The opinions of school counselors on the use of information and communication technologies in school counseling practices: North Cyprus schools

Abstract

The goal of this study was to determine school counselors' opinions concerning the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in school counseling practices. The participants were 61 school counselors (54 female, 7 male) who worked in middle (17), high (23), middle/high (19), and primary (2) schools. The mean age was 33.4 years. The Internet Usage Questionnaire was used to collect participants' opinions. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Mann Whitney U test and the Kruskal Wallis test. The results of this study revealed that the school counselors had overall positive opinions about the use of ICT in school counseling. No significant differences were found according to gender, age, degree, work setting, seniority, or student/school counselor ratio. The results also revealed that school counselors had positive opinions about using web pages and computer-based programs, somewhat positive opinions about using Internet-based interventions, and negative opinions about using online counseling. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.