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Why teachers refuse to integrate technology into their teaching
January 9th, 2006
On December 5th, 2005, I happened to come across a most interesting article by Jim L. Holland: “When Teachers Don’t Get it: Myths, Conceptions and other Taradiddle“, and I felt somebody else saw the world the way I did… Isn’t this feeling just great? Basically, he discusses 4 arguments usually held by teachers who aren’t keen on technology integration into their lessons:
- “I don’t have time“
- “We don’t have any good software to use”
- “I’m not a computer person”
- “My student’s can’t behave – they don’t deserve going to the computer lab”.
We’ve all heard these before, haven’t we? Just allow me to quote his final paragraph here, I’d like to remember this for sure:
”So, let’s not beat around the bush and put a pretty face on what we call our schools’ technology instruction. If it’s free time in a computer lab, call it high-tech recess. If it’s prescriptive drill and kill software, call it a substitute teacher. If it’s a lack of knowledge, call it refusing to learn. If a class can’t behave well enough to earn computer lab privileges, call it classroom mismanagement. But if it’s a teacher who does whatever it takes to use whatever tool is available to give students every opportunity to learn — call that success — a teacher who gets it.” (Jim Holland, Dec 01, 2005 – last retrieved: Dec 05, 2005)
Now, this morning I found something else on the same issue. In IT Challenges in Higher Education , Cynthia Gautreau writes:
“A significant barrier to integration is not just the teachers’ technology competencies but the fact that many remain unaware of technology’s potential. (…)The faculty surveyed overwhelmingly desired to learn technology in order to meet the needs of their students.“
She’s discussing findings among faculty members of an American college. Yet, as she goes over the benefits of technology integration and the barriers to its effective achievement, I felt as if she was describing my own teaching context.. Seems we face the same challenges all over the world!
Would love to hear other voices on this! 
(all ears, you know! 
!)
3 Responses to “Why teachers refuse to integrate technology into their teaching”
It’s not always the teachers’ fault though – it takes time to explore and become familiar with technology and its potential – and that time is not often given within the school day. Budgetary constraints, other curriculum priorities and an expectation that teachers can work this stuff out in their own time when they might actually want to have a life outside of education all contribute to the resistance. Now, I love technology and am willing to make the time to get my head around these technologies – look Doug Johnson has a great response to this article – I recommend giving it a read.
Right you are, Graham! I should have done justice to Cynthia Gatreau by mentioning she also considers the time and cost factor. I tend to look down upon this aspect because in my teaching contexts, unfortunately, teachers are never assigned time for learning! If “they want to have a life outside of education”, as you put it so well, is just their hard luck! Nearly all I’ve learned I’ve paid for myself, and in the case of online learning, my resources have always been my home PC and my personal Internet connection…
If I succeed, I’ll link it to his posting from here
Wow! I’ve just read Doug Johnson’s The teacher’s Technology Manifesto and got so excited I’ll create a new entry to reply to his!
Thanks Graham! You can’t imagine how much I’ve learned from your posting!
Hi! I’m Rita Zeinstejer, an EFL teacher in Rosario, Argentina, and a advocate of CMC tools. I’ve been a Webhead for about 5-6 years now, and am proud to say everything I’ve learnt so far I owe to my belonging to this fab community of experts who generously share queries, experiments and findings.
As to resistance here in my place….I’ve suffered it myself. I’ve conducted seminars, carried out projects with my students and shown them “publicly”, given talks on different topics connected with CMC tools for language learning, participated in Congresses trying to bring information and knowledge back home…, and my own colleagues at work (Asociacion Rosarina de Cultura Inglesa) have found different ways of putting “resistance” into words.
All that has been said here I’ve already heard. I agree with Gladys when she looks down on the time and costs factor. We all have priorities, and one of them, as professionals in our field, should be getting updated for our own sake. Nobody now can ignore the benefits of ICT for language learning. Teachers who do, are definitely lagging behind.
My two cents, here, with my best wishes for a successful campaign…;-)
Rita