Prospective teachers’ information and communication technology metaphors

Abstract

Determination of the perceptions of the prospective teachers about Information and Communication Technology (ICT) terms has a remarkable potential to provide input for technology integration plans and ICT training. Within this context, the purpose of this study is to discover the metaphors constructed by prospective teachers for ICT terms. Data were gathered from 180 prospective teachers through a survey. 977 valid metaphors constructed by the participants were grouped into conceptual categories for the six ICT terms. The most common conceptual categories are “developing and changing” for technology, “making life easy” for computers and search engines, “limitless and endless” for the Internet, “means of communication” for social networks, and “addictive items” for video games. Future research should concentrate on investigating the match and mismatches between the intended use of the ICT tools and the perception of the prospective teachers. Keywords: metaphors, ICT, information and communication technology, technology integration, pre-service teacher, teacher education, prospective teachers.