COGNITIVE LOAD IMPOSED BY INTEGRATING INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN A TEACHER EDUCATION COURSE

Prospective teachers necessarily need formal training in integrating different technologies in the teaching-learning environment. In this paper, we report on findings regarding primary student teachers ’ attitudes about the use of technology in education, their frequency of software use such as the Internet and Hyperstudio, and the extent to which the use of web-based tools, such as Filamentality, affected their perceived cognitive load. Three questionnaires were administered to 41 fourth-year primary student teachers to collect data. These students were divided into two intact groups formed during registration. At the beginning of the semester, students were given a short questionnaire to indicate how frequently they used the technologies of the Internet and Hyperstudio. Students were also administered a 15-item questionnaire measuring their attitudes towards ICT and its integration in the classroom. The cognitive load imposed by technology was measured with a questionnaire, at the end of the semester, in terms of: (a) the mental effort they exerted to learn Hyperstudio, (b) the mental effort they exerted to search the Internet and collect quality information for their projects, and (c) the mental effort they exerted to design instructiona