An investigation of science teachers' views on current technologies and their applications in education

Education has been affected by many developments over the years, and innovations and advances have been observed in many fields with the technology that has been developing in recent years. With the unstoppable development observed in technology, different options have emerged for both students and educators in education. For example, for teachers who have difficulty in explaining abstract concepts and students who have difficulty in grasping them, different technologies have made it more possible to facilitate understanding and strengthen students' interest in the lesson. One of these technologies is augmented reality technology. With this technology, many subjects are made more understandable by supporting the environment with 3D visuals without breaking away from the physical world. Another technology product, virtual reality, which can also be seen as metaverse, that is, beyond the universe, allows avatars to perform many social and educational activities such as lecturing, holding meetings, attending concerts in virtual worlds. The biggest feature that distinguishes this technology from online education is that the student is not just a spectator. With the avatars in the Metaverse world, experiments can be carried out, games can be played, or it is possible to act as if you are in that environment. Another technological product that has started to gain a place in education is artificial intelligence with its unstoppable rise in recent years. Robots, which are one of the first things that come to mind when it comes to artificial intelligence, can be produced, made to talk, and even daily tasks can be done. It is thought that technology will contribute to this field with its use in science courses as well as starting to gain a place in the lessons. The contribution of science course subjects to this course is investigated as they are open to be reinforced with these technologies. In this direction, this study aims to reveal science teachers' perceptions of technology, to show the strengths and weaknesses of educational software, to investigate the applicability of augmented reality, metaverse and artificial intelligence technologies in the classroom environment by enriching and enabling education and training environments, and to examine science teachers' opinions about the use of these applications in education and training. The participants of the study consisted of 25 science teachers working in public secondary schools in Isparta and Afyonkarahisar and participating in the research on a voluntary basis. Within the scope of the semi-structured interview technique, 13 open-ended questions gathered under 5 headings prepared beforehand were asked to the teachers in online environments. The interview process was conducted in a single stage. 25 science teachers were interviewed for an average of 30 minutes each. At this stage, while the analysis of the data obtained during the interview process was taking place, new data collection continued. The records taken from the interviewed teachers were transcribed in Word format. The analyses were conducted by content analysis after transferring the interview texts to Word. Codes were determined based on the data obtained. The 247 codes obtained were grouped under 5 previously determined titles. As a result of the research, many opinions such as that science teachers find it inconvenient to use technology in education in general, that it will become a source of play for children, that they find it ineffective because there is not enough dissemination and awareness-raising, that technology equipment such as infrastructure is insufficient, and that technology cannot be used in education too much have been identified. However, in addition to these, teachers stated that using technology in abstract subjects would facilitate students' understanding, prejudice against the course could be broken, learning would become permanent thanks to 3D learning, and it would be easier to attract students' attention.