The effect of information and communication technologies used in secondary schools to teachers' classroom management skills

In our century, Information and Communication Technologies are essential for our lives from every aspects. While Information and Communication Technologies are so centered in our lives, it is indispensible that Information and Communication Technologies has a great effect in our education system. Furthermore we don't use ICT just a tool in our instructional methods, also we have some new teaching methods called as Computer Based Learning or e-learning. With these improvements our education system is getting more and more efficient to acquire educational objectives. In this study, it was aimed to figure out the effect of ICT used in secondary schools, to teachers' classroom management skills. The Study was designed in qualitative research method and interview techniques were used to gather the data. The study group was consisted of fourteen teachers who work in the secondary schools in which ICT is used in Serik, Antalya. The data in the interviews was obtained with the help of semi-structured interview form, consisting of open-ended questions including survey questions. The collected data was analyzed by using descriptive analysis method. Firstly, the data was decoded into a written form and then Nvivo 10 analysis program was used to form the codes from the data and at the last step the themes were derived out of the codes. As the result of the study, it is concluded that ICT usage in instructional activities had a positive effect on teachers' classroom management skills and the teachers were eager to use ICT in their classrooms. Teachers also had positive attitudes towards using ICT in educational area. Moreover it was stated by the teachers that they had a more efficient, enjoyable and easy classroom management when they use ICT. As for the effect of ICT to subdimensions of classroom management, teachers had different views about the management of physical conditions but all of the teachers stated that current circumstances are inadequate and should be improved to get a more efficient use of ICT. Another result of the study was that ICT had a positive effect on the management of plan, program and activities according to teachers' opinions. As for the management of relation and communication in the classroom, it was concluded that ICT usage had a positive effect and was a quite helper to create a positive classroom atmosphere. And teachers also stated that ICT usage had a positive effect on time management, because thanks to ICT teachers had time saving opportunity and efficient time management skills. As the last result of the study, ICT had a positive effect on behavioral management. Consequently, except for physical condition management, ICT usage had a positive effect on all other subdimensions of classroom management. Key Words: Classroom management, Information and communication technologies.