This section examined the differences between Turkish pre-service teachers
and graduate students perceptions about the use of technology. When comparing
Turkish pre-service teachers and graduate students total mean scores, graduate
students were consistently higher than the mean scores of pre-service teachers in
“current knowledge,” “desired knowledge” and “my assignments require or assume
the use of this technology.” Thus, it appears that Turkish universities need to get more
engaged in the use of educational technology in order to improve access to the
information and enable students to draw on skills, habits, and subject matter
knowledge for informed participation in the intellectual and civic life of Turkish
society, like western countries. One of the explanations of why Turkish graduate
students had more knowledge about the use of educational technology compared to
Turkish pre-service teachers is that American universities are further along in
implementing educational technology in their classrooms and engaging students in
understanding the value of technology in teaching. Turkish pre-service students
appeared to be one or two steps behind Turkish graduate students. These western
educated Turkish graduate students will come back to Turkey and have the potential
to make a strong positive impact on the Turkish education system