Volume Two - Academic Conferences

Eleni Rossiou and Erasmia Papadopoulou
profile, motivations, expectations and effects of networked activities in educational process, and
evaluation of educational material, educational methodology and technological environment. The
statistical analysis has been done with the use of statistical package SPSS (v.10).
3.3 The sample
The research sample consisted of 51 students of the second class of the Experimental School of
Aristotle University, Thessaloniki who were attending the obligatory course of Informatics, one hour
per week in the class, during the school year 2010-2011. Sampling has been done with the method of
“convenience” or “accidental” sampling (Cohen & Manion 1994, pp.128-130). The size of the sample
is considered as satisfactory because a sample of 30 people is considered by many researchers of
the field as the minimum size when a statistical analysis is designed (Cohen & Manion 1994, pp. 131).
3.4 The reliability and validity of the research
The triangulation, the research technique that “many researchers accept but a minority use in praxis”,
increased the authors’ certainty about the validity of the research results (Cohen & Manion 1994,
pp.321). With the use of questionnaire and interviews the research attempts to answer the same
research questions with different way and aspect. Through questionnaires, it is aimed to collect as
many students’ objective opinions as possible and through statistical analysis to generalize the
conclusions( where it is feasible). The anonymity of students during the questionnaire filling process
strengthens the degree of students’ honesty and sincerity and it protects the results of the current
research from potential wrong answers or students’ instigated behaviors in the case where exists the
uncertainty of their evaluation from the teacher. With the qualitative approach and the interviews, the
triangulation aims to improve findings related to the reliability and validity of the research. Moreover,
we achieve a more detailed investigation of the research issue with the common participation of
teacher and students in an interactive relationship which leads to a more equitable interpretation of
the phenomena and perceptions. For the above reasons, we have designed the same main issues for
the questionnaires items and the interview questions. Thus, a double result is sought: a) the
agreement of the results from the two techniques and b) the awareness of unexpected results, after
the discussion with the students.
4. Results and findings
Two questionnaires were delivered to 51 students of the second class of the high school. The return
rate of the first one, the questionnaire of the detection of needs, was 46/51 and 48/51 for the second
one - the questionnaire on the investigation of students’ opinions related to their experience of
blended learning implemented using Google applications.
4.1 Needs and expectations
Almost all students (52,17% boys, 47,83% girls) state that they use their personal computer (97,8%)
and do have Internet at home (91,3%). This high percentage is not unexpected since these students
live in ICT days and also they were offered a laptop from school, via the European project “Digital
Class” of the Ministry of Education.
As far as it concerns students’ expectations regarding the support of the educational process with
ICT, more than ¾ (89,1%) expect teachers to complement their traditional teaching with use of
Information Technology, computers and Internet (Figure 1).
Regarding students’ support with web-based audio-visual communication with their classmates and
teachers, students state their expectation is for a frequency of weekly or twice a month and a 1-2 hour
duration (Figure 2). During the planning of the complementary web-based lessons, the planning team
of the current research took students’ expectations into consideration.
Students were asked to express their opinion about the degree of contribution of educational activities
in their learning. Most of them answered that the most important activity is the procedure of solving
their questions frequently and also, their active participation in educational activities face-to-face or
from distance (Figure 3).
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