TOWARD AN EFFECTIVE INTEGRATION OF TECHNOLOGY: MESSAGE BOARDS FOR STRENGTHENING COMMUNICATION
ABSTRACT
This paper reports on preliminary findings from a longitudinal study on the integration of multimedia and the internet technologies into language teaching. Phase I of the study included novice computer users’ approaches to multimedia design. Phase II explored the correlations between their attitudes and cognitive styles; and Phase III focused on their attitudes and beliefs about the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools. The current paper discusses and reports the findings from the last phase. A total of 53 students from the department of English Language Teaching (ELT) at Abant Izzet Baysal University (AIBU) voluntarily participated in the study. An integrated message board system was designed and adopted for an elective computer assisted language learning course (CALL) for students in the ELT program. 26 students were enrolled in this course. The data was collected through several sources. One source was an attitude questionnaire toward computer-mediated communication. Students’ asynchronous correspondences constituted the other part of the data. Also, students’ personal reflection journals were gathered as another source of data. The data was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings of the study indicated that students generally tended to develop positive attitudes toward using asynchronous communication tools in their language teaching program. Also, no attitudinal changes in their attitudes toward CMC were observed. Finally, students expressed positive reflections about the use of CMC tools and their integration into teaching.