خلاصة:
Distance education pedagogy to be successful requires teachers with different levels of
computer, information, and multimedia literacy. Teachers' computer literacy has caught
considerable attention due to the great opportunities provided by modern technology for
promoting language education. The present study explored computer, information, and
multimedia literacy of 255 Iranian EFL teachers. To collect data, we developed and validated
Computer, Information, and Multimedia Literacy Questionnaire for EFL Teachers (CIM-LQ for
EFL Teachers), a five-point Likert scale questionnaire containing three sections to examine the
participants' responses. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS software version 20. The
findings revealed that the level of EFL teachers' multimedia and information literacy ranged
from low to moderate which necessitates improving teachers' training courses and preparing
them for implementing technologies in real language teaching contexts. The findings have
implications for both teacher education programs including both pre-service and in-service
teacher training courses and EFL teachers' practice.
ملخص الجهاز:
Associate Professor, Department of TEFL and English Literature, Payame Noor University Received: 2017/05/21; Accepted: 2017/10/17 Abstract Distance education pedagogy to be successful requires teachers with different levels of computer, information, and multimedia literacy.
The findings revealed that the level of EFL teachers' multimedia and information literacy ranged from low to moderate which necessitates improving teachers' training courses and preparing them for implementing technologies in real language teaching contexts.
The above mentioned benefits of utilizing technology for language instruction and the need for competent teachers in computer sciences to implement technology in language teaching, has encouraged researchers to design scales for measuring teachers' computer, information, and multimedia literacy [21, 22, 23].
Although the trainers were aware of the importance of training teachers for successful implementation of computer applications for teaching foreign languages, they were limited by the institutions' policies and could not employ changes to training programs for improving teachers' level of computer literacy.
The results of an experimental research by Dellicarpini and College [26] suggest that highly contextualized practice during pedagogy courses allows language teachers to improve their knowledge and skills in terms of technology use in the classroom.
Korobili, Malliari, Daniilidou, and Christodoulou [22] state that the importance of information literacy is widely accepted by teachers according to the results of previous studies; however, they come up with difficulties in promoting it for different reasons.
Results and Discussion Considering the importance of teachers' competence in terms of using technology and guiding language learners for its use, this study aimed to measure the level of computer literacy, information literacy, and multimedia literacy among Iranian EFL teachers.