The Usage of Video Blog (vlog) in the "School Experience" Course: The Opinions of the Pre-service Teachers

The aim of this study is to provide that the pre-service teachers make their individual video blogs and they reveal their opinions about the process in the "school experience" course that is among the teacher education programs and has been chosen in accordance with the principles of forming vlog. Case study, one of the qualitative research patterns, was used in this study. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Criterion sampling which is one of the purposeful sampling methods was used in determining the study group. The obtained data was analyzed by content analysis. At the end of the research, the pre-service teachers expressed opinions regarding that vlogs are useful mostly in professional and technical terms. Accordingly, it was observed that vlog contributes to recognizing the shortcomings, reviewing and correcting them (reflective learning, self-regulation skill) and to the development of self-expression, communication, information sharing, critical thinking in terms of individual and social development. In addition, pre-service teachers attracted attention to technical aspects such as easy accessibility, common use and easy uploading-watching. On the other hand, relating to the limitations of vlog, it was observed that the pre-service teachers were tense, excited and shy in the video shoots and that they had correction problems related to the wrong shootings and they had concerns about confidentiality related to the videos. Educational inferences and recommendations are also included in the results.