Ownership and Use of New Media by Teachers in Rural and Urban Areas of Croatia

The development and use of new media in the class emphasizes independent learning based on the activities of the students, constructivist learning and student-centred lessons in general. Using new media in the class does not prompt more efficient learning and teaching in itself, but can initiate the learning processes by didactically shaping the class with regards to student and teacher motivation, previous knowledge, aims, methods and content. Thus,the media changes the role of the teacher, who becomes the organizer of students' independent learning activities. On the other hand, differences have traditionally been seen between teachers from rural (village) and urban (towns/cities) areas. This research was carried out to investigate how often new media are used by elementary school teachers in rural and urban areas (N = 158), and what the differences are between those two subgroups of teachers in terms of ownership of new media. The research was conducted in February 2012 by using a questionnaire.The study demonstrates that there is no difference in terms of ownership of any of the new media items relating to the area in which the school is situated (rural or urban). The results show that computers, mobile phones and the internet are owned and used to a greater degree than social media, smartphones and tablet computers. Teachers who work in rural and urban areas use personal computers, the internet and multimedia software in their classes most often, while they do not use tablet computers, smartphones, social networking or mobile phones as frequently. The results show that using new media decreases the traditional differences between teachers from rural and urban areas, which implies that students can learn in classes organized with the help of new media, regardless of where their school is situated.