Barriers to Integrating Technology

After reading Chapter 4 in Michael Fullan’s (2013) book Stratosphere: Integrating Technology, Pedagogy, and Change Knowledge and the article by Drake & Reid (2010) Integrated Curriculum I can without a doubt say I am a firm believer in the power of technology in education. However, what I still need convincing on is how do we go about integrating technology in Ontario schools.

            In his chapter titled Digital Disappointments and Dreams, Fullan (2013, p. 52) included an accelerated learning framework detailing how one particular school within Ontario, Park Manor Public School, is incorporating the use of technology and 21^st century learning in their classrooms. There is no doubt that this school places pedagogy and student-centered-learning at the forefront of education. (But isn’t that what most schools strive to do? Is the purpose of schooling not to cater to the needs of its consumers, the students?) As I read about this particular school and examined the accelerated learning framework, I couldn’t help but ask myself what does this school have that others do not? How has this one school surpassed so many others on the front lines of student engagement and use of new technologies? According to Fullan (2013) this school was no exception, just one with ordinary teachers, students, and resources. Thus, what is the key to its success? In my opinion it is overcoming the three biggest barriers affecting the integration of technology in today’s schools. These include: current assessment models, teacher training, and fear of change.     

Assessment Models

In my last post, I touched upon the battle between conformity (standardization) versus innovation. In addition to that, there is the issue of collaboration versus individualization. Technology encourages the development of a participatory culture in which users collaborate and interact with others in real time. This can occur between students in the same classroom or between students in classrooms all over the world. Students use social networking sites to connect with peers and work collectively to solve problems. Consequently, this poses a challenge to teachers as it becomes difficult to determine and summatively assess individual student work from group collaboration. Ontario’s assessment model is designed to provide grades to students based on their individual knowledge of curricular material. However, technology breaks down the notion of isolated achievement and accomplishment and focuses on group collaboration. Therefore, how does a teacher involve students in collaborative practices (a 21^st century skill) while at the same time adequately assign students individual grades?

An interesting study performed by Moayeri (2010) demonstrated the problems two English teachers faced when it came time for marking individual students summatively. As a result, Moayeri (2010) warns teachers that it becomes problematic and time consuming to segregate each student’s individual contribution to a class designed website or collaborative media project. Moayeri’s (2010) research findings suggest that assessment strategies teachers have been taught to use in the past no longer fit within technology’s collaborative model.

Teacher Training

The tools for a 21st century teacher

Another challenge with integrating new technologies in schools is the disconnect between teacher training and 21^st century tools (i.e. computers, ipads, iphones, SMART boards, document cameras). Technology by itself cannot improve instruction. Teachers must have the knowledge to effectively use technology for enhancing instructional practices. However, pre-service teacher education programs place little emphasis on training future teachers to use technology in meaningful ways to support curriculum instruction. From my personal experiences, pre-service education students are taught simply how to create power-point presentations, use Microsoft Publishing software and construct a classroom website. Pre-service teacher education fails to provide explicit instruction for new teachers on how to engage future students and incorporate technology within the school curriculum. Accordingly, many teachers feel uncomfortable using technology and avoid integrating it into their instructional practices. Technology represents an area of constant change and uncertainty for many teachers. Consequently, pre-service teacher education should focus on encouraging risk-taking behaviour among new teachers (as is a common theme in my M.Ed class).  

Fear of Change

For most of us, there is nothing worse than uncertainty and technology brings about an abundance of uncertainty. As a result, many school staff fear the inclusion of technology within the school curriculum will create a dynamic and negative shift in the traditional teacher-to-student relationship. Therefore, feelings of apprehension and fear represent a barrier for integrating technology within Ontario schools. Schools were initially designed around the notion that the teacher was the expert whose job was to pass on their knowledge to students. As technology continues to become a more prominent tool for gathering information, some teachers fear they will no longer be viewed as the expert. In addition, other teachers worry students will challenge their authority by asking questions outside their area of expertise that they cannot answer. There is a sense of panic over the loss of power that may occur in the classroom, as teachers fear what will happen when the power structure within the classroom transfers from teacher to student.

       Now let’s go back to the beginning of our conversation on the school Fullan (2013) describes as embracing a 21^st century education. I highly doubt this school did not struggle with the above challenges when it came to the decision of whether or not to embrace 21^st century learning. However, what this school did do was take action. Schools can talk all they want about the challenges and hardships facing the inclusion of technology, but discussion is useless without action. Personally I believe the key to success, was not only in Park Manor’s well-crafted accelerated learning framework, but the support teachers and students likely received from one another during the integration process . By jumping into the 21^st century pool as a team, both the staff and students gave this school the chance to be successful because they were able to rely on each other to work through mistakes in order to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

I believe the key to surpassing the barriers related to the integration of technology truly lie in the words of Ms. Frizzle: (The teacher on the popular 1990s television show The Magic School Bus) “Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!”

References

Fullan, M. (2013). Stratosphere: Integrating Technology, Pedagogy, and Change Knowledge. Toronto: Pearson Canada Inc.  

Drake, S. & Reid, J. (2010). Integrated Curriculum. The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, 28, 1-4. 

Moayeri, M. (2010). Classroom uses of social network sites: Traditional practices or new literacies? Digital Culture and Education, 2(1): 25-43.