Investigation of the current situation of computer labs for effectively informatics teaching from the point of view of teachers in computer labs at governmental primary schools in Damascus city

Abstract

The aim of this research is to investigate the current situation of computer labs and if the goals of computer labs at primary schools are achieved from the point of view of teachers. These include points regarding their needs in the laboratory, how the lab is prepared, availability of equipments and learning materials, suitable number of devices for the number of learners, and finally difficulties in activating the computer lab in the teaching of informatics. The questionnaire of the current situation was applied and it had 50 items. In addition, there was an open question on a random sample of 35 male and female teachers of the second class of primary schools who are specialist in teaching of informatics by 32% of the original community. The conclusions of this study were: There were no statistically significant differences between the average grades of teachers towards the current situation of computer labs in the teaching of informatics. This is due to scientific qualification, specialization and years of experience. I also found through the arithmetic average of teachers' answers that computer labs needs as the following: Software update, providing video and data show, scientific references related to computer, and providing Internet service. updating hardware of old computers that can not run new software. Appointing a computer secretary and technical assistant to maintain the computers and provide permanent maintenance, and to conduct research by the ministry of education to identify the problems of computer laboratories and work to solve them. Fitting suitable number of computers for the number of learners as the current number of learners on the same computer is five students or more. Finally the research concluded with a number of proposals in term of our most important results: The need to provide computer laboratories in schools with up to date computers, providing training courses for informatics teachers, and paying attention if the computer rooms are well equipped with the appropriate facilities