Özet:

The Covid-19 pandemic, which started in 2019, deeply affected people’s routines and caused a new normal to occur. During this process, the Internet became an important part of fulfilling life’s basic needs such as shopping and continuing school instruction. This accelerated the integration of individuals into the digital world and these platforms have become a more integral part of our daily lives. The relationship created through digital platforms has increased the importance of the concept of digital citizenship. In this study, the aim was to examine the Internet usage of pre-service teachers in the context of digital citizenship during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this context, the research was designed as a case study, which is a qualitative research methodology. The working group of this research included 20 social studies pre-service teachers who will be responsible for the civic education of the future generation. The research data were obtained through focus group interviews via a semi-structured interview form. The interviews were recorded and transcribed by the researchers, and then the participants read and approved their transcripts. Next, the transcripts were subjected to descriptive analysis by two experts. As a result of the research, it was determined that pre-service teachers used the Internet mostly in line with their education and training activities during the pandemic and had a negative connection with the digital platforms they used. Furthermore, it was concluded that a majority of the pre-service teachers took precautions against using fake content and/or information they deemed a security risk when utilizing the Internet during the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, they positively evaluated the effect of this process on their digital citizenship, but their knowledge of the definition and qualifications of the concept of digital citizenship was found to be insufficient.