Barriers to the effective use of technology in education

Technology plays a big role in changing the education environment in many school and colleges. However, not every school or classroom has had the opportunity of using technology in their classrooms or education system. Some of the benefits of using technology in education can include ; easy access to academic information , ability to learn easily which results from the use visual learning in classrooms which is helped by technological tools like smart white boards ( Lambert and Kidd 2008)

Technology is complex so some schools and teachers find it difficult to integrate technology in their existing curricula. For schools and colleges to benefit from the use of technology May (2000) states they have to agree and change their curricula, they need to find ways to integrate it with technology, so that in every subject taught, students and teachers find great use of technology. Furthermore Hartshorne and Aijan (2009) believes refusing to learn technological tools and how to use them in the classroom, will leave many schools backward and this can also effect on the grades of students in those schools.

A number researchers have identified a number of barriers that effect the use of technology in the classroom. The researchers claim that the barriers are the lack of professional development, resistance to change and access (Brown 2008; Hulbert 2008; Oblinger and Oblinger 2005; Richardson 2009).

Lack of professional development

The lack of professional development and support can act as a barrier to the effective use of technology in education. Alexander (2006) states in many schools, teachers feel unprepared to learn and integrate technology in their classrooms, yet for students, they have the knowledge of using this technology for educational purposes. In addition Lamb (2004) states there is a lack of training programs to teach teachers on ways they can use technology to simplify their job and also make it easier for their students to learn better. Analysing these statement it suggests to me that if teachers have no training skills on using technology for educational purpose, then students will miss out in their development in education.

Resistance to change

Another barrier of using technology is the resistance of change. Bullock (2004) believes some teachers have refused to change from the old way of doing things and have refused to change their strategies and tactics. Also Bromme et al., (2005) suggests using technology in the classroom can be so demanding because students always need help and this scares teachers.

Access

The lack of effective access to technological tools has also acted as a great barrier towards the effective use of technology in education. Many schools and teachers have no accesses to technological tools like smart whiteboards and projectors which can be used in visual illustrations in the classroom (Beggs 2000). Similarly Collis and Jung (2003) states some schools do not have enough computers and they even lack access to internet which can be of a great use in academic research and remote learning.

Reference List

Alexander, B. (2006). Web 2.0: A new wave of innovation for teaching and learning?   EDUCAUSE Review, 41(2), 32-44.

Beggs, T. A. (2000). Influences and barriers to the adoption of instructional technology. Proceedings of Fifth Annual Mid-South Instructional Technology, Middle Tennessee State University, USA. Retrieved January 17, 2007, from http://www.mtsu.edu/~itconf/proceed00/beggs/beggs.htm

Bromme, R., Hesse, F. W., & Spada, H. (Eds.). (2005). Barriers and biases in computer-mediated knowledge communication-and how they may be overcome. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer. Brush

Brown, J. S. (2008). How to connect technology and passion in the service of learning.  The Chronicle of Higher Education, 55(8), Retrieved October 2, 2008

Bullock, D. (2004). Moving from theory to practice: An examination of the factors that preservice teachers encounter as they attempt to gain experience teaching with technology during field placement experiences. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 12(2), 211–237.

Collis, B., & Jung, I. S. (2003). Uses of information and communication technologies in teacher education. In B. Robinson & C. Latchem (Eds.), Teacher education through open and distance learning, London: RoutledgeFalmer, 171–192

Hartshorne, R., & Ajjan, H. (2009). Examining student decisions to adopt Web 2.0   technologies: theory and empirical tests. Journal of Computing in Higher   Education, 21(2). 

Hurlburt, S. (2008). Defining tools for a new learning space: Writing and reading class blogs. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 4 (2),182-189

Lamb, B. (2004). Wide open spaces: Wikis, ready or not. EDUCAUSE Review, 39(5),   36 -48. 

Lambert, J. & Kidd, L. (2008). The potential and limitations of teaching and learning in an e-Learning 2.0 environment from a cognitive load perspective. In Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2008 (pp. 6003-6008).

May, M. K. (2000). Technology success: Mentoring makes a difference. Communicator [Online serial], 17(3). Available: http:// skyways.lib.ks.us/KAECT/mentoring.html.

Oblinger, D., & Oblinger, J. (2005). Is it age or IT: First steps toward understanding the   Net Generation. In D. G. Oblinger & J. L. Oblinger (eds.), Educating the net   generation. Retrieved August 7, 2008

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for   classrooms (2nd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.