Digital English Activities

 

The Effect of Digital English Activities on the Motivation of 5th Grade Students

 

Gizemnur Şentürk

Büşra Şen

Beyza Naz Sebze

Çağla Nil Gündüz

 

Project Development in Education

 

2022-2023 Fall Semester

 

21.09.2022

 

Project Development in Education

 

Abstract

 

This article investigates the effect of digital activities on students' motivation to learn English by making Turkish English teachers use digital English activities. 5 Turkish English teachers working in secondary school participated in this research. These teachers provided feedback by filling out the forms prepared after using the activities in their lessons. Today, the place of technology in education has an indisputable importance. Since today's children are exposed to technology a lot, using digital tools during the lesson will significantly increase the motivation of children to learn English. Data for this study were collected and analyzed through face-to-face interviews.

 

Keywords: motivation, technology, english teaching, digital activity

 

1. Introduction

With the introduction of the Internet into our lives, access to information has become easier. Digital resources such as electronic books, digital encyclopedias, blogs and articles allow information exchange and are just a click away.The connection of the Z generation with the digital world is an indisputable fact. Digital transformation puts an end to paperwork in education and offers measurable instant performance and data, archives are accessed within seconds. Thanks to digital education in education, students are more active in the lesson and children focus on the lesson for longer because it is more interesting than traditional education. With the development of technology, traditional education has lost its influence today. Children growing up in the age of technology cannot get efficiency from traditional education. For this reason, schools should organize their education programs according to this age. They should use Web 2.0 tools in the lessons.

 

2. Literature Review

According to Kapp, the use of traditional games in the classroom is declining as technology can create more interesting games that fit students' lifestyles. Online or digital games in the teaching process are more suitable for students who can download apps to play on their mobile phones. Another benefit of digital games is that they encourage learning. Students can perceive the element of confrontation, gain a sense of success or loss, and receive immediate feedback. (Kapp, 2012) By integrating the digital games that children play with pleasure in their spare time, it is ensured that the lessons are adapted to today's conditions.Traditional education is gradually losing its effect and new resources are being sought. At the forefront of these resources is the developing technology and digital materials. Digital games increase students' motivation to learn and make the classroom environment fun. In addition, thanks to these activities, socialization in the classroom improves and contributes to students' communication skills. Because students are active in digital activities. In traditional activities, there is an understanding that the teacher is more active and the student is more behind. This is important for students' self-confidence.

According to the Douglas Fir Group, digital technologies transform interpersonal communication. It expands people's opportunities to learn and use additional languages, creating new purposes for interaction and new environments where exchanges take place. (Douglas Fir Group, 2016)

Macaro, Handley & Walter noted in their research that students generally respond positively to opportunities to improve their language skills through the use of digital tools. (Macaro, Handley & Walter, 2012)

Good use of technology in classroom helps students in their literacy development. (Levine, Ferenz, & Reves, 2000)

Multimedia technology combined with appropriate instructional design can create a good learning environment that leads to effective language learning. (Huang, Dedegikas, and Walls, 2011)

Co-creation between students, teachers, entrepreneurs and policy makers should be encouraged to support innovative, efficient and user-friendly digital tools in education. (Billore, So., &Rosén, C. 2017. )

 

3. Methodology

3.1. Research Design

In this study, a qualitative research design was adopted to investigate the effect of teachers' use of digital activities in lessons on students' motivation.

3.2. Participants and Settings

The participants are in-service English teachers who have completed their education in the Education Faculties of universities in Turkey.

The teachers consist of 5 people, both men and women. Some of these teachers work at Ataköy Atatürk Secondary School, one at Aydın Lider Schools, and one at Manisa Selimşahlar Ertük Secondary School.

3.3. Data Collection Tools

A blog is used to collect digital activities prepared for this research and new entries are published weekly. Forms were prepared so that teachers could give feedback on students' motivation after using the digital activities.

4. Discussion

The age we live in is called the "information" age. We are living in a period when it is difficult to follow technological developments. The speed of change is dizzying, the innovations it brings are miraculous. These changes in technology quickly show and feel their effects in our lives. The transition from chalk, which has been used in classrooms for years, to blackboard markers, has replaced chalkboards with smart boards today. With this digital development, today's generation has grown up with technology and they want to see this development in education. However, in many schools, the use of technology in education, communication and informatics is very limited. Although our failure in education can be seen with all its nakedness in every corner of our social life, the excuses of lack of resources are always given as reasons. However, the fact that the only permanent solution to all our problems is the investment we will make in our people has been known and expressed for centuries. The aim of this study is to present digital activities that will be used to train qualified students in English teaching of the information and communication technologies offered by the age. Since technology is not a static process, it is in constant change and transformation. For this reason, this research will be more useful than previous research. Education or training is a business of communication and interaction. It is not possible to modernize education by ignoring communication and interaction technologies. Contemporary, on the other hand, can be defined as fulfilling the requirements of the age.

5. Implications/ Future Studies/ Limitations

The contribution of educational technologies to education and the development of human beings is an undeniable reality. It is of great importance that the teachers who will implement this in schools are well-equipped in this regard. Educational technology increases the student's perception capacity, increases the access level of each student in terms of learning tools, enables the objective measurement and evaluation of student success, gives each student opportunities in learning according to their own characteristics, reduces the possibility of students forgetting what they have learned, increases the motivation of students to learn, contemporary teaching environment conditions. It encourages students to participate in teaching activities by preparing them and offers life-long education opportunities to individuals. If we want our future generations to shape the future, we must attach the necessary importance to educational technology and inform our students correctly on this subject.

With the rapid development of technology, it does not seem possible to think that education and training will continue in the classroom and face-to-face for many years.

Digital education process and digital transformation in education; has accelerated and diversified in the last 1-2 years. While learning is in a concept similar to power point slides, there are digital learning applications and digital learning in very different education. It would be the best method to start looking for an answer to the question of how digitalization in education will be, based on the logic of "in-class training will decrease even more in the next education period".

While investigating the answer to the question of how Digital Education will be, we can list other important findings below:

Digital Transformation in Education, which entered our lives thanks to Education 4.0 and digital learning; With the advancing technologies and social media, the concentration time of the Y generation, that is, the generation born between 1981-2000 and the Z generation, which came later, on the classical lecture methods in the classrooms is considerably reduced. This raises the problem of ensuring the concentration of the participants on the subject in classroom training and learning. Digital Education and Digital transformation in Education centers on gamification. One of the first answers to the question of how Digital Education will be is gamification. Generation Z grew up with computer games. Earning points, receiving awards, competing are the definitions of this generation. Do you know how digital education will be? Communication and interaction centered. They use communication technologies very well. They are masters at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all other communicative technologies. They can easily find information on the Internet. They even have the world's information in their pockets. It will definitely be online and mobile! With the digital transformation in education, in-class education designs based on classical expression will be abandoned. He should use many technologies together so that he can receive education in the format he wants, wherever and whenever he wants. Digital transformation in education should not be perceived as a revolution that will take place in a short time, but should be seen as a long-term evolution, and this process should be managed and directed by professional/academic circles.

Devices or applications used in the digital transformation of education are only tools. Transformation cannot be expected to occur only by expanding the use of these tools. Therefore, it is necessary to consider this as a mentality issue and to focus on the content, software and the quality of the educators rather than the device used and research.

No research can be perfect and fully inclusive in all its aspects. We also encountered some flaws in our research. Although our project was capable of adapting to today's digital world and taking education and training to the next level, not every teacher was willing to participate in the project. Some teachers did not have as much digital competence as we expected. We did not know that we would encounter such a low level of technology knowledge in our research, and we believed that teachers could use the activities we prepared instantly. Some teachers asked for our special attention, relevance and extra knowledge during this process, and this cost us a lot of time.

6. Conclusion

It should not be considered a prophecy to predict that the students we train today will be the dominant generation of the society 10 or 15 years from now, and will probably be employed in offices fully equipped with technological products, in service or production sectors created almost entirely by the communication opportunities offered by technology. It is an inevitable fact that societies have to get a larger share of the world's resources in order to increase their quality of life. Getting a bigger share from the scarce resources of the world is only proportional to the "power" you have in the competitive free markets forced by the new world order. This power is "knowledge". The most effective and easiest way to reach "power" is information technologies. Individual "power" is not desirable unless it serves social purposes. Making individual power serve social purposes is possible by providing cooperation between individuals. This cooperation requires communication technologies. The biggest obstacle to achieving these is our resistance to change. It is the duty of our teachers to break this resistance and bring our society to the level it deserves in the contemporary world.

In summary, as a result of our research, we observed that there were great changes in students' motivation to learn English. The rate of participation in the course increased, their grades increased and their communication with the teacher became stronger. As a result of these changes in students, teachers also saw the importance of digitality in education more clearly. As a result, the positive feedback they received from the students showed that the teachers would also increase their motivation and add digital activities to the progressing lesson processes.

 

REFERENCES

Billore, So., &Rosén, C. 2017.  A Cross-culturalstudy of attitudestodigitaltoolsamongstudentsandteachers in theEuropean Language ClassroomIn: ExtendedPapers of the International Symposium on DigitalHumanities. Växjö, Sweden, November, 7-8, 2016 [ed] KoraljkaGolub&MarceloMilrad, CEUR-WS.org , 2017, Vol. 2021, s. 286-287

Huang, X., Dedegikas, C., &Walls, J. (2011). Using multimediatechnologytoteach modern Greeklanguage online in China: Development, implementation, andevaluation. EuropeanJournal of Open, Distanceand E Learning, 2011(1).