History and social studies teachers views and conduct of education and professional activities for internet use

Communities have evolved from a traditional way to a modern one to meet their educational needs and to conduct the activities of education.Several resources have been needed by individuals to learn the universal values and to carry out the functions which they are required of. These resources are the improvement of the technology to be used to increase the quality of education and the enrichment of the physical conditions which will transfer the technological improvement into education environment. Technological improvements require the individual to reach a level in which he will be able to use the needed knowledge and equipment in order to make his life practical.One of the most important means that facilitate the use of technology in educational and training is the Internet and it is becoming an important part as a sharing field that we need at every moment of our lives by making us feel its increasing importance every day. of our life in sharing and using information. The use of the Internet in the field of education has helped to increase the quality of education in our country and in the world. The Internet which plays a big role on socialization of individual and facilitates learning through collaboration and sharing views is also being used in teaching history and social studies as in every field.Teachers and students have the opportunity to share different teaching methods thanks to the Internet.When we think that there are a number of limitations and risks in using the Internet in the field of education, it is an inevitable expectation that the level of technological equipment of the individuals who use the Internet in the field of education should be at a high level.This research has been conducted to learn the attitudes and behaviour of the social studies and history teachers who work at primary and secondary schools and use the Internet in the classes. It covers the social studies and history teachers who work at the public primary and secondary schools in the centre of Çanakkale in the education term of 2009- 2010. The data is composed of Section1 having 5 questions about the personal details of the teachers and Section 2 including 7 questions for assessment of the general features of the teachers in regard to their use of the Internet .The research also includes a questionnaire developed by the researcher under Section 3 having 31 questions concerning the views of the teachers on the activities of training and education. In the analysis of the data: t-test was conducted for analysing the differences in gender, the subject of teaching, the type of school where they were working , the types of school they had graduated fromand level of education ; and one-way analysis of variance (one - Way Annova-F test) was conducted for analysing the differences in professional seniority, the type of school they had gratuated from, the type of school where they work and the trends in using the Internet.Research findings reveal that the teachers of history and social studies use the Internet very often in the activities oftraining and education as well as in their proffessional lives.Teachers benefit from the Internet for different purposes such as planning education activities, reaching previously prepared educational materials, acquiring written assessment questions and following the Media. In pursuance of those purposes it was observed that the websites belonging to MEB and Media institutions and those which provide encyclopedical information and the websites set up for sharing views of teachers had been being used frequently by the teachers of history and social studies. However, it was seen that the teachers were not eager to share the documents they had prepared before with their colleagues on the Internet.It is amongs the research findings that despite their categorical differences such as gender, professional seniority, types of school where they work and level of education , teachers use the Internet in their lessons and proffesional lives though in different frequencies.Key Words: Internet, History Education, Social Studies Education, Teachers, Çanakkale