Obstacles to CHANGE / Survey Says!

Question of the Week Archive

November 27, 2006 - December 4, 2006

Technology Challenges

Attendees surveyed at the recent T&L Conference identified funding as the biggest challenge facing their school districts in the area of technology. It's likely many educators would agree. Putting funding aside, what would you identify as your district's biggest technology challenge?
a) Integrating technology into the classroom
22%
b) Proving technology's benefits for student learning success
5%
c) Ensuring student safety online
0%
d) Providing professional development that helps teachers use technology to the best effect
51%
e) Supporting and maintaining the existing technology infrastructure
16%
f) Closing the digital divide
5%
Comments
Comment: The key is bridging the integration divide. Using technology to support learning where and when needed - not just for those lucky enough to be enrolled in a particular course. Comment: Currently, at my site the technology lab and integration of curriculum is the only way some students have the opportunity to use technology as a tool. a few classroom teachers still have no use for technology interrupting their current style of teaching. The media lab and the facilitator is the individual exposing students and technology as an asset to learning and curriculum. Professional development at the district level involves admin buy in and will directly affect technology use for those technophobes. Comment: I'd add that convincing staff and administrators that technology is just not a "fun add-on", but an essential part of our students' education. Comment: If the servers keep crashing and it takes 15 minutes for some students to log in, or they can't log in at all, we may as well forget about asking teachers to integrate technology when it isn't working in the first place. Comment: I feel that students are to a great extent more literate with technology than their teachers. Many teachers are still using overhead projectors and a photocopy machine, instead of a SmartBoard and a digital video projector. Some of this is funding, but to a great extent is is fear or refusal to change. The learning curve for new technology is very steep. Once you start you have no problem learning how to use the next bit of technology; however, the problem as I see it is getting old dogs to learn new tricks. It can be done, but mostly the people who refuse to use the new technology are just plain scared of it. Thanks Comment: There isn't a choice that applies to our faculty. We have plenty of quality PD and hardware and software to implement what we learn. However, THE most challenging thing is getting the teachers to USE what we have! They take the PD because they have to, but rarely use any of what they learn because it is too much trouble or they just don't want to use it! This causes students to complain about boring lessons and teachers to complain about students that don't want to learn! It is a classic case of not wanting to change to new and better ways of doing things. Comment: Providing the TIME for practice, staff development,collaboration and support. None of these can be done without time. Comment: In a distric with a 1:1 laptop initiative, supporting and maintaining it can be a legistical nightmare. In a corporate setting there is typically 1 support person per 85-150 computer users. At my high school we have 1 to over 1000 users. Comment: Teachers over 40 provide the biggest challenge to integration Comment: I would agree that funding is the biggest issue, both to purchase items and to maintain the existing technology. However, getting teachers to use the technology that already exists and providing development to encourage this use is a problem at my school. As the technology coordinator AND a regular classroom teacher my time to lead PD classes is limited. A full time educational technologist to write grants, find funding, and teach development classes would be great!!! Comment: helping older teachers or less savvy teachers look at technology as a tool for teaching not an add on or in addition to. Comment: Teachers are so overwhelmed with what they need to accomplish in their classrooms. They need TIME to be able to keep up with new technologies so they are comfortable using it themselves and teaching new skills to students Comment: As a Tech Coordinator at a high school in Chicago, my biggest challenge is working with a technology challenged "old school" administration that is not really interested in integrating technology in the classroom. Comment: Most of our teachers are long time instructors who were trained before computers or in the early days when one computer in a classroom was the height of "integrating technology into the classroom." Many, if not most, of these teachers need a lot of help to become not just skilled in using computers, but in understanding that technology offers brand new ways to impart knowledge that have nothing to do with reading the next chapter of a text and answering the questions at the end.