Telecommunications and pre-service teachers: The effects of using electronic mail and a directed exploration of Internet on attitudes

This study is designed to evaluate the impact resulting from the use of electronic mail and Internet access on undergraduate education students\u27 attitudes toward telecommunications, as well as their attitudes toward educational technologies in general. It attempts to answer two questions. First, What effect does the purposeful use of telecommunications in a Methods/Curriculum course have on student attitudes towards the usefulness of telecommunications? And second, How will this experience affect their attitudes dealing with educational technologies in general? Pretest and posttest responses for survey subscores from the experimental group (students taking their Secondary Science Methods/Curriculum block at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln) and comparison group (all other students entering the Methods/Curriculum blocks at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Secondary Science Methods students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha) were compared. The most prominent finding is that there must be an integration of the educational technologies into the Methods/Curriculum courses. This integration must include the practicum and student teaching sites. Practicum and student teaching sites need to be found where teachers are using educational technologies appropriately. The second theme deals with the use of e-mail between student and instructor. Students voiced very polar views on this topic. Some students felt that e-mail took away the personal aspect of communication, while others felt that e-mail allowed them to express themselves in ways not otherwise possible. Just as Methods/Curriculum instructors must take into account different learning styles, they also must take into account different communication styles. While not unanimous, students from all groups voiced opinions that electronic communications between students and professors could be very useful. All students emphasized that e-mail should neither be the sole means of communication, nor should it take the place of personal discussions