Perceptions of Secondary School 8th Grade Students Regarding Smart Board Concept

Technological developments are rapidly becoming widespread especially in developing countries. Educational institutions have also been affected by technological developments. One of the educational technologies which became popular recently is Smart Board (SB). The aim of this study is to determine 8th grade students' mental images of "SB" concept through metaphors. For this purpose, the students studying at 8th grade of a secondary school were asked to complete the sentence of "SB is like…Because…". Phenomenological research design was used in the axis of qualitative research approach and the data were collected through metaphors in the study. 86 students studying at 8th grade formed the population group of the study. The data of the study were reviewed for content analysis. The metaphors which are not valid were excluded. Then, raw data were formed by transferring these metaphors and their descriptions to computer environment. The metaphors with similar characteristics in these texts were grouped into 5 conceptual categories. According to the research findings, the participants produced 36 valid metaphors. According to the results of study, it was found out that the participants had positive concepts about "SB". Some participants were found to perceive SB as an unnecessary, boring and constantly deteriorating tool.