Examining teachers' levels of ethical use of information technologies in education

In the information age, individuals reach the information they need interactively by taking advantage of the opportunities offered by information and communication technologies; they perform their work in a practical, easy and enriched way. This change, which we can also describe as "transformation" in individual and social life, is not always positive. It is thought that the problems that have existed before in the life of the individual and society and that have increased their sphere of influence with the development of information technologies and its integration with artificial intelligence-based applications will also create new ethical problems that will significantly affect and threaten the present and future of individual and social life. It is critical for societies to transfer the ethical rules to be followed in the use of information technologies to new generations correctly. Teachers, who are role models, are one of the most important factors in the assimilation and correct application of informatics ethics. When it comes to the ethical use of information technologies, the expectation that teachers should be a guide and role model for students is increasing day by day. In this study, the ethical use levels of information technologies in education of teachers, who are at the forefront of the role models that society is most affected by, were examined in terms of the determined variables. With this study, which will contribute to the literature, it has been tried to present a reflection for the studies to be carried out on informatics ethics and in-service training programs to be designed for teachers. From this point of view, it is extremely important to reveal the ethical use of information technologies by educators. In this study, the ethical use levels of information technologies used in education by teachers who actively work in public schools were examined. In this study, the EBTEK (Ethical Use of Information Technologies in Education) scale developed in Baysan and Çetin (2019) was used as a data collection tool. For this purpose, it was tried to determine how the teachers' general EBTEK levels were, and whether the EBTEK levels of teachers differ in terms of factors such as gender, age, professional seniority, education level, branch, school type, ICT literacy pre-report. Teachers working in public schools in the province of Batman were selected as the study universe in the research. Although 393 teachers were reached in the first stage, the sample group consisted of 380 participants as a result of the deletion of missing data and non-categorical answers as a result of the analysis. According to the findings, it was seen that teachers' EBTEK levels were generally high. In terms of gender, it was seen that the EBTEK levels of the teachers made a significant difference in favor of female teachers. Likewise, it is seen that there is a significant difference between the groups in terms of school types, branch, information technology literacy pre-declaration and professional seniority. There was no significant difference in terms of age and educational status.