Abstract

Monitoring Video and Audio recording classrooms by CCTV cameras: Iranian EFL students' perceptions

Author(s): Ali Shokri, Sakineh Jafari, Houman Bijani , Ohood Alshammary, Masoome Poormand

Nowadays our way of working and studying are becoming more and more cyber. So, we can’t turn a blind to the fact that technology is already affecting our educational system. Abundant gadgets and equipment are being applied to schools, universities, and institutes for many specific reasons. One of which is installing cameras in classrooms. In Iran, some of the English language teaching institutes have installed cameras in their classrooms to monitor (and evaluate) teachers’ and students’ actions and performances. Some issues such as: whether both teachers and students are informed about the presence of cameras, the purposes behind installing cameras in classes, recording and monitoring classroom activities, and other aspects of equipping a classroom with cameras are not known clearly. The present study aimed to explore the perceptions and feedbacks of Iranian EFL students on video-recording and monitoring English language classrooms via CCTV cameras. In this study an attempt was made to find more about EFL students’ beliefs and feedbacks on monitoring, video and audio recording classrooms by CCTV cameras in language institutes in Iran. The researcher himself designed a questionnaire having four different sections to gather students’ feedbacks. The student participants (N=57) were supposed to answer the questionnaire via online google forms. The findings of the study revealed that students believed and claimed that there exist differences between camera-equipped classrooms and those that are not camera-equipped.

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