Technology integration is without a doubt one of the key aspects of preparing for the future of the classroom. In today’s world of business, all professional fields have integrated technology into their work, and if schools do not prepare students with this same technology integration, the results could lead to schools not supplying the job market with qualified workers. It is on this note that most schools have committed to integrating technology, at least to some extent, in their schools. The goal is to use technology to help students learn better, as well as to teach students what they need to know about technology, so they can be prepared to better serve the changing job market.
While there are many issues plaguing the integration of technology in school, the one that I find to be most damaging to its success is the lack of effective professional development for teachers on the topic. In almost all situations in which technology is purchased through school budgets, teachers are immediately given the authorization to use it, usually barring a quick online training. The difficulty with this system is that teachers are already intimidated by this technology, to begin with, and are now expected to independently learn what is necessary to use the technology and left on their own to figure out how to integrate it successfully into their classroom. Given these conditions for integrating technology in the classroom, many teachers decide that it would be better to not use the technology altogether, and the efforts of school districts to invest in technology for the classrooms goes wasted.
In an article written in 2015 for the American Educational Research Association, they researched the effects of “independent professional development” in the field of technology for teachers and found that the actual integration of technology in classrooms never exceeded a 20% increase, while the investment spent on technology was “drastic and excessive” (Desimone, Porter, Garet, Suk Yoon, Birman 2015). This research shows that technology integration will be drastically ineffective if professional development is not done in a group format. The intimidating factors associated with technology cannot be overstated, especially for teachers that have been in the field for many years and have become complacent in their own ways. The best way to address this issue is through the use of more interactive professional development, as teachers are far more likely to be approving of the use of technology if they are given the opportunity to discuss it with their peers. Further, this will allow teachers to the opportunity to discuss with each other not just how new technology works, but further how they can best implement it into the classroom, through the use of strategies and ideas. Another way to ensure that professional development is effective and that teachers are willing to implement technology in classrooms is through administrative support. Administration should be modeling the use of this technology and offering support and encouragement for the implementation of technology in the classroom. Strategies that could best serve this would be offering additional points in observations to those that use technology in their lessons. In a study for Computers and Education Inc., Frank Inan and Donovan Lowther (2010) found that “professional development, technical and administrative support, and teacher beliefs played an influential role in whether teachers felt ready to use laptops in the classroom and, in turn, whether they actually did” (Inan and Lowther 2010). This quote reinforces the above notion that technology investments in schools will be wasted if professional development does not effectively give them the ideas and confidence to implement the technology into their lesson plans.
One effective way to change the professional development used for technology integration is through the use of mentoring programs. One of the biggest issues with changing the way in which technology professional development is done is the costs associated with more intricate professional development. A way to alleviate these costs would be to send only those volunteering to learn more to intensive professional developments on the use of specific technologies in the classroom. Allow these experts to return to their home schools and “mentor” other teachers on the use of technologies in the classroom. Research done by the Journal of Educational Change show that teachers that have been assigned a mentor for the use of technology “have a more clear vision for using technology in their teaching” (Owston 2006). Mentoring programs are already commonly used in new teacher programs, administrator programs, and many of the other introductory programs in the education field. If professional development for technology could adopt a similar model, the benefits to technology integration in the classroom, and the return on investments in technology that schools commit to could be monumental.
References
Desimone, L. M., Porter, A. C., Garet, M. S., Yoon, K. S., & Birman, B. F. (2015). Effects of Professional Development on Teachers’ Instruction: Technology Implementation. American Educational Research Association, 24(2), 81-112. Retrieved July 12, 2018.
Inan, F. A., & Lowther, D. L. (2010). Laptops in the K-12 classrooms: exploring factors impacting instructional use. Computers & Education, 55(3), 937–944
Owston, R. (2006). Contextual factors that sustain innovative pedagogical practice using technology: an international study. Journal of Educational Change, 8, 61–77