Assessing the Preparedness of High School Teachers of West Islam Abad in Using Electronic Learning

Abstract

Background: Currently modern information technology has affected all aspects of people’s lives and education is not an exception. Teachers have always been one of the main elements of the learning process. Teachers should be prepared for any type of educational planning and its necessary foundations and conditions. In order to apply electronic learning in the teaching-learning process, teachers should be mentally prepared and should have the necessary attitude, knowledge, skills, and accessibility. We aimed to assess the preparedness of high school teachers of west Islam Abad in using electronic learning. In this regard, we studied various aspects such as their level of knowledge and skills in working with electronic learning environments, their belief in working with such environments, the amount of use and applicability of these environments in the teaching-learning environment during 2008-2009, and their accessibility to electronic learning environments.Material & Methods: 173 teachers were randomly selected using the systemic random sampling method. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire. Its validity was confirmed by a group of researchers in the field of educational technology. Its reliability was acceptable using Cronbach’s alpha. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, as well as K2, Kendall's tau (τ) coefficient, t, and one-way analysis of variance tests.Results: Although the participating teachers had high access to computers and the internet and believed in their effect, they rarely used this technology in practice. There was no difference between the teachers’ educational level, sex, and age in using electronic learning.Conclusion: Although the participants believed that electronic learning is more effective than the traditional method, they rarely used this technology. This could be related to the managers’ attitude towards teachers because managers do not pay much attention to using electronic learning resources. We suggest giving higher credibility to electronic learning at schools and organizing in-service training courses for teachers regarding electronic learning.