The Views of Teacher Candidates on Using Cloud Technologies in Education

Abstract

This study aims to describe the views of student IT teachers’ and the factors which affect their priorities to use cloud services progressively. The study is conducted by qualitative research approach. The data obtained from the department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology students are collected by structured form for the use of cloud technologies. The data is analyzed by content analysis method. According to the findings, student teachers use cloud systems for file sharing and they do not use cloud systems because they do not need them or they do not know them mostly; cloud systems’ main advantage is the flexibility of use independence from time and space and their main disadvantage are the security issues and the fact that they rely on the internet connection; cloud systems’ main benefits for educational purposes are the flexibility and cost of use, and the fact that they support connection and collaboration between different users; participants think cloud services may have benefits on personal development of individuals’ information literacy knowledge and can improve teaching skills and on connection and collaborative work with various people and finally student teachers are in the opinion that cloud services are more appropriate for application-project courses and both group and individuals’ instruction. Due to cloud services’ benefits on education, adopting them into education system is important to reach the developed education level. Therefore, teachers should be trained among those innovative technologies by IT teachers who are the core element for this process.