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Volume Two - Academic Conferences

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Nazime Tuncay and Hüseyin Uzunboylu<br />

Figure 1: Teachers Training Needs Pyramid in Four Countries (Tuncay, etc., 2009)<br />

However, it is not the videos that create rather learning tasks or activities involving videos and they<br />

can be used to pr omote learning via ap propriate accompanying d irections an d impulses ( Krammer,<br />

etc. al . 2006). A s a c onsequence of t echnological c hallenges, q uality of i nstruction h as bec ome a<br />

central t opic i n t he di scussion bet ween educ ators, r esearchers, and pol icymakers ( Tuncay&<br />

Uzunboylu, 20 10a). T his m etaphor of t echnology bringing p eople f rom dar kness i nto l ight c an be<br />

applied t o m any ot her c ontexts w here pr ofessionals i n t he f ield of educ ation ar e gi ving r ather t han<br />

taking f rom t he dev eloping w orld a nd of fering ho pe t hat we c an i ndeed c reate a w orld of s hared<br />

republications and i nternational u nity, r ather t han di vision, in t he f uture ( Breen, 2006) . In or der t o<br />

achieve efficiency in learning, all categories of actors working within educational, learning and training<br />

contexts need to comprehend the general imagine of learning, built the puzzle, and apply adequately<br />

the l earning s olutions ( Stanescu, I .A, 2008). Among m ost i mportant r easons of s tudents f or not<br />

preferring distance education course was its not being “face to face” (Tuncay&Uzunboylu, 2010b).<br />

According t o t eachers’ c ommon ans wers and ex pectations, a v irtual 3 D aided, u-learning course<br />

platform (VirtualNeu) i s dev eloped ( http://virtualneu.edu20.org) b y using t he E du2.0 l earning<br />

management s ystem. T his en vironment i s i ntegrated i n SL where learners c an en ter as avatars.<br />

Possible metaphors in this environment are considered and a research study is delivered. The effect<br />

of e-learning metaphors in designing a u-learning course is investigated and (Metaphors in E-<br />

Learning) were presented in ECEL 2010 Conference, in Portugal. Researchers’ mission is preparing a<br />

portal and making it uni versally ac cessible and useful for teachers; de livering e -courses f or t heir<br />

specified training needs and, helping them to be more innovative and more creative individuals who<br />

change and improve the world education.<br />

1.5 Purpose<br />

E-Learning Education and Management (ELEM) course was decided by the researchers to be<br />

delivered to a sample group of English Teachers. Purpose of the PhD study is to compare the English<br />

Teachers Perception, Attitude and Success in Online ELEM Course & Blended ELEM Course. For<br />

this a u-learning course platform was needed. A platform with 3D virtual classrooms, with speaking<br />

and moving avatars, with videos, e-portfolio applications, with chat rooms, etc. was needed. It was not<br />

possible t o h ave a ll t hese f acilities with j ust on e learning m anagement s ystem. H ence E du 2. 0,<br />

Second Li fe, V oki, S creencast, J ing, Wallwisher, Wordle, YouTube, GoAnimate, . .etc. f ree onl ine<br />

programs; as well as programming knowledge like HTML, Photoshop, JavaScript, PhP,..etc. are used<br />

in VirtualNeu portal.<br />

Purpose of this pap er is t o de liver t he Designing a U-Learning C ourse Platform for t he I dentified<br />

Teacher Training Needs. This study aims to start a global approach to bridge the e-learning training<br />

needs of teachers by delivering e-courses (electronic courses). For this purpose, courses are<br />

planned, and virtual u-learning course platform “VirtualNeu” (http://virtualneu.edu20.org) is designed.<br />

This study (which is first part of the PhD study) tries to answer the following research questions:<br />

How do t he t eachers per ceive t he us e of e -learning/sharing portal i n educational ac tivities i n<br />

terms of its effects on their motivation towards the educational activities?<br />

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