My experience in regards to barriers to technology in the classroom is very limited. I have worked with teachers in the past as a technology mentor and as an assistant to a technology grant at Cal State and during that time I heard some of the barriers to technology use in classrooms from many teachers who have share their experiences. From what I have heard I think that they are still the same as the ones mentioned in the podcast. Lack of computers, lack of time, and not enough training seem to be the most common.
After hearing some cases I think that an actual barrier to technology is still the shortage of hardware. Some of the teachers comments included that there are not enough computers in the classroom, and that scheduling the use of computer labs and LCD projector setups is difficult because it needs to be done with great anticipation.
Barriers such as lack of time and not enough training can be proxys, as they can be solved by improving the communication between administrators and teachers. I have heard comments from teachers who think that technology can assist them in the classroom and help maintain student attention, but they feel they do not have have enough time during the day to complete their assigned duties and still take time to go through the implementation process. District administration leadership can help solve this problem, but their focus, specially in California, is to meet the required standards and try to raise school scores. Therefore preparation days during the year are focused on that main purpose. I think this would be different if learning with technology was more effective than the traditional way, but unfortunately this is not the case, at least what research has shown.
I think that not enough training can be similar to the explanation above, but district technolgy personnel from the districts that I have worked with are very enthusiastic and have many different technology workshops available afterschool. Unfortunately, many teachers do not attend. Some of the examples of technology that I have seen in this workshops provide great tips that can actually be implemented and save you time, for example the use of the site www.4teachers.org. I think that this problem can also be solved with better leadership skills from the district administration. Teachers attending this workshops have to do it at their own time, and most administrators do not provide insentives for teachers to attend. In one case that I heard, administrators did not feel the technology integration program provided by the tech. personnel office was of very much importance and preferred not to participate or encourage their teacher to participate.
I think that district technology personne and teachers have the will and the necessary tools to solve many of the problems barriers to technology bring, but administrators need to realize that they play a big role in this too and that their support and leadership is important in order to institute better communication.
7 comments:
A major barrier for most shcools is a shortage in hardware. If the schools do not have the funding they run into a problem with being able to supply the classrooms with a proper number of computers.
Good morning Edgar,
I agree with you that deadline and budget are the main barriers to technology. In classroom, teacher has too many duties and deadline to fulfill. I think that the budget barrier is not as serious as the time. Because all I hear is “The teacher does not have time or does not want to use or learn the new technologies.” Obviously, the technologies and trainings are there. The budget and supports are there. I look at these two factors, and my conclusion is the time barrier.
May be the teachers have too much responsibilities to fulfill. May be the teachers are over work. I would say that the administration should look into the teachers’ schedule to see their workload is consuming most of the time.
De Nguyen
Edgar,
I’m kind of playing devil’s advocate this week so even though you make a good case that hardware shortages are true barrier to technology use I’ll offer the counter-point that hardware shortages are also a barrier to technology misuse. As a barrier to technology misuse a so-called shortage of computers can actually be a good thing. In 2002 Brenda Dyck had an interesting article printed in the NEA Today magazine that I think illustrates my point.
href="http://www.nea.org/classmanagement/ifc020912.html">http://www.nea.org/classmanagement/ifc020912.html There is no point in having classroom computers unless you make the requisite investment in teacher development.
Brian,
I agree with your statement that it does nothing to advance the use of technology by having 4 dusty compuetrs in the back of the room. After discussing this with my staff at my site, the consensus is that there seems to be very little training and practical use of technology such as demonstrations of its use in the classroom.
Hi Edgar,
I enjoyed reading your blog posting. It is very hard to have great success with computers, when the school has a lack of the hardware and that there are computers that the teachers are not using. Sometimes, they are not being used because teachers don't want to learn to use them and then there are times when the computers are not being used because they lack the performance ablitiy. Great post.
It is interesting that you showed the 4teachers.org site. I worked with the people who do that at KU while I was there. Clearly there is enough information out there. How do we get teachers to use it?
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