The biggest barrier I see that prevents teachers from adapting innovative approaches (i.e. technology) to teaching is surrounded by a structural paradox. Schools tend to have too much, and too little infrastructure. How much technology support do schools have, and how much do they need?
As a person who has relocated several times during my teaching profession, I’ve had the advantage of seeing some pretty interesting structures (or lack, thereof) for educational technology. Having worked as a technology representative and having served on tech committees for three schools in three states, I’ve noticed two things: 1.) Teachers are reluctant to adopt technology if they don’t feel a strong support system. 2.) Teachers won’t adopt new technologies to support the curriculum if Big Brother is watching.
My former school district in Colorado (20,000 students) maintained an entire department that was dedicated to technology infrastructure with twenty five employees trained to support technology in the curriculum and the infrastructure required to manage all of those schools. The district (600 students) where I now work has one technology coordinator, a small tech committee comprised of teachers, and basically one tech (classified employee) who is assigned to assisting everyone in the district with their issues. Granted, this district is much smaller, but interestingly enough, the school that is more supportive of technology in the classroom is the one where I now work. The reason(s)? In my former school there were so many restrictions placed on our students and so many hoops to jump through to be able to use the technology that it created an atmosphere of apathy when it came to using third-party applications to support the curriculum. Yes, we had the tech support we needed as far as hardware, but a big school district has a huge responsibility for the safety of student, and an even bigger fear of liability and repercussions from parents. The teachers were so tired of the restrictions placed on applications and software that they stopped trying to integrate innovative technologies in to the curriculum because it was just too much trouble and too fearful to deal with the implications of doing something that wasn’t within district policy. Where I now work, there basically is no filtering system at the high school level. The kids have access to Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, whatever they wish. I love the freedom these kids have to explore, research and test new technologies on their own. Of course, allowing kids this much freedom is risky, but aren’t those kids exposed to objectionable material on a daily basis anyway? When a student accesses objectionable material, could this not be a teachable moment/mini-lesson on how to evaluate a web resource, or a conversation on making good choices? This little gem of a district is supporting 1:1 technology with ChromeBooks and we have teachers and administrators with a vision and the foresight to help our kids become lifelong learners and successful college students, should they so desire.
Another significant barrier I find is: Time. The most common question I hear is, What if we spent all of this time on a project and it doesn’t work? I’ve approached this with my standard answer, Of course we’ll have issues and I know we’ll spend hours trying to troubleshoot, but so what? Countless hours have I spent trying to make PhotoStory project work with an 8th grade Westward Movement project. Once a 7th grade social studies Google Map project almost bombed because we couldn’t get the Glogster pages the students created to embed in the maps. We found out that the laptops we were using didn’t have Flash Player installed, so we spent another hour installing software. Luckily the teacher was flexible and with the help of the kids, we figured it out. OneNote failed miserably during a seventh grade English Language Arts project because of glitches with the network. When these things happen, the failure word and the we wasted so much time message spreads like wildfire through the teachers’ lounge and then the excuses begin for not adopting technology. We have curriculum to cover and we just don’t have time for the technology to fail. Is it fear? Is it laziness? Is it because of traditional values that don’t embrace technology? A homophilous social system? A number of things come into play and the variables are dependent on the group of people within the system and how the system is or is not structured.
As teachers, what we fail to realize is, the time we think we waste troubleshooting technology issues is time spent learning and doing. The learning that we experienced as we worked through a glitch or an issue is so transparent and so easily transferrable to the next difficult application or computer problem.
“It’s just too chaotic!” I once heard a teacher say when I approached her about doing a collaborative project . She was right. It is chaotic, it’s messy, it’s time-consuming, and it’s frustrating. But, if we don’t adopt technology, fail miserably, and succeed at trying, how will our kids become 21 Century learners?
A list of other barriers that come into play in the diffusion of innovations:
· Homophilous social systems (I found this to be so interesting!)
· Dynamics
· Demographic characteristics
· Socio-Demographics
· Education
· Gender
· Age. Is a younger group more likely to adopt new innovations?
· Pre-existing norms
I would venture out enough to say that I’m possibly an early innovator and definitely an early adopter. I’m not a very deep thinker and don’t worry about the what-ifs all that often. The lack of fear of failing landed me in the position where I have to be innovative. School libraries have transformed into media centers and the job description of a teacher librarian has transformed from keeper of the books to innovator of technology tools. Library budgets that were used for print resources are now spent for online databases, citation tools, and presentation application. Scouting out new technology to embed into curricular projects is part of my job. As a kinesthetic learner, I find that tinkering around with new apps and new hardware is satisfying, rewarding, and entertaining. Do I stop to read a manual or listen to directions? Not very often. I find that it is more rewarding to jump in and just do it, and yes, it has gotten me into trouble.
However, because of some failed attempts to introduce new technologies to teachers, I can be a little reticent about putting myself out there, especially now that I’m a new hire, but I’m learning to be more persistent and as I become better acquainted with the staff at my school, it’s becoming a little easier to speak up. If I offer to take on the responsibility of teaching the technology to the students, and integrating it with the curriculum, I feel that I have been successful. Luckily, I have made more friends than enemies in the process, and it’s always interesting to me to see who continues to be a collaborative partner and who comes back for a repeat collaborative project. It takes time to build those relationships and to gain the trust of people who don’t know me, and it’s a reflective, project-based learning process.
As a person who has relocated several times during my teaching profession, I’ve had the advantage of seeing some pretty interesting structures (or lack, thereof) for educational technology. Having worked as a technology representative and having served on tech committees for three schools in three states, I’ve noticed two things: 1.) Teachers are reluctant to adopt technology if they don’t feel a strong support system. 2.) Teachers won’t adopt new technologies to support the curriculum if Big Brother is watching.
My former school district in Colorado (20,000 students) maintained an entire department that was dedicated to technology infrastructure with twenty five employees trained to support technology in the curriculum and the infrastructure required to manage all of those schools. The district (600 students) where I now work has one technology coordinator, a small tech committee comprised of teachers, and basically one tech (classified employee) who is assigned to assisting everyone in the district with their issues. Granted, this district is much smaller, but interestingly enough, the school that is more supportive of technology in the classroom is the one where I now work. The reason(s)? In my former school there were so many restrictions placed on our students and so many hoops to jump through to be able to use the technology that it created an atmosphere of apathy when it came to using third-party applications to support the curriculum. Yes, we had the tech support we needed as far as hardware, but a big school district has a huge responsibility for the safety of student, and an even bigger fear of liability and repercussions from parents. The teachers were so tired of the restrictions placed on applications and software that they stopped trying to integrate innovative technologies in to the curriculum because it was just too much trouble and too fearful to deal with the implications of doing something that wasn’t within district policy. Where I now work, there basically is no filtering system at the high school level. The kids have access to Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, whatever they wish. I love the freedom these kids have to explore, research and test new technologies on their own. Of course, allowing kids this much freedom is risky, but aren’t those kids exposed to objectionable material on a daily basis anyway? When a student accesses objectionable material, could this not be a teachable moment/mini-lesson on how to evaluate a web resource, or a conversation on making good choices? This little gem of a district is supporting 1:1 technology with ChromeBooks and we have teachers and administrators with a vision and the foresight to help our kids become lifelong learners and successful college students, should they so desire.
Another significant barrier I find is: Time. The most common question I hear is, What if we spent all of this time on a project and it doesn’t work? I’ve approached this with my standard answer, Of course we’ll have issues and I know we’ll spend hours trying to troubleshoot, but so what? Countless hours have I spent trying to make PhotoStory project work with an 8th grade Westward Movement project. Once a 7th grade social studies Google Map project almost bombed because we couldn’t get the Glogster pages the students created to embed in the maps. We found out that the laptops we were using didn’t have Flash Player installed, so we spent another hour installing software. Luckily the teacher was flexible and with the help of the kids, we figured it out. OneNote failed miserably during a seventh grade English Language Arts project because of glitches with the network. When these things happen, the failure word and the we wasted so much time message spreads like wildfire through the teachers’ lounge and then the excuses begin for not adopting technology. We have curriculum to cover and we just don’t have time for the technology to fail. Is it fear? Is it laziness? Is it because of traditional values that don’t embrace technology? A homophilous social system? A number of things come into play and the variables are dependent on the group of people within the system and how the system is or is not structured.
As teachers, what we fail to realize is, the time we think we waste troubleshooting technology issues is time spent learning and doing. The learning that we experienced as we worked through a glitch or an issue is so transparent and so easily transferrable to the next difficult application or computer problem.
“It’s just too chaotic!” I once heard a teacher say when I approached her about doing a collaborative project . She was right. It is chaotic, it’s messy, it’s time-consuming, and it’s frustrating. But, if we don’t adopt technology, fail miserably, and succeed at trying, how will our kids become 21 Century learners?
A list of other barriers that come into play in the diffusion of innovations:
· Homophilous social systems (I found this to be so interesting!)
· Dynamics
· Demographic characteristics
· Socio-Demographics
· Education
· Gender
· Age. Is a younger group more likely to adopt new innovations?
· Pre-existing norms
I would venture out enough to say that I’m possibly an early innovator and definitely an early adopter. I’m not a very deep thinker and don’t worry about the what-ifs all that often. The lack of fear of failing landed me in the position where I have to be innovative. School libraries have transformed into media centers and the job description of a teacher librarian has transformed from keeper of the books to innovator of technology tools. Library budgets that were used for print resources are now spent for online databases, citation tools, and presentation application. Scouting out new technology to embed into curricular projects is part of my job. As a kinesthetic learner, I find that tinkering around with new apps and new hardware is satisfying, rewarding, and entertaining. Do I stop to read a manual or listen to directions? Not very often. I find that it is more rewarding to jump in and just do it, and yes, it has gotten me into trouble.
However, because of some failed attempts to introduce new technologies to teachers, I can be a little reticent about putting myself out there, especially now that I’m a new hire, but I’m learning to be more persistent and as I become better acquainted with the staff at my school, it’s becoming a little easier to speak up. If I offer to take on the responsibility of teaching the technology to the students, and integrating it with the curriculum, I feel that I have been successful. Luckily, I have made more friends than enemies in the process, and it’s always interesting to me to see who continues to be a collaborative partner and who comes back for a repeat collaborative project. It takes time to build those relationships and to gain the trust of people who don’t know me, and it’s a reflective, project-based learning process.