Although research emphasizes the importance of integrating technology into the curriculum, the use of technology can only be effective if teachers themselves possess the expertise to use technology in a meaningful way in the classroom. The aim of this study was to assist Egyptian teachers in developing teaching and learning through the application of a particular digital technology. Students were encouraged to work through the process of producing their own digital stories using MS Photo Story, while being introduced to desktop production and editing tools. They also presented, published and shared their own stories with other students in the class. Quantitative and qualitative instruments, including digital story evaluation rubric, integration of technology observation instruments and interviews for evaluating the effectiveness of digital storytelling into learning were implemented to examine the extent to which students were engaged in authentic learning tasks using digital storytelling. The findings from the analysis of students-produced stories revealed that overall, students did well in their projects and their stories met many of the pedagogical and technical attributes of digital stories. The findings from classroom observations and interviews revealed that despite problems observed and reported by teachers, they believed that the digital storytelling projects could increase students' understanding of curricular content and they were willing to transform their pedagogy and curriculum to include digital storytelling.
This study reports on the Arabization and empirical evaluation of two standard scales to assess Egyptian teachers' attitudes toward personal use and school use of computers. To date, no similar instruments have been translated and empirically evaluated in an Arabic-speaking community. Data provided by a sample of 443 teachers support the reliability and validity of the two Arabic versions and the body of the research evidence, which suggests that computer attitude is multidimensional. The relationship between gender, years of teaching experience, computer use, computer experience, and computer attitudes is also examined. Implications for preservice and in-service teacher preparation in Egypt are provided.
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