Amy Ballard, Ph.D., a mathematics teacher and instructional coach at Brashier Middle College Charter High School in Simpsonville, South Carolina, has more than two decades of experience and spends a lot of time thinking about educational technology. However, Ballard’s main focus is not on the tools themselves, but rather on how to support teachers in leveraging educational technology to help improve student learning.
“I worked as an administrator for 10 years, so I think about educational technology from both sides: how an administrator makes decisions about educational technology tools, but also how we can support our teachers,” Ballard shared in a focus group that was part of a biggest project designed to better understand the gap between teaching practices and technology use. This project was supported by Google for Education and involved several partners, including our organization, WestEd.
As research progresses on the project, we draw on literature and focus groups of educators to investigate how technology could be leveraged more effectively in instruction, barriers to adoption, and technology-enabled-instructional-practices-in-k-12-education-a-thought-piece-drawing-on-research-and-practice/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener nofollow”>Strategies that could best help teachers adopt effective instructional practices..
We selected Ballard and her colleagues for our focus group series because of their leadership in supporting the effective use of technology in their schools. Although Ballard describes herself as an “early adopter,” she is careful not to directly recommend the latest and greatest tools to her teachers. She recognizes that tools must be aligned with teachers’ instructional goals and must be accompanied by professional development that encompasses not only how individual tools work, but also how they fit into effective teaching practice.
“I need to reiterate to my teachers that the technology tool itself is not the end all be all,” Ballard said. Instead, she added that it is important to center educational technology around the educator; Ultimately, what matters is how teachers use that technology to advance their instructional goals.
A shift toward technology-based instruction
Ballard, along with other teachers who participated in our focus groups, is helping to cultivate “technology-based instruction,” a concept coined by Education researchers Peggy A. Ertmer and Anne Ottenbreit-Leftwich that addresses not only whether technology is used in the classroom but also when and how teachers use technology to improve learning outcomes.
For a school to move from simply adding technology tools to encouraging teachers to use them effectively, a few elements must be in place, including informed decision-making by leaders, ongoing training and support for teachers, and buy-in. of the staff. After all, there are many reasons why a teacher may be reluctant to adopt educational technology, and not all of these obstacles depend on whether a teacher knows how to integrate technology into the classroom.
Ballard understands this better than most. For example, in one of our focus groups, we asked teachers to examine the prototype of a tool they could use to evaluate whether and how to use educational technology. Ballard believed that the tool required too much time for teachers to analyze and leverage effectively in their teaching. She said: “When I think about my teachers, I think they would just shut down if they saw this.” Ballard illustrated that sometimes it’s not about knowing how to use a tool, but about not having the time.
There are good reasons for this, Ballard said. The teachers are already stressed, overwhelmed by technology and reluctant to invest their limited time in a potentially untested tool or approach. Many have seen this show before: technology/tech-fatigue-is-real-for-teachers-and-students-heres-how-to-ease-the-burden/2022/03″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener nofollow”>a trendy flavor of the month that was quickly replaced by the next big thing or proved to be ineffective in the long term.
Barriers to adopting technology in the classroom
Teachers in our focus groups explained that beyond cynicism supported by time and experience, there are a number of other reasons why teachers might not want to adopt technology-based instructional practices.
Some participants reflected that they have colleagues who express a lack of confidence in their technological capabilities or who say they have adopted non-technological approaches that they consider more effective. Others shared that they or their colleagues fear being reprimanded by school leaders for trying something new, do not feel adequately trained, or lack access to the tools they need to implement educational technology effectively.
These explanations for educators’ reluctance to adopt educational technology are supported by a quarter-century of research, dating back to before the term “technology-based instruction” was first introduced. Ertmer first distinguished between “first- and second-order barriers” to effective use of technology in the classroom in 1999, referring to categories of challenges sometimes called “external and internal barriers.”
External barriers are factors beyond a teacher’s control: access to technology, leadership support, and opportunities to participate in high-quality professional development, among others. Internal barriers are intrinsic to the teacher; for example, his beliefs and attitudes about the usefulness of technology and his real and perceived knowledge.
| Examples of external barriers | Examples of internal barriers |
|---|---|
| Lack of access to technology. | Real and perceived knowledge and skills. |
| Lack of professional development. | Beliefs about technology-based teaching and learning |
| Lack of a school or district vision for technology integration | Pedagogical values and beliefs. |
| Poor or unsupportive leadership |
This distinction between external and internal barriers was intuitive to the teachers in our focus groups. If a classroom has spotty Wi-Fi or a teacher has inadequate access to student devices, it is tremendously difficult to get the most out of educational technology. If a teacher has had previous negative experiences with educational technology tools or considers themselves a technophobe, it is difficult to convince them that learning to use technological tools is a good use of their time.
Understand the relationship between barriers
The importance of these barriers has changed over time. Over the past two decades, there has been significant progress in removing external barriers such as Wi-Fi and device access, even as the challenges are far from resolved. According to a 2019-20 Survey Administered by the National Center for Education Statistics, nine in 10 schools reported that their computers met the school’s teaching and learning needs to a moderate or great degree. Internet access has also improved substantially. technology/most-students-now-have-home-internet-access-but-what-about-the-ones-who-dont/2021/04″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener nofollow”>A 2021 survey EdWeek Research Center found that more than 75 percent of teachers said at least three-quarters of their students have adequate Internet access at home to support learning. Digital divides persist, but schools have made some progress in addressing these barriers.
When looking at how teachers use technology, the context of their school and district is also very important. A teacher in a school could work with administrators who have clearly articulated a plan for how teachers can use educational technology and who have provided the necessary support for teachers to implement that vision. That support could include teacher peer models, relevant professional development opportunities, and professional learning communities that elevate teachers’ voices. A teacher at another school with less support might be less effective in using educational technology.
When considering how to address these context-specific barriers, it is important to understand how internal and external barriers are related. In a landmark study on barriers to effective use of educational technology Published in 2007, researchers Khe Foon Hew and Thomas Brush argued that internal and external barriers must be addressed together. As Hew and Brush put it, these barriers “are so inextricably linked that it is very difficult to address them separately.”
Several participants in our focus groups told us they were excited to adopt new edtech tools, but encountered resistance from leaders who claimed the work didn’t fit the school’s vision or that they didn’t support additional teacher training. . In these cases, teachers did not face internal barriers in terms of beliefs and attitudes, but were still hindered from effectively using educational technology in teaching.
Other teachers told us that they had colleagues who had access to a variety of tools but who viewed the technology negatively and chose not to use it in ways that could have benefited student learning.
Those internal barriers are especially difficult to address. The good news is that investigation shows that teachers’ beliefs, values, and attitudes are not static, and that school and district leaders can play an important role in changing their perceptions, paving the way for literacy-based instruction to take place. technology.
How School and District Leaders Can Address Barriers Comprehensively
Several researchers, including Ertmer, Windschitl, Hew, and Brush, have shown that teachers’ beliefs (the underlying ideas and assumptions they hold about technology and pedagogy) influence whether and how they use technology.
However, these researchers have also shown that these beliefs are malleable. Ertmer and others have shown that teachers’ beliefs about educational technology can change when presented with evidence that a practice improves student learning. When school and district leaders help teachers see how technology can help with a particular instructional goal, such as scaffolding or adapting to individual student needs, teachers are more likely to be open to using technology in The instruction.
Studies also reveal that teachers’ beliefs and practices can also change in response to direct and positive experiences using educational technology. Opportunities to experiment with technology in small, incremental ways can help teachers improve their self-confidence, self-efficacy, and perceived technical knowledge, resulting in teachers’ willingness to use technology where it can benefit the instruction and learning. There is also evidence that teachers can experience a similar attitudinal change when schools support them with ongoing and relevant professional learning opportunities, professional learning communities, and opportunities to contribute to decision-making.
Of course, it is not easy to institute these approaches to change teachers’ beliefs and attitudes and encourage technology-based practices. It requires a lot of time, effort, respect for educators, and a clear understanding of how internal and external barriers relate. But, as we heard from teachers in our focus groups, it’s a process that will ultimately benefit everyone, especially students.
