Faculty use of technological resources in Turkey

Abstract

Although use of technology is a common research subject both world-wide and in Turkey, little, if any research has been carried out on the faculty use of technologies in Turkey. A partial replication study was conducted in a Turkish university to find out the faculty use of technology resources from the points of familiarity, use and effective factors as incentives and barriers. A 61 item Likert-type questionnaire was sent to 305 faculty members (professors, associate professors and assistant professors only). The number of replies received totalled 144. Results show that the faculty knew and therefore used the traditional technologies more often and lacked familiarity and use in computerized technologies. The frequency of use revealed that the faculty mostly used computers as word processors. The most effective factors for use were the availability of the technologies, increase in student interest and improvement on student learning. The incentives were time release, clerical assistance and grants, whereas the most important barrier was the lack of easily accessible resources.