Abstract:

Abstract Controlled by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Transport, the Movement to Increase Opportunities and Technologies Project (FATIH) aims to ensure equality of opportunity in education and improve the technologies in our schools. The Project will provide every classroom in primary and secondary schools with LCD smart boards and a stable Internet infrastructure and supplying every student and teacher with a tablet computer. The aim of this study is to find out the levels of awareness, attitudes, readiness and expectations in school administrators who play a key role in the implementation of the FATIH Project. The findings from 74 school administrators from five different districts in Istanbul have revealed that: (1) these schools are more prepared and equipped than the average in terms of the infrastructure the project requires and will provide; (2) yet there is a shortage of information technology (IT) teachers or specialists; (3) school administrators frequently employ IT for school management and their own professional development; (4) but they have a low degree of positive attitude towards IT; (5) they do not have sufficient knowledge about the project; (6) they have obtained most of the knowledge they do have through the media; (7) the biggest obstacle to the success of the project is the insufficient knowledge and experience of administrators, teachers, students and parents, (8) school administrators have positive, yet not high, expectations of the Project's effect on educational culture, assessment and evaluation, administration, communication and basic skills, (9) despite their mostly negative expectations of overall counseling, dropouts, discipline and student behavior. Key Words: Information Technologies, FATIH Project, school administrators.

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