Session 6 Barriers to Technology Use

Response Questions: What common barriers to technology integration do you hear about or perceive at your school? Which are actual barriers that exist and which are "proxies" or stand ins for something else? For issues that are actual barriers what would you do to try to solve the barrier so that technology can be used more effectively at your site?

The three barriers that Dr Newberry listed in his podcast are the following:
1. Lack of computers and other technology
2. Not enough release time to learn software and develop lesson plans
3. Not enough time in the day to allow students to use computers effectively

I find these are fairly common barriers and feel that for the most part, they are actual barriers as opposed to "stand ins" for other issues for those who truly express a desire to integrate more technology into their daily lessons.

The one issue I hear most frequently at my site as part of my project 3 (and I am paraphrasing here...) is that some teachers just don't want to learn new technology. Time is not the issue, nor is it a lack of appropriate and working computers, or even an issue of not having time to allow students to use them..it is simply their strong desire not to take the time to learn how to use it. For many of the teachers I am referring to it appears to me that they feel there is nothing wrong with how they instruct their students (and there probably isn't..), for them this is how they have always done it, it works (because that is how they were taught ..) and "there is no need to change it if it is not broken". This frustrates me- however, like the saying you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make them drink. If a teacher is truly as resistant to learning new technology as some of the teachers I am referring to are- there really is nothing that can be done. For many of them it is an issue of "well, I am done at the end of the year anyway...so they cant make me...and I am not going to get fired because I am retiring.."etc etc If it were up to me I would like to see these teachers be given specific training (that is continuous - not just a one time thing) on how certain technology can be easily integrated into their day. Even if it is just teaching them how to take attendance online or helping them learn how start an online grading program..I would like to think if they saw the value and how much easier it would make their days they might just be willing to move from the adjunct/peripheral use stage of the hierarchy to using it as a teacher tool. In my understanding, even moving from level 1 to level 2 is a start. Of course rewarding them for using it would be ideal; even if it is just a "hey I see that you are keeping up with your online grading system - good work" from an administrator or an email saying something similar. Perhaps if they see the "reward" as positive, they may be more likely to continue using it.

In terms of other barriers to technology, I would have to say that having access to appropriate and "usable" software for the computers that we do have is fairly high up on the list. As another student posted, simply having computers in the room does not mean anything if they are not capable of handling the software a teacher wishes to use. An example of this is something that our site went through this year. After 14 years, our site actually got "new computers". Teachers were all excited and anxious to use them, however once we got them, we realized they were not in fact "new" they were "hand me downs" from the D.O who were getting full upgrades. These "new computers" had Windows 2003 and the Microsoft programs that go with it - They were not capable of handling newer versions of software and unable to keep up with the demands that many teachers had in terms of adding programs, running various programs, doing anything that required sound (they have no speakers...). The new math textbooks that came with a software program were not even able to be placed on these computers because they did not have enough memory... etc. While these are certainly an upgrade from the Gateway computers that had Windows 97, they are not what teachers expected and this in turn made teachers resentful of the attempt to integrate more technology into their classrooms. While this scenario represents a barrier to technology integration, I can see how it can also be seen as proxy for teachers who simply are not willing to learn new technology.

For the last question, I would like to see teachers have some input on how money for technology is going to be spent. If the school has a certain budget, why not go to the individual departments and see what types of technology they would benefit from most. Technology for the Science department is certainly not going to be what the ELD department would like to see. Creating a blanket approach to spending this money is counterproductive and appears to create more problems than it attempts to solve. What is the harm in asking for teacher input? After all, they are the ones who will be using the technology not the administrators who purchase it...