Barriers to Technology Adoption/Use

For ETEC 623

This informational presentation contains some information that I might share with the class in the form of a lecture to stimulate discussion about

the topic.

Brian Newberry

January 2005

Barriers to Technology Use in Schools

There are some who start with the premise that all teachers should use technology all of the time. That is not the premise of this presentation. Technology isn’t always needed or appropriate. However, if used correctly technology can do one or more of three things:

1. Allow you to do something you have always done a bit faster or easier.2. Allow you to do something you have always done better.3. Allow you to do something you couldn’t do without using the technology.

Sometimes analogies can be useful, while sometimes they are just confusing! Let’s hope this analogy is useful. Think of a simple task like connecting two pieces of wood together. This is a task that has been accomplished for a long time. Early attempts to do this included the use of rawhide or fiber cords being used to lash the two pieces together. This worked yet we don’t find this technique being used much anymore. The reason is a series of new technologies that came about that did a better job.

One new technology, or set of technologies for as you will note most of the time these technologies are made up of more than one innovation, allowed

for more precision and strength in the wood to wood connection. These technologies include a drill and other wood working tools that allowed the

carpenter to fashion a mortise and tenon joint (http://www.diydata.com/techniques/timber_joints/mandt/mortise_tenon.htm ). This is an example of doing something that you have always done, only

better.

Another technology that came about to accomplish the task of fastening wood together was the metal nail or spike. This technology creates a connection between the two pieces of wood that isn’t as strong as a mortise and tenon joint but is much faster to create. The innovation of the nail brought about new construction methods such as the 2X4-framed house that so many of

us live in today. This is an example of being able to do something you couldn’t do before the technology.

The technologies of the hammer and nail, as well as the mortise and tenon joint are so good that they are still with us today. Yet as good as this technology, or technique, for after a while a technology seems to become so mundane that it becomes an afterthought, is there have been improvements. Today carpenters use pneumatically powered guns to drive nails into the boards to hold them together. This technology is an example of doing something you have always done, only faster.

What this analogy hopefully illustrates is that technology can and does change the way we do things. I hope it is clear that technology isn’t working for us if it makes things harder to do.

There is no reason to try to make technology fit into situations where it doesn’t work. But in cases where there are clear ways for technologies to be used appropriately to support the school mission, we sometimes find technology not being used effectively. This presentation will explore some of the issues

that relate to this problem.

Lack of technology

One of the first barriers to technology use is a lack of technology to use. Despite many years of technology availability the technology infrastructure found at different schools is varied. In some schools the distribution of technology is not even among classrooms or grades. Resourceful teachers have done many things to increase the technology available to their students. Some have written grants, others have scrounged technology where they could find it. While these efforts are laudable I don’t think that carpenters have to go to such extreme lengths to gather their tools. Neither should teachers. If technology fits into the mission of the school the school needs to find ways to fund the acquisition of those tools. This is where school leadership is most needed. But it isn’t enough to just acquire technology. That technology has to be supported.

Lack of working technology

Supporting the technology infrastructure is essential. Imagine a carpenter who came to depend on pneumatic nail gun that on any given day might not work. It wouldn’t be long before the nail gun never made it out of the toolbox and the carpenter would go back to the hammer. If you can’t rely on the technology to work, you aren’t going to rely on the technology. Teachers who find their computers or projectors or network connections unreliable are not going to use them. If a computer breaks it needs to be fixed or replaced the same day. It can be done!

Attitude/Ability

Unlike the carpenter’s hammer, the technology in schools isn’t, at least yet, universally considered essential. Computers tend to also be a bit more complicated than a hammer. Because of this not all teachers have the skills needed to use technology as effectively as they might like. Still others don’t accept technology into their teaching practice.

Training can help change attitudes and improve skills. Incentives can also be helpful to change attitudes about using technology.

Roadblocks

Assuming that a given school has adequate technology that works well, and a given teacher has the desire and skills needed to use that technology what could possibly get in the way? In some cases, overly restrictive security measures! While it is important to keep the school network secure and be on guard for improper use, it is not wise to spend literarily hundreds of thousands of dollars on networks, servers, routers, Internet connections and computers only to make it difficult or impossible to use them.

Roadblocks

One of the roadblocks that some teachers find in their way to using technology, specifically the Internet is that of a firewall that is too restrictive. A firewall is software or hardware that functions as a gateway between your school network and the rest of the Internet. A firewall is an essential part of network security and you need one. But some teachers work in schools where the firewall is too restrictive. For example I worked with a Native American school in Washington State that was part of a technology innovation challenge grant. As part of their involvement in the grant they had access to a private bulletin board that included a live chat feature. This private bulletin board was used by the grant participants, located in 19 Native American schools across the country, to operate cooperative projects where students had the opportunity to chat with each other about various projects. This particular school had no IT department of its own, instead it relied on the tribal IT department. The firewall that was put into place by the IT department would not permit access to the bulletin board used by the grant. Despite many meetings and memos the school could never get the tribal IT department to configure the firewall to allow access to the bulletin board. Another school in the same project was working on creating a streamed audio language program. Their firewall was also configured too restrictively and they weren’t able to access the presentations that had been created. Other teachers find that their school or district firewalls prohibit access to educational resources and generally prove so frustrating to use that teachers sometimes give up.

Roadblocks

In other cases teachers find that it isn’t hardware or software that restricts their classroom use of the Internet or other technology. Rather it is policy. Some teachers have reported working in schools where there is limited software and they are forbidden to purchase their own to use in their classrooms.

Conclusion

This presentation has touched on only a few of the barriers to technology use that exist in American schools. Further, it has offered no real solutions. That is, in part, up to you.