This research examines the factors that influence the intention to use information technology in the classroom by primary school teachers based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology and their technological predisposition. In particular, the relationship between teachers' innovativeness and their beliefs associated with the use of technology in the classroom was analyzed. To this end, 212 teachers from three provinces of Chile were surveyed. Data were analyzed using partial least squares statistical technique. Results indicate that performance expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions influence the intention to use information technology in the classroom. It was found that the intention to use construct is a determinant of the use of technology, which validates the robustness of the model in a context of primary education. In addition, it was validated that teachers' innovativeness determines their beliefs about the use of information technology in the classroom.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education provide a new learning environment where the student builds his own knowledge, allowing his visualization and experimentation. This study evaluated the Geogebra software in the learning process of Calculus. It was observed that the proposed activities helped in the graphical interpretation of the covered content.
Despite the fact that digital technologies are more and more used in the learning and education process, there is still lack of professional evaluation tools capable of assessing the quality of used digital teaching aids in a comprehensive and objective manner. Construction of the Comprehensive Evaluation of Electronic Learning Tools and Educational Software (CEELTES) tool was preceded by several surveys and knowledge obtained in the course of creation of digital learning and teaching aids and implementation thereof in the teaching process. The evaluation tool as such consists of sets (catalogues) of criteria divided into four separately assessed areas - the area of technical, technological and user attributes; the area of criteria evaluating the content, operation, information structuring and processing; the area of criteria evaluating the information processing in terms of learning, recognition, and education needs; and, finally, the area of criteria evaluating the psychological and pedagogical aspects of a digital product. The specified areas are assessed independently, separately, by a specialist in the given science discipline. The final evaluation of the assessed digital product objectifies (quantifies) the overall rate of appropriateness of inclusion of a particular digital teaching aid in the teaching process.
In 2003 a working group established on the initiative of the Centre of Information Technology of Education under the Ministry of Education and Science, has been reviewing regulations for the assessment and certification of educational software. This article analizes the main aspects of the proposed orders. It discusses general structure of quality assurance system, the procedures for the certification of standard and permanently renewable digital educational resources, and the main criteria and principles of the evaluation of educational software in Lithuania. In parallel, it investigates and summarizes research results and foreign policies and practices on quality assurance. Finally, the article compares them with Lithuanian regulations.
This paper deals with the main problem of involving information technology in teacher education - structure and contents of teachers' training courses based on distance learning. In Lithuania, the Standard of computer literacy for educators has been developed. It should be the main source of all teachers' training courses on information technology. The Standard consists of two parts: technological and educational. The main attention of the paper is paid to the analysis and requirements of the educational part that becomes more and more urgent: it requires some psychological, cognitive, social, and pedagogical knowledge referring to the information technology usage in education. This paper comprehensively covers the problems of application of information technology in education, course planning, and implementation of distance teaching, it referring to the teachers' training course on educational issues of information technology via distance learning, carried out by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania and organized by the Centre of Information Technologies of Education, and summarises its results.