Ed Tech, Integration, technology, literature

1. A Shift in Learning: Accommodate and Support Reluctant Technology Integrators
At the start of the course my interests were framed around innovative
technological resources and how they aid in the enhancement of student learning. My
vision of math and science in the classroom is structured around a learning environment
that consists of collaborative gaming, simulations, virtual field trips and slow motion
animations. As the course began to delve into the world of math and science, the reality
that classrooms actually face became bleakly apparent. Through observations and
interviews in my own school community, I concluded that many teachers are still in the
beginning phases of understanding and being able to incorporate technology into their
classroom. Many questions arose at this point and my perception to what the math and
science classroom actually needed shifted. Simulations and slow motion animations may
be cutting edge and alien language for some classrooms, which in my belief, would be an
ideal setting for an enhanced learning environment. However, the interviews implied that
educators lack the training, resources and support needed to use even basic technology in
their lessons. KH’s thoughts and experiences helped to shape my focus on technology
as a TOOL in the classroom. It is my belief that all teachers need to understand these
new ‘tools’ and resources or the technology will become useless and disregarded when
not used appropriately or effectively by the teachers. Kuech and Lunetta (2002) discuss
the power of new technology in the classroom and emphasize how it increases the time
students have to develop their own critical thinking skills and analysis of investigations.
When in the right hands and given the opportunity to learn and explore with colleagues, I
believe teachers could enhance and change the way our brains think. So how can we get
educators to take action and incorporate these tools within the learning environment?
Why are all teachers not excited and motivated with the new and innovative resources
that are emerging in our classrooms?
Within the math and science room, students need to begin thinking beyond simple
computational strategies or textbook analysis of concepts. With technology, students can
construct their own knowledge through video experiments or even using cameras to
capture the stages of a procedure. Learning to record our observations through
technological tools can help students to review and share the concepts that they are
learning about. Educators should be familiar with ways to create higher order thinking
skills and releasing the responsibility to the students through interactive smartboards and
3 part math lessons. Students can watch how others have solved a problem though videos
and learn counting strategies through songs. The web is also a powerful tool that allows
students and classrooms to access additional resources, online field trips and simulations.
As I continued to frame my own issue, I wanted to understand more about why
teachers are reluctant and fearful to use technology and the reasons why they choose not
to use it within the math and science class. ML’s comments helped me to hone in on
some of the reasons that teachers are still not accepting and embracing the use of
technology. ML stated, “If it is not required and not assessed it becomes optional and
therefore the techno-resistant and techno-phobes will not take advantage of the
opportunities to explore and test out technologies.” The idea that teachers’ motivation to
engage with technology as a choice is outdated in my opinion and when the school

2. environment lacks support and encouragement for technological learning experiences,
teachers tend to be disinterested in recreating lessons and teaching methods that have
already been well established. I think it is important to not only demonstrate how we can
teach with technology during our in-service years but also to develop a school team that
has goals to implement and share how they used technology in order to enhance learning
and make it meaningful. If left optional, those who feel there is no value of it or feel they
will never understand how to work new technology will do nothing different. Those who
are not supported to discover and take risks are choosing to ignore our new digital
literacy. How can the educational system strive to accommodate and support teachers
that are reluctant or scared to use technology as a tool?
As research began, the keywords for the search were “technology, fear, educators
and classroom”. There were no exclusion criteria because I wanted to gain full
understanding of any relevant empirical evidence or literature that focused on the topic.
After searching through UBC library database, I shuffled through citeulike and browsed
through the resources posted by ETEC533 students. Many of the articles were literature
review based but helped to broaden my perspective on the issue. The final search was
completed with goggle scholar which introduced me to a few interesting studies as well.
I focused on three articles that I felt brought vision to why educators are reluctant to use
technology and focused on empirical studies that were situated in various parts of the
world and socioeconomic statuses. I purposely chose education systems outside of North
America due to the fact that I am a product of the system and see and hear first hand how
technology is integrated. The studies chosen were located in Malaysia, Ethiopia and
Australia, thus four continents represented. The final study chosen focused on student
perspectives and their own insights about the difficulty of using technology in an
unfriendly technological learning environment. I believe that the perspective of the
educator and the student are integral components of understanding the issue because
attitudes about technology effect the implementation overall. It was also interesting to
examine studies that situated themselves within poor or affluent communities to see if the
increase in money led to more technological resources, which in turn may create more
tech savvy educators.
Annotated Bibliography:
Abdo, M & Tesfaye, S. (2010). Teachers of Poor Communities: The Tale of
Instructional Media Use in Primary Schools of Gedeo Zone, Southern Ethiopia.
Australian Journal of Teacher Education, Vol.35, Iss. 7, Article 7.
[Available online: http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol35/iss7/7]
The study is situated in Southern Ethiopia in a poor community. The purpose of
the study was to analyze the use of instructional media resources among elementary
educators. Teachers were given a questionnaire examining the “perception of their Level
of Media Use (LMU) (as measured by the frequency of instructional media use) and
teachers’ evaluations of their working environment (TEWE)” [pg82]. The results
demonstrated that the majority of teachers did not use media technology while teaching.
The qualitative research implied that teachers used technology once within a month time
period. The factors that were predicted to affect the low usage of technological resources

3. were the availability of resources, the management of classroom tasks and the
administrative support and encouragement from the school principal. The researchers
argued that from the evidence it appeared that little attention had been given to the
integration of technology within the school system and little direction was allocated to
student-centred and problem solving learning. On the contrary from the researchers
predictions, the use of technology was not attributed to the time and space needed to plan
and learn about the integration of media resources in the classroom. According to the
study’s analysis, one of the highest contributing factors to the lack of technology
integration is the availability and accessibility of resources needed. However, the study
stressed that although there was not a correlation between support and technology use, a
number of studies argue that the type of technological training that admin offered or
deprived the teachers had an affect on how the teachers taught their tasks.
Within the study, the qualitative research could have been expanded with
questions that surrounded the educators’ knowledge on technology and if given the
resources, the ways in which they would implement them into the learning environment.
Within my own experiences, I agree that teachers may be reluctant because there are very
little resources for everyone to use and being able to share can be quite difficult at times.
If you rely on the tool or plan to use the tool but it is always unavailable I can see why
some teachers may be turned off by the use of technology. Even with the public
education system in Ontario, many of the classrooms lack technology and even basic
scientific and mathematical manipulative.
“Research centers with no computers would arouse suspicion
about the completeness, accuracy, and currency of their information
because science and mathematics information grows daily and
much of that new information can only be found through the use of
technology. In fact, very few would argue with the statement that
computers are essential to the work of professional scientists
and mathematicians” (Valdez, G. 2011, online: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te600.htm.)
Math and science classrooms without technology should be seriously
examined and all educators teaching these subjects should have complete access to
tools needed for students to learn accurately and effectively. Studies should
examine different classrooms and the methods they use to teach these subjects.
Kumar, N, Che Rose, R, & D’Silva, J. (2008). Teachers’ Readiness to Use
Technology in the Classroom: An Empirical Study. European Journal of Scientific
Research. Vol.21 No.4, pp.603-616.
[Available online: http://www.eurojournals.com/ejsr.htm]
The following study examines the “factors affecting teachers’ computer use and
its implications to teachers’ professional development strategies” [pg.603]. The
participants are secondary school Mathematics, Science and English language teachers in
Malaysia. The teachers were given self-administered questionnaires that measured how

4. frequently computers were used for job related and personal tasks. It was divided up into
3 parts: “(a) teaching and learning, (b) administration, and (c) personal needs”
[pg.606]. Through the technological initiative of the Malaysian government, educators
received increased professional development with various training programs through
workshops and personal laptops for each teacher. The increased time allocated to teacher
learning proved to be beneficial with an increased amount of computer usage. Teachers
were also given time within their teaching schedule to work on and learn with the
technological tools. Based on the study, teachers that had a positive attitude toward
technology in the classroom were more likely to integrate the skills into their lessons.
Those teachers who found particular technological resources useful also demonstrated an
increased likelihood to incorporate it into their classrooms. The ease of using technology
played a bigger part in the tools teachers chose to use rather than how useful the tool
could be. The relevance of the software to the teacher’s skills and job had an impact on
their perceptions and confidence while using the computers.
After examining the study, I am left wondering about the teachers that did not
respond positively to the training and laptop resource and curious to understand why their
experiences were different. I believe it is the hesitant educators that we need to focus on,
in order to gain greater perspective into why reluctance occurs. “Professional
development workshops have been vital to success in using technology with a
curriculum using real-world data. Unlike many traditional programs, many
integrated mathematics programs demand the technology” (Trammel, B. 2007,
online). It is apparent that the supply of technological resources and the time needed to
practice and collaborate with colleagues is essential to the effective use of technology
within the math and science classroom.
Tan, Jennifer Pei-Ling (2009) Digital kids, analogue students: a mixed methods
study of students' engagement with a school-based Web 2.0 learning innovation.
PhD thesis, Queensland University of Technology.
Tan’s study was based on high functioning, senior boys in urban Australia that
attempted to integrate student led digital learning based upon web 2.0 technologies. The
quantitative self administered questionnaire focused on the integration of Web 2.0
learning tools through the Student Media Centre (SMC) and the qualitative data collected
information about student insights on the shift of learning, individual attitudes and social
cultural reasoning. The study found that students endorsed the idea that media served as
an enhancement to education but felt it was not supported by all peers or curriculum
standards, thus shying away from the resources in order to continue with high academic
performance. The learning features that were used the most consistently were videos,
photos, and forum features. Due to the low level of support, the students felt that the
tools were not useful for school and learning purposes. Through the qualitative study, the
findings demonstrated that the students felt the student media centre was “useful in
principle and useless in practice”(p.278). Due to the emphasis on high test scores and co-curricular
commitments, the students protected themselves against failure instead of
finding innovative ways to extend their skills through digital engagement.

5. I found this study particularly interesting to my issue because upon examining the
effects of the lack of technology, it is evident that educators who are reluctant,
technophobes could actually have an impact on cognitively growth of their students. As
their peers around the world continue to get introduced and engaged with new material,
students who have no experience with using these tools will be at a far greater
disadvantage when they enter postsecondary and the workforce. It would have been
beneficial to have extended the study to understand why the teachers did not incorporate
media in high school learning and to further examine why the student media centre held
such a stigma with the staff and students. “Computer-phobic teachers either avoid
teaching with computers; or, if they do teach with them, pass their anxiety and negative
attitudes to their students (Ursavaş, Ö.F, & Karal, H, 2009, p.697).
It is evident that many factors play a crucial role in the reasons educators are
reluctant to use technology. One word is able to sum up the issue nicely, support. The
empirical evidence suggests that teachers without the resources or training needed,
continue to remain fearful of technology tools and lack understanding of their usefulness.
Without the training and direct immersion into resources, teachers will remain reluctant
to implement technology into the math and science classroom. Beyond the reasons why
teachers have become reluctant technology integrators, society must take into account the
impact it has upon the students within these environments. It is crucial that students of
the digital age must be engrossed into contextual experiences that allow students to gain
perspective and insight on real life experiences. Further longitudinal studies should be
based on the learning outcomes for students in math and science classes with and without
technological experiences. Another issue that comes to mind is the effects technology
has on learning when not implemented effectively from the student and teacher
perspective. If teachers are unable to use the tools or have misconceptions of how to use
the tool, students may be affected later down the line when approaching the same tool.
Tech savvy educators within each school community should model instructional methods
and activities, demonstrating that technology in math and science class should no longer
be an option, but rather a requirement. A new way of thinking, one that views technology
as a tool and a means of enhancing student learning on a daily basis.
Bibliography:
Abdo, M & Tesfaye, S. (2010). Teachers of Poor Communities: The Tale of Instructional Media Use in
Primary Schools of Gedeo Zone, Southern Ethiopia. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, Vol.35, Iss.
7, Article 7. [online: http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol35/iss7/7]
Kuech, R. and Lunetta, V. (2002). Using digital technologies in the science classroom to promote
conceptual understanding. Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, 21(2):103-126.
Kumar, N, Che Rose, R, & D’Silva, J. (2008). Teachers’ Readiness to Use Technology in the Classroom:
An Empirical Study. European Journal of Scientific Research. Vol.21 No.4, pp.603-616.
[online: http://www.eurojournals.com/ejsr.htm]

6. Ursavaş, Ö.F, & Karal, H. (2009). Assessing Pre-Service Teachers’ Computer Phobia Levels in terms of
Gender and Experience, Turkish Sample. International Journal of Behavioral, Cognitive, Educational and
Psychological Sciences, 4(9), 696-700.
Tan, Jennifer Pei-Ling (2009) Digital kids, analogue students : a mixed methods study of students'
engagement with a school-based Web 2.0 learning innovation. PhD thesis, Queensland University of
Technology.
Trammel, B. (2007). National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. In Integrated Mathematics? Yes, but
Teachers Need Support. Retrieved February 12, 2012, from
http://www.nctm.org/resources/content.aspx?id=1712.
Valdez, G. (2011). Critical Issue: Technology. In A Catalyst for Teaching and Learning in the Classroom.
Retrieved October 18, 2011, from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te600.htm.