ARTICLES
Ten Reasons why Teachers can Struggle to use Technology in the Classroom (continued)
classes, align with learning goals, or integrate technology into
curricular content.
2. Differing device capabilities and instructions.
When students are required to bring their own devices to school,
there can be major differences in device capability, for example,
between what a cheap android phone can do compared with an
iPad. Students may have difficulty writing on small devices over
long periods. Teachers may need to give multiple instructions for
numerous different devices.
9. Lack of adequate ICT support, infrastructure, or
time.
Appropriate access to technical support (classroom and
informally), the availability of infrastructure (computer labs,
software), policies (whether to administer digital homework) and
the time allocated to incorporate new technologies, are major
challenges for teachers.
3. It’s easy for students to be distracted.
Students regularly use devices for social media, playing games,
instant messaging, text messaging and emailing rather than for
class work. Students have been described as “digital rebels”
(accessing social media and texting), “cyber wanderers”
(succumbing to virtual games) and “eLearning pioneers”
(undertaking online studies during class time).
10. Tensions between students and teachers.
There have been tensions when teachers have confiscated
“personally owned” devices. Often there are difficulties accessing
power sockets, and challenges when students find information
online that conflicts with what the teacher is teaching.
4. Technology can affect lesson time and flow.
What can be done to overcome these
struggles?
Lessons are interrupted by regular negotiations that reduce
lesson time. This is related to students not putting screens
down (during instructions), concealing screens from teachers’
view, pretending that devices don’t work, and devices being
insufficiently charged.
Clearly there can be no single technological solution that applies
for every teacher, every course, or every view of teaching.
Integrating technology in the classroom is a complex and varied
process for many teachers.
Digital technology training, and preparing lessons to include new
technologies, can also be very time-consuming.
Meaningful technology integration depends on more than
device use. There are important steps to make sure integrating
technology aligns with the way you teach and what you are
teaching.
5. Teachers need more professional development.
There are nearly 300,000 teachers across Australia. They need
access to ICT improvements for classroom implementation, and
to keep up with continuous technological advances. This needs
to be regular, scaffolded and sustainable. However, allocation of
professional learning resources has been reported to be sporadic
in scope and quality.
Professional development has tried to address teachers’
technology struggles, but much of that has been limited to one-
shot or “one solution for all” strategies. What is needed is an
approach to ICT professional development with different layers to
handle the many and various situations teachers find themselves
in, and to handle the varied levels of teaching experience and
confidence.
6. Not everyone has technology at home.
Not all teachers or students use a computer at home, or are
frequent users, have sufficient data or internet access. There is
a digital divide of reduced computer literacy in students from
Indigenous, lower socioeconomic or regional/rural backgrounds.
This creates challenges for teachers if they have to set different
tasks for different students, or if they avoid setting homework with
a digital component.
Developing a common vision about the role of ICT in education
with stakeholders, and creating a shared community of practice
is important.
Without holistic improvements to teacher support and training
that are capable of addressing the many issues teachers face,
there is a genuine risk of creating a generation of students ill-
prepared for a digital future.
7. Teachers need to protect students.
Immersion of students in digital technologies has created
additional demands for teachers to protect students’ behaviours
online (safety, legal risks and privacy), and in the classroom (theft
and locking of devices).
This article was first published in ‘The Conversation’ on 14th
August, 2018.
SEN and the Science Teachers’ Association of NSW are
most grateful to ‘The Conversation’ for its generous policy of
encouraging the republishing of its many fine articles. We also
thank the author, Dr Brendon Hyndman, for supplying this article,
thereby endorsing this policy.
8. Not all teachers ‘believe’ in using technology.
A wide range of research has established that if teachers don’t
believe in using digital technologies they will fail to transform
42
SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 67 NO 4