Barriers to the Effective Use of Technology in Education

“Time stays long enough for those who use it.” – Leonardo Da Vinci

“He that rises late must trot all day.” – Benjamin Franklin

I will admit, without any reluctance, to not being the most efficient person when it comes to time management.  It takes me forever to ‘get going’ in the mornings; I obsess over tiny details instead of just getting on with the job; I waste hours in consideration of the fact that I don’t have enough time to get everything done.  So it was no surprise to me to read that “time consistently is considered one of the biggest barriers to the integration of learning technologies”.*

It is a well-voiced fact that teachers feel constantly constrained by available time.  (I’m sure I’ll comment further on this when I am qualified).  And what could be less time effective than having to learn a new technology to integrate into yet another late-night lesson planning session?  

The Lisa Donaldson article quoted above includes a case study “examining the question ‘how can higher level educators be best supported in their adoption and integration of learning technologies?’”**  In it, it is claimed that “100% of participating educators strongly believe that technology has a place in the classroom indicating it is not an attitudinal shift in educators that is required”.***  So what can be done to improve the situation for teachers?

Donaldson concludes that:

“The research has indicated a number of measures that Institutions should consider to help

support their lecturers on this journey towards pedagogical innovation:

• Develop a suite of online resources enabling lecturers to learn in their own time with

online tutor support available.

• Develop online resources illustrating examples of use which are practically focused

and offer immediate benefits to the educator for teaching and learning activities.

• Establish a regular schedule of professional development training for educators to

engender confidence and reduce technical anxiety. The schedule should include a

regular, perhaps quarterly, series of technology peer sharing workshops to enable the

sharing of best practice examples.

• Assign eLearning mentors or champions to work with and support lecturers locally.

Make time. The assimilation and subsequent integration of learning technologies in the

classroom will take time. Ensure that educators and institutional heads understand that time

will need to be dedicated to achieve the huge potential that technology offers to education.”

****

Time.  The word surfaces over and over again.

An ALT (Association for Learning Technology) survey on ‘the effective use of learning technology in education’ reaches similar conclusions.  Again “lack of time” is cited as a major barrier.  As is “lack of resource to provide release and support for staff to enable them to incorporate technology in their practices”, which time constitutes a significant part of.  The ALT survey’s suggestions to “encourage effective innovation in learning technology” includes the following subsection: 

“Build in time for continuing teacher development

• Allow time for the champions and time for the colleagues they are mentoring.

• Allow time to experiment.

• Establish mandatory training with time provided.

• Allow thinking, planning and reporting time for practitioners.

• Teaching is about experimentation and not always getting it right, this leads itself to trying out technology.

• Make time and staff available to support users in creating innovative ideas.

• Make staff use technologies in their development at the Institution.

• Time and staff available to train staff in the basics to get the confident and competent enough to want to be innovative.

• Give appropriate, adequate, regular training to staff and students.”

There are, of course, numerous other barriers to consider – both from a teacher and a student perspective.  These might include:

• Limited funding to purchase new technology

• Lack of motivation amongst staff

• No unified good practice guidance from the school

• Little or no teacher credit for the inclusion of learning technology

• Lack of confidence in the teacher’s own skills and knowledge

• Students who do not have access to up-to-date technology

• Abuse of social media amongst students

• Disbelief in the benefits of learning technology

And so on.  The primary concern, however, does seem to revolve around time: finding the time to learn, finding the time to incorporate learning technologies, and finding the time to assess the success of those learning technologies which have been implemented.  I am sold on the ALT survey’s assertion that “teaching is about experimentation”.  I have learnt this myself over many years as a ski instructor.  Unless teachers are provided with the breathing space to experiment, perhaps the inclusion of learning technologies will continue to be a subject more talked about than enacted.

Time and the lack thereof, though, must also be considered alongside the teachers’ attitude towards technology.  If the teacher does not have a natural inclination towards technological advancement, they are unlikely to spend that limited time which is available to them exploring technological possibilities.  This quote is a neat and amusing encompassment of the problem.

“When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute — then it’s longer than any hour. That’s relativity!” – Albert Einstein

* Integrating Web 2.0 Learning Technologies in Higher Education: The Necessity, The Barriers And The Factors For Success.  Lisa Donaldson. (http://ojs.aishe.org/index.php/aishe-j/article/view/202) pp. 13

** Lisa Donaldson. (http://ojs.aishe.org/index.php/aishe-j/article/view/202) pp. 4

*** Lisa Donaldson. (http://ojs.aishe.org/index.php/aishe-j/article/view/202) pp. 14

**** Lisa Donaldson. (http://ojs.aishe.org/index.php/aishe-j/article/view/202) pp. 17

Driving Forward with Google Drive

I’ve often found myself becoming frustrated, in the past, with the hassle of technology; with all the clicking and tab opening and copying and pasting.  And now, I have been introduced to Google Drive!  What a treat – to have everything available in one place, saved and neatly packaged, and readily available to access from another computer.  I love this idea!  I have already used it to make feedback forms for a class, and it is so SO easy to use.  And it’s no doubt a great paper saving tool, too. 

The Value of Mobile Technology in Teaching and Learning

My personal experience with mobile technology and learning starts and ends with the odd dabble with Google – employed, usually, to resolve an argument with friends over some fact or other.  I have never really considered mobile technology as a learning aid.  But I suppose that even something so simple as fact checking the distance from one country to another, or the correct spelling of an unfamiliar word, is a learning experience in itself.

I recently read this British Council blog, authored by ‘educator, multimedia author and editor’ Joanna Norton, entitled ‘Teaching Tips: How Students can use their Mobile Phones to Learn English’.

In it, she notes that:

“Camera phones provide a great way to ask learners to ‘notice’ grammar around them. You can encourage students to take photos of street signs, menus, advertisements, or other examples of written English that they see around them. Spotting the misuse of apostrophes (‘s) or noticing incorrect spelling are my favourites.”

I make these observations ALL THE TIME!  I don’t take photos of the offenders, but how many times have I pulled up behind a white van assuring me that ‘no job is to small’ or winced at a sign offering to clean your ‘window’s’?  So, why not make this a learning tool?  Why not encourage my students to do the same?  It seems an obvious way to get teenage learners engaged.  And this kind of learning could be sustainable over a term: for example, learners could be asked to collate images of bad grammar to build a Pinterest board which would in turn generate discussion.

But, what considerations do we, as teachers, need to keep in mind when incorporating mobile technology into our teaching?

The Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA) have issued a good practice guide entitled ‘Mobile learning: how mobile technologies can enhance the learning experience’, which contains a handful of case studies pertaining to the various uses of mobile technology.  One of these studies – ‘Warning! Modelling effective mobile learning is infectious. An example from higher education’ (Chrissi Nerantzi, Juliette Wilson, Nadine Munro, Gemma Lace-Costigan and Neil Currie, University of Salford) – notes that: 

“The student body is more diverse than ever and technological advancements are shaping how we live. Learning and teaching are changing too. Increasingly we talk about networked and connectivist pedagogies, the need for more flexibility and openness in our offer as well as lifewide and lifelong learning and professional development. Mobile devices are making it possible to seamlessly integrate learning and teaching supported by technology in and outside the physical classroom in on and off campus based programmes in new and exciting ways (Conole and Alevizou, 2010). However, a deep knowledge and understanding of digital literacies are required to make mobile learning work well for teachers and students to maximise learning (Aviram and Eshet-Alkalai, 2006; Johnson et al, 2013).”

The phrase that interests me most here is this one: “Increasingly we talk about networked and connectivist pedagogies”.  This is the aspect of mobile learning that really appeals to me – the potential it has to help combine and share ideas.  Incidentally, this is also what I have found most exciting about my first experience of blogging – look at all those people out there, typing away, handing you their ideas.

I will return to the British Council blogpost I mentioned earlier.  It is just a short post, but it’s a mine of ideas, and already those ideas have begun to encourage my own. 

Joanna Norton tells us that: 

“Another useful tool is the recording function on mobile devices. Here are three examples:

1) Learners can record themselves speaking English and share it with friends, who can offer feedback. This is a great opportunity to practise pronunciation.

2) Learners can record conversations with native speakers on a range of topics and integrate them into projects.

3) Learners can use the microphone creatively, and incorporate voice recordings into edited videos.

Mobile technology turns the question ‘What did you do last weekend?’ into a personal story,

 as learners can share with the group photos or videos of what they did, where they went, and how they felt. They can also share their social media activity, providing an opportunity to explore what their friends thought of the weekend.”

So, how about having an English student record themselves reading a Shakespeare soliloquy on their mobile phone – wouldn’t that bring the language to life for them?  How about having each class member record themselves reading a poem and then editing them together so that it becomes a class performance – wouldn’t that deepen understanding?

The aforementioned UCISA case study regards ‘connectedness’ as the best result of mobile learning.  It says:

“The biggest bonus for the tutor and students is, in our opinion, more flexible and extended opportunities for connectedness, on the go support and troubleshooting, but also the exchange of ideas and learning opportunities. These are not necessarily led by the tutor, but more through peer to peer learning, a desirable and powerful reciprocal learning motivator that also makes learning more enjoyable (Boud, 2001).”

And as much as I might have wanted to, before I started writing this blog, I cannot see the negative in that.  Do I believe mobile technology plays too big a part in our day-to-day lives?  Yes!  Do I want, in teaching English, to promote books and reading off actual paper more than anything else?  Yes!  Am I being forced, by increments, to admit that mobile technology might just have a place in the classroom?  Well, yes, I suppose I am.  So long as it is aiding the learning rather than leading it, I suppose I am. 

I might not be quite ready to admit it yet, but it’s a resource I fully intend to utilise.