January 2012 Volume 15 Number 1 - Educational Technology ...

utilize the potential of ICT to maximize the quality of learning environments, although they value this potential quite
significantly. At this point, it should be emphasized that prospective teachers’ beliefs are one step toward developing
effective professional development (Mueller et al, 2008) since their beliefs about the role of ICT for learning and
teaching are important in teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and they influence teachers’ behaviour (Webb and Cox,
2004) and their beliefs often limit their efforts to integrate ICT into classroom practices (Pelgrum, 2001).
Finally, it is obvious that unless teachers perceive the new technologies as valuable, they will be unwilling or unable
to use them meaningfully. Accordingly, the importance of professional development for successful infusion of ICT
in the classroom is strongly endorsed in the literature (e.g., O’Brien et al., 1999). Baylor and Ritchie (2002) found
that support for professional development and the level of technology are embraced in the classroom. As a last
remark, given participating prospective teachers’ limited experience in employing educational ICT and their lack of
exposure to ICT-infused teaching methods, the points they made seem commonplace when compared with those
from other findings (e.g., Alvine, 2000; Pope and Golub, 2000).
Implications, limitations and conclusion
The educational implications of the study
Distance EFL teacher training programs should reevaluate their teaching methods and give importance to training
specific to methodologies and practices of ICT integration, ICT-integrated sample lessons conducted in face-to-face
classroom environments by educational technology specialists and providing computer laboratories in central cities
of our country to increase prospective EFL teachers’ self- efficacy and decrease their anxiety about using ICT skills.
Limitations and future directions
This study has three main limitations which are as follows:
1. This study contains prospective EFL teachers who are in distance English teacher training departments. Because
of this reason, the results of this study cannot be generalized to include prospective EFL teachers in formal
education contexts or prospective teachers in other departments of OEF.
2. There are approximately 7,500 prospective EFL teachers in the DELT program. However, we were able to reach
only 85 of these prospective EFL teachers. Hence, the results that we obtained cannot be generalized to the
whole population.
3. The data gathered through interviews is limited to the respondents who voluntarily participated in these
interviews. It is likely that interviewing with more respondents could help us gain more insights related to this
subject.
Accordingly, more qualitative studies should be directed to explore how prospective language teachers perceive ICT
integration in language instruction. Furthermore, studies that compare and contrast perceptions of prospective EFL
teachers in formal education contexts with those of prospective EFL teachers in distance education can be done.
Conclusion
ICT presents a powerful learning environment for learners in the classroom. Many countries make investments in
ICT integration as ICT is viewed as an effective tool for renewing educational practice in any field. Because teachers
are the main characters to employ ICT in educational contexts, they should be trained in how ICT can be integrated
into the teaching process. In the present study, almost all of the respondents expressed their preference for face-toface
training instead of distance training of ICT use in the language teaching process and most future language
teachers are very traditional in that they are less enthusiastic about learning ICT skills.
Unfortunately, many higher education institutions cannot provide pre-service teachers with positive technological
experiences. Thus, pre-service teachers with negative ICT perceptions cannot transfer their ICT skills to their
students and stimulate them to deploy ICT when they start teaching. However, if we aim to make future language
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