AWARENESS LEVELS OF SOCIAL STUDIES PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS REGARDING METAVERSE USE

In today's Technology Age, where communication technologies are gaining momentum, social, cultural, and technological competencies draw attention from individual and societal perspectives. Along with technological innovations, transformations are experienced in the societal development process in many areas, including education, communication, language, culture, economy, etc. In this context, innovative technologies in today's science and technology-oriented society bring applications of artificial intelligence and the virtual universe, exploring the interaction between humans and space and beyond. Metaverse stands out as a structure among these virtual universe applications. Metaverse, one of the popular artificial intelligence applications of recent times, emphasizes creating a virtual social environment beyond time with the understanding of space and beyond. Metaverse is a permanent three-dimensional world where many situations that we cannot experience in the real world can be experienced and where communication can be established with other people or virtual people. It is thought that it may be beneficial to support a course such as social studies, which includes many disciplines and aims to raise well-equipped citizens with technology. The social studies course is also noteworthy as an area focusing on developing digital competence and skills. In this direction, this research aims to reveal the awareness levels of pre-service social studies teachers about metaverse usage from various variables. The experimental scanning method from quantitative research methods was utilized during the research process. According to the results of the study, while the awareness of the pre-service teachers about the application of metaverse as a current, popular technology and communication source is not found to be significant in terms of variables such as gender, age, and class level, it is significant regarding the university they attend, frequency of internet use, thoughts about using the internet/technology in education, digital environment and metaverse themed education, certificate program, and participation in courses.