Assignment - Barriers to the effective use of technology in education

As mentioned in an earlier post, the inclusion of technology within the classroom setting can be a controversial subject within the world of education. While we have some teachers that prefer the traditional way of teaching with no technology, we also have others who are perhaps new to the role and have dived straight into the technology shift straight away. Although there are many positives of integrating this new method of teaching, there are also many barriers.

Combining technology and teaching can be a very daunting thought for many teachers, old and new as many barriers can arise. Through a study conducted by Butler and Selbom (2002) in Ball State Univesity in Indiana, several faculty interviews were conducted aiming to investigate the teacher's thoughts on technology proficiency, barriers of technology and the reliability of it. The study revealed a number of barriers that were mentioned through the investigation regarding the adoption of technology within the learning environment. The most common barriers are pictured below in the table which was presented after the study was conducted.

It can be seen that through the study conducted by Butler and Sellbom (2002), that the main concerns are that the equipment may malfunction or fail, that they do not have enough time to learn new technological skills, that there is difficulty in using the equipment as the equipment may be different across classrooms and that there is a risk of the software being out of date. 

According to Bingimlas (2009), the technological barriers that seem to cause problems for educational purposes often do not come from the technological devices themselves, but from the teachers. Several researchers have found that the main barrier that prevents the integration of technology within the classroom isn't due to the reliability of researchers but down to the lack of confidence of the teacher delivering the lesson (Dawes, 2001, cited in Bingimlas, 2009). 

Another barrier which as been highlighted regarding the problems that teachers are faced when aiming to include such advancements is that of the lack of competence from the educator and their resistance to change teaching styles. This can be a very large factor in terms of how it affects the shift and  integration of technology.

There are many other factors which affect the involvement of such advancements such as negative attitudes, lack of time, lack of effective training, lack of accessibility. 

Barriers to the successful integration

References

Butler, D,L., & Sellbom, M. (2002). Barriers to adopting technology for teaching and learning, Educause Quarterly, 2(1), pp. 22-28.

Becta, L. (2004). A Review of the Research Literature on barriers to the uptake of ICT by teachers, British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 1(1), pp. 1- 28.

Bingimlas, K. (2009). Barriers to the successful integration of ICT in teaching and learning environments: A review of the literature, Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology education, 5(3), pp.235-245.