What's stopping you? Obstacles to Tech Integration.

I was lucky, I got to go to a lot of conferences, had a flexible curriculum, had a computer lab with my own network that I was the administrator of and had less pressure than the top four content areas. I tried and loved lots of technology and online tools and shared with anyone that would listen. However, the enthusiasm that I generated in a workshop did not always carry over into classroom use.

Here are my top 5 obstacles http://scan-werecriticaltothinking.blogspot.com/. What are yours?

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Permalink Reply by Michelle Martin on October 14, 2011 at 10:42am

I am an ITRT, but I work closely with classroom teachers. What I hear (and what I feel when I put myself in their shoes) is that lack of planning time prohibits technology integration. I have found that planning for technology infused activities involves quite a bit of planning and often, even upfront work. I do think the time spent is a good investment that will make that task easier year after year. However, teachers feel so overwhelmed with trying to plan for what they have to do right now, they don't feel they have time to invest in setting up a project. Also, I recently planned a 21st century skills type lesson with a 3rd grade class. I found that I had misjudged the time it would take to get through that week-long lesson. Not to mention, I missed TWO scheduled class times in that week due to assemblies. So, in case you didn't get my point . . . TIME is a big factor for teachers; time to plan and time to get through really involved lessons.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra Wozniak on October 14, 2011 at 11:29am

I agree, teaching is an overwhelming job and there are a lot of things that are not under our control (like assemblies, etc.). In asking this question in a number of forums, I have found that the best way to help teachers overcome obstacles is to give them the support that they need - ITRT's play a big role in that. Keep up the good work!

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Permalink Reply by Sarah H. on March 3, 2012 at 12:25pm

1. We have to seek BaseComm approval to purchase and install new software titles, a process that can be measured in years.
2. So far, we don't have an educational technology specialist position or branch. Ed tech training and implementation has been split across several departments for the last several years.
3. No funding for attending conferences; I've applied for CALICO and ISTE for several years running, but the training funds just aren't there. Ditto on online journal subscriptions to CALICO.
4. Many of our faculty are older (50+), and aren't comfortable with incorporating technology without a lot of hands-on guided learning. Because of our schedule and limited class space, it's difficult to train 400+ faculty and to ensure that everyone remains current.

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Permalink Reply by Sandra Wozniak on March 4, 2012 at 5:33pm

Sometimes it all seems so insurmountable. I just attended a webinar that I thought had a great introduction and thoughts about working with your IT people to make it happen. You can check it out here. http://www.edweek.org/go/webinar/TechCurriculumLink

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Permalink Reply by Heather Davis on June 22, 2012 at 5:40pm

Hi Sarah,

Those 50+ teachers should be ashamed of themselves. I am 61 and am totally turned on to tech in classroom. In fact, I got my Master's two years ago in Integrating Tech and my new position is a Specialist in this area. I do teach internationally, in Beijing right now for the past 8 years and on to Guatemala next year, so maybe that is the difference,p. :). Still thing they should be chastised (the most polite word I can think of). One of my heroes is a lady who runs her own school, is late 70's and got turned onto Tech three years ago through the Flat Classroom Project and is now a leader in this area.

Heather

PS you just gave me some food for thought and how I can apply this. Hmmmmmmm!!!! Thanks