis laid on voice recording) were used for data collection method. To analyze the data and extract the main themes, the content analysis approach was performed based on the four-step approach of Giorgi (1970) in the platform of MAXQDA10 software.Findings: The findings showed that the challenges of holding in-service courses can be classified and presented in four themes or main challenges which are: 1) Motivation of the teachers for active and purposeful participation in the courses (including subcategories of internal challenges and external challenges); 2) the quality of and the method of holding the courses (including subcategories of lack of attention to the thematic nature of the courses, and lack of attention to the required infrastructure); 3) the Continuity (thematic and temporal) in holding the courses (including subcategories of lack of continuity of thematic hierarchy and lack of time continuity in holding the courses); and 4) adapting the content of the courses to the needs of the teachers (including lack of need-oriented courses, lack of attention to the proportion of the prerequisite knowledge of the teachers to participate in the courses and lack of specialized courses).Conclusions: Comsidering that like other government organizations, holding in-service training courses for the teachers is mandatory in the Education Organization, it is assumed that holding such courses is somehow ‘fulfilling a duty’without paying attention to the ‘effectiveness’ of the courses. Therefore, it is cocluded that the first challenge should be lack of teachers’ motivation in participating in such courses. The second challenge is that since the required infrastructures for holding such courses are not provided, thus the courses lack the required effectiveness. The third challenge is that since in-service training courses are not held continuously, both thematically and temporally, therefore, despite spending a large amount of costs, their effectiveness is not evident. According to fourth challenge, since the prerequisite of ‘participation in the course’ and ‘determining the level of the teachers’ are not observed, thus, the content of the courses is not regulated with respect to the development of the professional skills of the teacher. Therefore, it is suggested that for holding such courses, first the assessment of needs and prerequisites of the courses should be formulated, the teachers should be graded, the required prerequisites for such courses should be provided. Considering the sequence of the topics, the courses
Electronic learning- virtual
S. Khodaveisi; F. Seraji
Abstract
Background and Objective As one of the key components of the curriculum, the teacher has an effective role in teaching effectiveness and facilitating learning. The quality of teachers’ work is the most important factor influencing the quality of students' learning and the success of the educational ...
Read More
Background and Objective As one of the key components of the curriculum, the teacher has an effective role in teaching effectiveness and facilitating learning. The quality of teachers’ work is the most important factor influencing the quality of students' learning and the success of the educational systems. Teachers, as one of the complex components of the school ecosystem must be able to meet the expectations and demands of various admin administrators and stakeholders and have a deep understanding of social developments and future changes. Therefore, teachers must constantly seek to update their knowledge and skills and improve their professional development. The field of teacher professional development consists of various aspects such as perceptions, educational beliefs, epistemology, ideology, behavior, and practice related to teaching and learning. The present study seeks to investigate how Iranian teachers use cyberspace for their professional development. Methods: In this study, qualitative research method with descriptive phenomenological approach used the subjects, who consist of 25 teachers who actively promote the educational applications of cyberspace, were selected from among the teachers of Hamedan Province and invited to an interview. Snowball sampling technique was used and the number of subjects was decided to be 25 according to the principle of theoretical saturation the reliability and validity of the data were determined by transferability and dependability. Findings: By using information retrieval tools, they can access their required information in various fields, become informed about conferences and educational workshops, rethink their experience as well as improve their self-confidence in responding to students' questions. By using tools content production and presentation, they can produce high-quality multimedia contents, design various learning activities, encourage students to participate in activities, and adopt active teaching methods. Finally, teachers can make use of interactive tools to express their experience and receive feedback, exchange information with other teachers and scholars, improve their communication skills, get involved in participatory learning along with their colleagues and conduct team projects. Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that Iranian teachers use three tools of information retrieval, production and presentation of content and interactive tools to develop themselves professionally with respect to content, pedagogical and technological knowledge. Based on the findings, teachers can use the retriveal tools to find the information they need in a variety of areas, such as information about the field of study and the latest changes in textbooks, information about students' educational issues, teaching methods, evaluation methods, research methods, learning theories, education in other countries as well as time, place and themes of wbinars and conferences. The results also showed that teachers can use interactive tools to express their experiences and use the opinions of others to improve them; create a participatory atmosphere; strengthen their critical thinking; improve their writing skills and promote their skills in using word processors; exchange information with experts and colleagues; strengthen their conversational skills; work with partners and experts on collaborative projects; and design individual and group learning activities. So teachers can use cyberspace as a platform to empower themselves professionally.
Education technology -training course
K. Abdollahpour; A. Rafiepour
Abstract
The aim of the present study is to examine the lived experience of the modeling cycle students with using a phenomenological approach. For this purpose, a problem called "local bread and city bread" was used that designed upon 3- year experience of the first author who lived in one of the villages located ...
Read More
The aim of the present study is to examine the lived experience of the modeling cycle students with using a phenomenological approach. For this purpose, a problem called "local bread and city bread" was used that designed upon 3- year experience of the first author who lived in one of the villages located in the south-eastern part of Iran. In this research, purposive sampling was used to achieve data saturation. In this study, a total of 16 ninth grade female students (8 pairs) took part. Data of this Study collected from various sources, including participant observation, student responses, dialogue between teacher and students and semi-structured interviews. These data were analyzed through interpretation. Finding of this study show that students are capable to determine real world problem and they can make a math model for real world problem. Indeed, experience of everyday life of students helps them to visualize and interpret the bread problem. So, important findings of this study are firstly lived experience of students help them to solve the modeling problem, and secondly lived experience can fill the gap between real world and mathematical world.
Education technology -training course
M. Taghizadeh; E. Fathiazar; H. Habibi
Abstract
The main purpose of this study is to investigate high school teachers’ and students’ experience in using technology. The quality and phenomenology method has been applied in this study. The statistic population includes all high school teachers and students in Behbahan city. Therefore, based ...
Read More
The main purpose of this study is to investigate high school teachers’ and students’ experience in using technology. The quality and phenomenology method has been applied in this study. The statistic population includes all high school teachers and students in Behbahan city. Therefore, based on purposive sampling method, semi-structured interviews have been done with 8 teachers and 6 students in Behbahan with regard to the use of technology. To ensure the reliability of research data, continuous study method and comparison of the data, summarizing and classifying the information was used without causing any damage to data. The data were analyzed by Smith´s suggested method. In using technology three main themes gained including the effective use of technology, barriers in using technology, factors influencing the use of technology. Three major themes were extracted from the findings that can depict teachers and students’ experiences in the use of technology. The finding revealed that teachers and students are faced with many problems in using technology. The most important issues include; (a) ignoring computer training books (b) pass the entrance examination (c) teachers’ interest and (d) type of course.
