EFFECTS OF USING “ABCYA.

COM” EDUCATIONAL WEBSITE

ON TEACHING NUMBERS AND OPERATIONS FOR GRADE
FOUR

STUDENT NAME: Kamar Fayez Kamar

STUDENT NUMBER: 201870032
COURSE NAME: Thesis Proposal Dev. Seminar 1
DEPARTMENT: Department of Curriculum and Instruction
COURSE CODE: CURR6401

SUPERVISOR: Dr. Adeeb Jarrah

 CHAPTER ONE
Introduction

It is well known nowadays how people are being affected by many factors around them and how

their lives are changing every minute and even every second. The most unique effect occurred on

the human beings is technology. Today’s world can be recognized as the cyber and computerized

world that found with information and network societies. As was mentioned by some authors that

said the world today as exiting in an information age and an era of network societies (Bann and

Rowley 2008: Castells 2004: Chen and Wellman 2004: Hite et al. 2010).

The continuing growth of technology around the world is considered to be one of the strongest and

powerful growth happing in the world in the forty years. Technology is an education that has been

rising rapidly over the last years.

Technology develops yearly, each year there is a new method and new information to be learned. It

is offering a strong way of connecting and communicating people with each other all over the

world. Every company and institute depending on technology and the cyber world and most of

those companies spends a huge amount of investments in the digital and cyber information to be

raised and developed and in addition enhancing technology is happening on weekly basis.

The important progress of technology is deeply surrounded and part of other social developments.

Therefore, the relationship between technological and economic development is worth taking note

of.

In the words of Allenby and Sarewitz (2011):

“technology is not just a matter of innovation; it is also a matter of adoption by a critical mass of

users, and it co-evolves with cultural, economic, political and other domains, each of which

continually affects, and is in turn affected by the other. (p. 35)”

Technology is not only a tool that can be go by itself, it needs moral vision and commitment to the

whole world and society and to place what is important and valuable. Moreover, technology is a

wanted way of communication.

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Postman (1992) described the utopian view of technology with the term Technopoly:

“Those who feel most comfortable in Technooly are those convinced that technical progress is

humanity’s supreme achievement and the instrument by which our most profound dilemmas may be

solved. They also believe that information is an unmixed blessing, which through its continued and

uncontrolled production and dissemination offers increased freedom, creativity, and peace of mind.

(p. 71).”

Technology has transformed many sectors around the world and one of the most important sectors

is the education filed. It has a huge effect over education, and it was remarkable the change that

occurred on education when technology was used and how it is improving the methods and the

levels of learning.

Modern technology provides an opportunity of change towards schools, educators, and even more

on subjects. It has great effect on teaching and learning. Implementing technology on education

raise the need to study and learn more.

There is a remarkable outburst in schools around the world in the usage of technology with all

levels of students. Technology is increasingly growing as applications, programs, and online

learning has been developed more and more throughout years to enhance teaching and learning

abilities.

These days learning has been known as cooperative and hands on activities, it evolves using a lot of

methods to be able to send the required skills to students. Playing while learning has been known to

be on the most effective ways to teach especially early students, it means learning, communication

with them. The school is a place of learning and education and modern schools are evolving and

developing with their methods of teaching and here the technology comes to support teaching and

students to make them able to understand in an easier and more encouraging way. The new

generation is developing and by that methods needs to be developed in a way to accommodate

learners and educators, and here when schools put into practice the teaching process by using the

computerized world.

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Technology has been a major aspect in developing and teaching many areas specially Mathematics

around schools and more specifically among the primary cycle. Many applications have been used

to support and enhance teaching methods of Mathematics among students. Moreover, using

educational online games has been known to be a major and significant method to improve learning

understanding towards many topics in Mathematics.

Statement of the Problem

This problem of this study is to determine is there a relationship between using technology and

teaching mathematics using abcya.com educational website.

The topic was selected to research about implications of educational applications and web-based

games to examine the effects on the student’s level of learning and the academic achievements on

studying math areas as numbers and operations using abcya.com. The study emphasises the uses of

applications and web-based games for primary students in Al Ain schools.

Purpose of the Study

The idea of this research from the authors point of view is to examine the effects of educational

applications and web-based games on teaching primary students specially grade four while learning

mathematics in a specific area that is numbers and operations.

The main purpose of this study is to obtain an insight into the current development of student’s

level of learning towards mathematics by using abcya.com educational website. Moreover, this

study is about examining the effects of educational application and web-based games instead of

using the traditional paper worksheets on primary students in one content area that is numbers and

operations. Stating if the educational applications and web-based games enhance learning towards

primary students will provide a significant evidence in this study.

For the above-mentioned purpose, this research will take a huge opportunity to declare and state if

technology can be a valuable and enhance teaching.

4
Research Questions

Because of the purpose of the study to examine effects of technology on students and the main aim

is to use modern technologies such as an education website “abcya.com” in order to develop and

engage students more into the learning process. The researcher observes that primary students are

motivated by using educational applications and web-based games.

The main questions of the study are to:

1. what is the influence of the use of technology on schools’ students?

2. How does the use of educational applications for teaching numbers and operations for

primary students enhances learning abilities and levels?

3. What are the effects of educational applications on student’s learning levels?

Significance of the Study

Understanding educational applications is a way of helping and developing student’s level of

learning that can be used and applied in the classrooms of any school sector. As such, understanding

the implications of educational applications and web-based games in improving student’s learning

at numbers and operations can help schools and educators develop and create a better way of

teaching and a better curriculum to adopt for primary students.

In addition, the findings of the study could be generalized to be applied to a wider population, but if

the findings were questionable, then the researcher will propose future study areas for more testing.

Definitions of Terms

Educational applications (E-app): they are educational software or computer applications that are

created to serve and assist educators and students in improving learning levels.

Web-based games (WBG): it’s an online game that is played via tablets, iPad or a computer using a

web browser over the internet. Its written in web browser language as HTML or PHP. These games

have educational purposes to help students engage more in learning and studying.

5
Limitations and Assumptions

Many limitations to the study are observed from the researcher’s analysis, a very large number of

populations included, due to that only specific classrooms will be tested to the case study and

results can’t be generalized to all schools in Al Ain schools. In addition, teachers may not be well

trained on how to use educational applications and web-based games to assist students with

technical difficulties.

At this research there is many statements to point out as the technology is used in most of the

classrooms nowadays, student’s mathematics background and knowledge is high at the primary

levels. Moreover, the E-app and WBG are available in most areas and used in the primary graders.

6
References:

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Allenby, B. R. & Sarew, D. , 2011, The techno-human condition, The MIT Press, Cambridge.

Postman, N. , 1992, ‘The broken defenses’, inN. Postman(ed. ), Technopoly: The surrender of the
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