Abstract
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools closed down in many countries, and the students participate in virtual-only classes. However, as there is no equality in access to technology and connectivity among the populations, this has become a major problem for the millions, intensifying the digital divide. Thus, in order to mitigate this digital gap, many countries have taken several measures to use educational technology in different ways. Turkey is one of them and has supported distance education through the use of educational television. Therefore, this chapter explores the implementation of educational television by introducing its background, use, and contributions to foreign language instruction and contextualises it in a scholarly discussion of the digital divide and inclusive education within the local context of Turkey. Ultimately, the chapter provides recommendations for the policymakers to support inclusive education to embrace wide masses of learners.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Akbulut, M., Şahin, U., & Esen, A. C. (2020). More than a virus: How COVID-19 infected education in Turkey. Journal of Social Science Education, 19, 30–42.
Akca, H., Sayili, M., & Esengun, K. (2007). Challenge of rural people to reduce digital divide in the globalised world: Theory and practice. Government Information Quarterly, 24, 404–413.
Anderson, J. S. A. (1980). Exploring teletext as a resource. Innovations in education & training International, 17(1), 27–35.
Arıcıgil-Çilan, Ç. (2019). Measuring digital divide by using confirmatory factor analysis and MANOVA: A case of Turkey. The Journal of Operations Research, Statistics, Econometrics and Management Information Systems, 7(1), 1–12.
Aydın, S. (2007). Attitudes of EFL learners towards the Internet. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – TOJET, 6(3). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED500059.pdf
Brautovic, M., & Perisin, T. (2016). Teletext as a new media promoter in Croatia. In H. Moe & H. V. Bulck (Eds.), Teletext in Europe: From the analog to the digital era (pp. 187–204). Nordicom.
Carrier, M. (2018). English for the underserved: Closing the digital divide. Training, Language and Culture, 2(4), 9–25.
Duby, A. (1988). A distance education medium. Educational Technology, 28(4), 54–57.
EBA TV. (n.d.). EBA TV ders yayini nasil olacak? [What will EBA TV broadcasts be like?]. http://www.eba.gov.tr/nasil-tv.html
EFA Global Monitoring Report. (2010). Reaching the marginalised. UNESCO Publishing. https://en.unesco.org/gem-report/report/2010/reaching-marginalized
Er-Koçoğlu, N. (2020). The big obstacle/barrier to access information in the COVID-19 pandemic: Digital divide. Turk Kutuphaneciligi, 34(3), 373–376.
Eren, E. (2020). The impact of the new Coronavirus on the Turkish education policy practices: New regulations of the Ministry of National Education and the Council of Higher Education. Journal Higher Education, 10(2), 153–162.
Eurostat. (2019). Daily internet users during the three months preceding the survey. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistical-atlas/gis/viewer/?mids=BKGCNT,C09M01,CNTOVL&o=1,1,0.7&ch=C04,C09¢er=39.5508,37.95214,4&lcis=C09M01&nutsId=TRC&
Eynon, R. (2009). Mapping the digital divide in Britain: Implications for learning and education. Learning, Media and Technology, 34(4), 277–290.
Fidan, H., & Şen, H. (2015). Gini approach to measuring digital divide: Digital divide levels in terms of urban, rural and gender in Turkey. The Journal of International Social Research, 39(8), 1108–1118.
Fisch, S. M. (2004). Children’s learning from educational television: Sesame street and beyond. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Grammes, T. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic, emergency remote teaching and social science education. Journal of Social Science Education, 19, 1–7.
Granena, G. (2016). Individual versus interactive task-based performance through voice-based computer-mediated communication. Language Learning & Technology, 20(3), 40–59.
Hall, J. K. (2010). Interaction as method and result of language learning. Language Teaching, 43(2), 202–215.
Hohlfeld, T., Ritzhaupt, A. D., Barron, A. E., & Kemker, K. (2008). Examining the digital divide in K-12 public schools: Four-year trends for supporting ICT literacy in Florida. Computers & Education, 51, 1648–1663.
Isci, T. G., & Demir, S. B. (2015). The use of tablets distributed within the scope of FATIH project for education in Turkey (Is FATIH project a fiasco or a technological revolution?). Universal Journal of Educational Research, 3(7), 442–450.
Jang, H., & Cheung, Y. L. (2019). Impacts of dyadic interaction on second language writing: A study with eight bilingual primary school students in Singapore. International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years of Education, 48(5), 527–540.
Karakaya-Polat, R. (2012). Digital exclusion in Turkey: A policy perspective. Government Information Quarterly, 29, 589–596.
Kawaguchi, S., & Ma, Y. (2012). Corrective feedback, negotiation of meaning and grammar development: Learner-learner and learner-native speaker interaction in ESL. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 2(2), 57–70.
Kim, S. W. (2015). Effectiveness of a satellite educational television program for Ethiopian secondary education. Distance Education, 36(3), 419–436.
Kirkgoz, Y. (2007). English language teaching in Turkey: Policy changes and their implementations. RELC Journal, 38(2), 216–228.
Kızılet, E., & Ozmen, K. S. (2017). Evaluation of a nationwide ICT reform movement in Turkey: Insights from the FATIH project. Journal on School Educational Technology, 13(1), 33–48.
Koramaz, T. K., Nasrollahzade, S., & Ozdemir, Z. (2019). Spatial pattern of digital divide in Turkey. Paper presented at REAL CORP 2019, Karlsruhe. https://conference.corp.at/archive/CORP2019_113.pdf
Lo, L. N.-K. (2007). The sustainable development of inclusive education. Chinese Education & Society, 40(4), 44–62.
Marcum, J., & Kim, Y. (2020). Oral language proficiency in distance English-language learning. CALICO Journal, 37(2), 148–168.
Ministry of National Education. (n.d.). Fatih project. http://fatihprojesi.meb.gov.tr/about.html
Ministry of National Education. (2020). Uzaktan eğitimle ilgili süreç hafta içi simülasyonlarla anlatilacak [Information about the distance education process]. https://www.meb.gov.tr/uzaktan-egitimle-ilgili-surec-hafta-ici-simulasyonlarla-anlatilacak/haber/20513/tr
Moe, H. (2016). Freedom of information and divides in the digital age: Teletext and internet use in Norway. In Teletext in Europe: From the analog to the digital era (pp. 167–185). Nordicom.
Neupane, B. (2016). Teachers’ and students’ perceptions on digital divide in English language learning (Master’s thesis). Tribhuvan University.
Norris, P. (2001). Digital divide: Civic engagement, information poverty, and Internet worldwide. Cambridge University Press.
Norwich, B. (2014). Recognising value tensions that underlie problems in inclusive education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 44(4), 495–510.
Nyre, L. (2016). What is teletext? A phenomenological description. In H. Moe & H. V. Bulck (Eds.), Teletext in Europe: From the analog to the digital era (pp. 51–66) Nordicom.
Oladokun, O., & Aina, L. (2011). ODL and the impact of digital divide on information access in Botswana. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 12(6), 157–177.
Omar, S. H. (2001). An exploration of the use of the learning channel biology programmes by grade 12 educators and learners in public schools in an urban area of Kwazulu-Natal (Master’s thesis). University of Durban-Westville.
Open Education Faculty. (n.d.). General information. https://www.anadolu.edu.tr/en/academics/faculties/2/open-education-faculty/general-info
Özer, M. (2020). Educational policy actions by the Ministry of National Education in the times of COVID-19. Kastamonu Education Journal, 28(3), 1124–1129.
Özkanal, Ü., Yüksel, İ., & Başaran-Uysal, B. Ç. (2020). The pre-service teachers’ reflection-on-action during distance practicum: A critical view on EBA TV English courses. Journal of Qualitative Research in Education, 8(4), 1347–1364.
Özsoy, D., & Muschert, G. (2020). A comparison of high-skill and low-skill internet users in Northeast Anatolia, Turkey. In M. Ragnedda & A. Gladkova (Eds.), Digital inequalities in the global south (pp. 177–195). Palgrave Macmillan.
Perry, K. H., & Moses, A. N. (2011). Television, language, and literacy practices in Sudanese refugee families: “I learned how to spell English on Channel 18”. Research in the Teaching of English, 45(3), 278–307.
Qvortrup, A., & Qvortrup, L. (2018). Inclusion: Dimensions of inclusion in education. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 22(7), 803–817.
Ramberg, J., & Watkins, A. (2020). Exploring inclusive education across Europe: Some insights from the European Agency Statistics on inclusive education. FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education, 6(1), 85–101.
Ranga, V., & Koul, B. N. (2017). Television and video components. http://egyankosh.ac.in//handle/123456789/8362
Rooksby, E., Weckert, J., & Lucas, R. (2002). The rural digital divide. Rural Society, 12(3), 197–210.
Rosen, Y., & Wolf, I. (2011). Bridging the social gap through educational technology. Educational Technology, 51(5), 39–43.
Rowsell, J., Morrell, E., & Alvermann, D. E. (2017). Confronting the digital divide: Debunking brave new world discourses. The Reading Teacher, 71(2), 157–165.
Rumble, G., & Koul, B. N. (2007). Open schooling for secondary & higher secondary education: Costs and effectiveness in India and Namibia. Commonwealth of Learning. http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/228
Sönmez, M., Yıldırım, K., & Çetinkaya, F. Ç. (2020). Evaluation of distance education process due to new type of Coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) pandemic with the opinions of elementary school classroom teachers. Turkish Studies, 15(6), 855–875.
Swain, C., & Pearson, T. (2002). Educators and technology standards. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 34(3), 326–335.
Telli-Yamamoto, G., & Altun, D. (2020). The Coronavirus and the rising of online education. Journal of University Research, 3(1), 25–34.
Terzi, L. (2014). Reframing inclusive education: Educational equality as capability equality. Cambridge Journal of Education, 44(4), 479–493.
The World Bank. (2019). Individuals using the Internet (% of population). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.NET.USER.ZS?end=2019&start=1990&view=chart
Tidhar, C. E., & Ostrowitz-Segala, L. (1985). Teletext in Israel: A new instructional tool. Journal of Educational Television, 11(3), 161–169.
Tisoglu, S., Kursun, E., & Cagiltay, K. (2020). Open educational resources in Turkey. In R. Huang, D. Liu, A. Tlili, Y. Gao, & R. Koper (Eds.), Current state of open educational resources in the “belt and road” countries. Lecture notes in educational technology (pp. 213–235). Springer.
Trading Economics. (n.d.). Turkey – households with television. https://tradingeconomics.com/turkey/households-with-television-percent-wb-data.html
TRT EBA TV. (2020). Schedule. http://www.eba.gov.tr/#/anasayfa
TRT News. (2015). MEB’in ‘EBA’ eğitim programı tanitildi [EBA education program was introduced]. https://www.trthaber.com/haber/egitim/mebin-eba-egitim-programi-tanitildi-207621.html. Accessed 1 Dec 2020.
Turkey Statistical Agency (TUIK). (2019). Household use of information technologies. https://data.tuik.gov.tr/Bulten/Index?p=Survey-on-Information-and-Communication-Technology-(ICT)-Usage-in-Households-and-by-Individuals-2019-30574
Turkey Statistical Agency (TUIK). (2020). Household use of information technologies. https://data.tuik.gov.tr/Search/Search?text=cep%20telefonu
Turkish Directorate of Family and Social Research. (2011). Türkiye’de ailelerin eğitim ihtiyaçları [Educational needs of the Turkish families]. https://www.ailevecalisma.gov.tr/uploads/athgm/uploads/pages/arastirmalar/turkiye-de-ailelerin-egitim-ihtiyaclari.pdf
Uchikoshi, Y. (2006). English vocabulary development in bilingual kindergarteners: What are the best predictors? Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 9, 33–49.
Uhls, Y. T., & Robb, M. B. (2017). Chapter 16 – How parents mediate children’s media consumption. In F. C. Blumberg & P. J. Brooks (Eds.), Cognitive development in digital contexts (pp. 325–343). Academic.
Umino, T. (2002). Foreign language learning with self-instructional television materials: An exploratory study (Doctoral Dissertation). University of London, the UK.
UNESCO. (2020). Education: From disruption to recovery. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse.
United Nations. (2017). Education for sustainable development goals: Learning objectives. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000247444?utm_sq=gj34xbfn94
United Nations. (2020a). Education in a post-COVID world: Nine ideas for public action. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373717/PDF/373717eng.pdf.multi
United Nations. (2020b). Frontier technology issues: Can digital technologies put us back on the path to achieve the SDGs? https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/publication/frontier-technology-issues-can-digital-technologies-put-us-back-on-the-path-to-achieve-the-sdgs/
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (n.d.). https://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf
van Dijk, J. A. G. M. (2005). The deepening divide: Inequality in the information society. Sage Publications.
van Dijk, J. A. G. M. (2006). Digital divide research, achievements and shortcomings. Poetics, 34, 221–235.
Warschauer, M. (2003). Technology and social inclusion: Rethinking the digital divide. MIT Press.
Yaman, İ. (2015). Digital divide within the context of language and foreign language teaching. Paper presented at International Educational Technology Conference (pp. 766–771). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.538.
Yıldız, A., & Vural, R. A. (2020). Covid-19 pandemisi ve derinleşen eğitim eşitsizlikleri [Covid-19 pandemic and the deepening digital divide]. Türk Tabibleri Birligi Covid-19 Pandemisi Degerlendirme Raporu (pp. 556–565). https://www.ttb.org.tr/kutuphane/covid19-rapor_6/covid19-rapor_6_Part64.pdf
Yurtbakan, E., & Akyıldız, S. (2020). Primary school teachers, primary school students and parents’ views on distance education activities implemented during the Covid-19 isolation period. Turkish Studies, 15(6), 949–977.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Arslan, S. (2022). Digital Divide vs. Inclusive Thinking: The Educational Television in Turkey. In: Pun, J.K.H., Curle, S., Yuksel, D. (eds) The Use of Technology in English Medium Education. English Language Education, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99622-2_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99622-2_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-99621-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-99622-2
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)