Fatih Project: Opinions of Pre-Service English Teachers

Abstract

With the penetration of digital technologies in almost every field of life, digitization of education has become inevitable. As a natural response, many countries initiated technology integration projects in different levels of education. FATIH Project (Movement of Enhancing Opportunities and Improving Technology) in Turkey is one of them. The project aims to transform all the classes in K12 education to smart classes by installing smart boards and distributing tablet computers to high school, secondary school, primary school and nursery school teachers and students respectively. The project also targets training teachers in the use of e-content, providing digital materials and increasing awareness on the effective and secure use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT). The aim of the present study is to unfold the opinions and experiences of the pre-service English teachers about FATIH Project. The participants of this qualitative study are 14 pre-service English teachers who have a total of 72 hours of experience in different FATIH Project schools by the time of data collection. The data is collected through semi-structured interviews. Content analysis is conducted and the themes are identified to reveal pre-service teachers' opinions about the project and descriptive analysis is also applied. The results of the analysis yield that pre-service English teachers generally have a positive opinion about the project; however they emphasize the need for continuous technological-pedagogical training.