Exploring the Opinions of Mathematics Teacher Candidates Regarding the Usage of Gamified Digital Education Platform “Dersigo”

In the present day, as technology merges with education, various tools, and applications are widely used in both classroom and outside learning experiences. In this context, in Turkey as well, a digital education application named "DERSİGO" aims to reach students by adopting a fully immersive learning model and a gamified approach. DERSİGO is an innovative educational platform offering visually supported topic explanations, content from question to topic, educational videos, and other supportive learning materials. The use of this educational application is increasingly gaining attention. The purpose and importance of this research are to examine how the digital education application named DERSIGO is evaluated by pre-service mathematics teachers and to understand the advantages that the use of this application for educational purposes can provide for students. The positive evaluation of the digital education application DERSIGO by pre-service Mathematics teachers shows that such technology-based education tools can potentially play a valuable role in the education process. This study examined the views of Mathematics teacher candidates regarding the educational use of the paid application DERSİGO. The research was conducted with the participation of 27 Mathematics teacher candidates, who were provided with access codes to experience Mathematics lessons and the gamification process within the DERSİGO application. The data collected from the participants were obtained through a semi-structured student opinion form and analyzed using the content analysis method. According to the findings of the study, teacher candidates express that the educational use of DERSİGO can make Mathematics lessons more engaging and fun, increase student participation, teach lesson content through gamification, boost student motivation, enable assessment of student performance, and assist in reinforcing learned subjects. A significant portion of the teacher candidates states that the DERSİGO application can be effectively used in mathematics education, while some teacher candidates emphasize its suitability for non-mathematics verbal subjects. The research reveals that DERSİGO can offer students advantages such as increasing class participation, improving student interaction, reinforcing learning processes, and increasing student motivation. Based on the obtained findings, various recommendations are provided for researchers and educators

Digital tools in secondary chemistry education – added value or modern gimmicks?

The article addresses the challenges faced by teachers incorporating digital tools into chemistry education to prepare students for responsible participation in a digital society. Against the background of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the study analyzes the value that chemistry teachers place on digital tools and examines specific factors that influence their implementation in teaching. For this purpose, we conducted and analyzed interviews with 10 secondary school chemistry teachers in Germany. The findings revealed that while subject-specific digital tools were highly valued by teachers, several barriers to their strategic integration exist, including time constraints, high workloads, failing infrastructure, lack of technical support, and a fear of change. The study concludes that subject-specific digital tools have the potential to enhance learning outcomes and recommends teacher training and further education as well as future research to focus on developing and supporting opportunities for teachers to implement subject-specific digital tools to create a more dynamic and engaging learning experiences for students

A Study on the Acceptance of Mobile Phones for Teaching and Learning with a Group of Pre-service Teachers in Hong Kong

Ubiquitous devices offer new teaching and learning opportunities from K-12 to higher education settings. The integration of mobile facilities and Web technologies allows researchers and educators to explore different possibilities in m-Learning. In this study, a group of pre-service IT teachers in Hong Kong were introduced to the field of m-Learning by participating in a series of m-Learning activities. Three applications were designed and programmed with XTHML-MP/ WAP 2.0 technologies and supported by server-side Web technologies of PHP and MySQL. The research aimed at providing the opportunities for the teachers to explore this new trend in teaching and learning and to find out their acceptance of this approach

Effect of Mobile Instructional Design on Student Perception of Distance Learning

Learning through mobile applications has become more relevant as mobile tools have evolved. The COVID-19 outbreak that spread across the globe in 2019 promoted to a brief period of distance learning. The purpose of the study was to investigate how the students' perceptions of distance learning were affected by the use of a mobile application designed for a seventh-grade mathematics course. The research was performed using quasi-experimental design. The study was conducted in the distance education process with 7th grade students studying in a secondary school in the 2020-2021 academic year. The mobile application was used to deliver the instruction to the students in the experimental group, whereas the control group received instruction based on the textbook. To collect the data for the study, Yıldırım et al. (2014) designed the "Student Opinions Scale for Distance Education". T-tests were used to assess the data for dependent and independent samples, respectively. The study revealed a substantial difference in the post-test results of the students in the experimental and control groups. It was discovered that there was no significant difference between the pre and posttest scores of the control group students' opinions on distance education and that there was a substantial increase in the experimental group students' attitudes on distance education between the two assessments. According to the findings, it has been suggested that by creating mobile applications in various ways and including them into the distance learning process, the impacts of using them for mathematics classes on distance learning can be studied

Modern didactics in contemporary education

The rapid development of information technology and telecommunications has radically changed the two most important social processes: access to information and communication, allowing the globalization of the economy, culture, education and other areas of society. Priority, undoubtedly, is education, which determines the pace of development in particular countries and the quality of life of individuals. Hypertext and episodic flow of information dramatically changes the way we think and learn. Today, the human cognitive process can no longer be based on the linear structure because shaping knowledge is based on the conscious use of information fragments and episodes that reach the contemporary man in a continuous and often unintentional way. In such conditions, methods and forms of education used for centuries are no longer effective, especially for digital natives who build their intellectual capital

Alternative Computer Assisted Communicative Task-based Language Testing: New Communicational and Interactive Online Skills

[EN] Computer-assisted language learning knowledge tests should no longer be designed on traditional skills to measure individual competence through traditional skills such as reading, comprehension and writing, but instead, it should diagnose interactive and communication skills in foreign languages. In recent years in online education, it has been necessary to review the concept of interactive competence in digital environments in a complementary way to its traditional use. It is important to promote a new typology of alternative tasks and items in tests where examinees can prove a real interactive performance in communication and interaction through the digital scenario. This should be done through tools that facilitate oral negotiation, the management and understanding of the information extracted from online repositories, the search for suitable online digital material, and the use of new modes of audio-visual communication. Although some of these tasks have been used in a complementary way in the design of language tests previously: it is true that they have not been applied in a coherent way to be used as an assessment tool. A first approach was made by Miguel Alvarez, Garcia Laborda & Magal-Royo (2021) in the development of oral negotiation skills through the use of interactive tools. The current online assessment models analyzed by Garcia Laborda & Alvarez Fernandez (2021) indicate the need to seek new ways of assessing foreign languages through the design of tests that fit in the current digital and interactive world.Magal-Royo, T.; García Laborda, J.; Mora Cantallops, M.; Sánchez Alonso, S. (2021). Alternative Computer Assisted Communicative Task-based Language Testing: New Communicational and Interactive Online Skills. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (Online). 16(19):251-259. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v16i19.26035S251259161

Google Glass App for Displaying ASL Videos for Deaf Children – The Preliminary Race

Glass Vision 3D is a grant-funded project focused on the goal of developing and researching the feasibility & usability of a Google Glass app that will allow young Deaf children to look at an object in the classroom and see an augmented reality projection that displays an American Sign Language (ASL) related video. Session will show the system (Glass app) that was developed and summarize feedback gathered during focus-group testing of the prototype

Higher Education and Mobile Learning: How Innovative Instructors Use Mobile Applications for Learning

ABSTRACT This qualitative case study investigated the experiences of innovative higher education instructors from the Midwest United States regarding their use of mobile devices in their classes for student learning. Fourteen participants discussed how they specifically use mobile devices and applications for knowledge acquisition in interdisciplinary fields and to prepare students for professional roles in advanced fields. This study revealed innovative examples from interdisciplinary scholars regarding their use of mobile applications for real-time feedback, formative assessment, and continuous engagement. Professors also used mobile applications to give students technical opportunities to acquire knowledge and produce content through project-based learning. Professors described student use of relevant, industry-standard mobile technology for creating webpages, videos, and social media. Mobile devices and applications were used to promote student engagement, comprehension, and creative expression. An analysis conducted using Vygotsky’s (1978) theory of social constructivism and two frameworks widely adopted in the field of education: technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK; Mishra & Koehler, 2006) and universal design for learning (UDL; Meyer et al., 2014) revealed how students were successful and more engaged through introduction to mobile technology. This study confirmed students reached a higher level of knowledge related to their discipline because their instructors leveraged mobile technology in innovative ways. This study included recommendations for faculty development and strategic planning to address the skills and information necessary to allow faculty to effectively use mobile technology in their courses