The Attitudes of Students and Teachers toward the Use of Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) in Education: Case of Computer Engineering Department at Eastern Mediterranean University

The aim of this study was to examine teachers’ and students’ attitudes of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) as an instructional tool in computer engineering classrooms and to find out potential differences in attitudes according to some variables such as gender, age, hours of weekly IWB use, years of study and years of teaching experience of the participants. For data collection, both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Two questionnaires distributed to 40 teachers and 150 students and also 10 teachers were interviewed to explore their opinions towards the use of IWB in the Department of Computer Engineering at Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU). The findings of this research indicated that the attitudes of teachers and students about using of IWBs technology in education were positive because they were mindful of the benefits of this technology in promoting meaningful teaching and learning. The result of the study has shown that there are statistically significant differences between the attitudes of students and teachers towards IWB use in their studies. It was also found that most teachers believe that IWB constitutes an effective and convenient way to deliver the learning content and that it increases the level of classroom interaction which in turn facilitates the learning experience, and also teachers expressed that they need training programs to acquire the essential competencies required to use this technology efficiently. Furthermore, the results showed that when students were involved in the IWB-base lessons their attitudes towards new technology have changed to more positive over time and this fluctuation in attitudes can be easily captured when dealing with and manipulating IWBs. Keywords: Interactive whiteboard; Teachers’ Attitudes; Students’ attitudes; ICT