Students’ attitudes towards integration of ICTs in a reading course: A case in Turkey

The purpose of this paper is to investigate students’ attitudes towards the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in a reading skills course offered at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. To this end, 30 first year students of the foreign language education (FLE) department followed a four-week component of an ICTs-integrated reading skills course. To examine the students’ attitudes towards the course and the new learning environment at the end of the teaching period, an attitude questionnaire was administered and interviews were conducted. The findings indicate that despite the difficulties they faced, the students were satisfied overall with the application of ICTs in their reading course and developed positive attitudes towards online courses.     

Computerization of school administration: impact on the principal’s role—a case study

Changes in the principal’s role, resulting from the computerization of a high-school’s instruction-administration subsystem (i.e. a significant technological change), occurred in six major categories: accountability, instruction evaluation, supervision, feedback, frequency of meetings, and shared decision-making. The principal’s interrelations with department heads, homeroom teachers and teachers, tightened significantly. The principal’s interrelations with the school computer administrator (a new role created as a result of the introduction of a school management information system), were found to be tight and on a daily basis. The results of this research might have significant theoretical and practical implications. They should be related to SMIS impact on schooling in general and on the principal’s role in particular.     

Integrating scientific modeling and supporting dynamic hazard management with a GeoAgent-based representation of human–environment interactions: A drought example in Central Pennsylvania, USA

Recent natural disasters indicate that modern technologies for environmental monitoring, modeling, and forecasting are not well integrated with cross-level social responses in many hazard-management systems. This research addresses this problem through a Java-based multi-agent prototype system, GeoAgent-based Knowledge System (GeoAgentKS). This system allows: (1) computer representation of institutional regulations and behavioral rules used by multiple social institutions and individuals in cross-level human–environment interactions, (2) integration of this representation with scientific modeling of dynamic hazard development, and (3) application of automated reasoning that suggests to users the appropriate actions for supporting cooperative social responses. This paper demonstrates the software architecture of GeoAgentKS and presents such an integrated approach by modeling the drought management processes in Central Pennsylvania, USA. The results show that it is possible to use GeoAgentKS to represent multilevel human–environment interactions and to use those interactions as input to decision making in hazard management.