Self-Efficacy and Perception of Safe Internet Use of Preservice Teachers: Case of Eastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of Education

The preservice teachers' self-efficacies and perceptions in safe internet usage are the main concentration of this study and taking these two factors into consideration a demographic and scale data will be collected. The study group comprised preservice teachers who are students at the Faculty of Education at the Eastern Mediteranean University. In the determination of self-efficacies and perceptions of prospective teachers in their safe internet usage, the scale developed by Cavus and Ercag (2016) will be used and the study group in concern comprised prospective teachers studying at the Faculty of Education at the Eastern Mediteranean University. The study found out that all the students use the Internet every day, where 50% of them use the Internet between one to three hours, while the rest use the Internet more than 3 hours a day. The daily amount of use is a critical factor to consider so as the safety use and management to be another factor worth examining. Regarding the self-Efficacy levels of Pre-service teachers in terms of safe Internet use, the study showed that almost all the students can manage the safety issues while using the Internet. Also for the perception of Pre-service teachers in terms of safe Internet use, the study showed that almost all students are confident in using the Internet and dealing with safety issues. The study showed that male students are more confident in using the Internet and they can easily manage the safety issues while using the Internet, the female students, on the other hand, have weaknesses in some safety issues. The results showed that the first year and the fourth year students have more self efficacy and confidence toward the safe use of the Internet. Similarly, same as the age factor, students who are less than 20 years old and the students who are older than 26, have more self-efficacy and confidence toward the safe use of the Internet than the students with age between 20 to 25 years old. And finally; the analysis showed that the students who use the Internet less than 3 hours a day or those who use the Internet more than 6 hours a day have more self efficacy and confidence toward the safe use of the Internet than the students who use the Internet between 4 to 6 hours a day.