Barriers of Educational Technology

 What Barriers Have I Encountered?

At currently 33 years old, I guess I am considered a ‘digital native’ like many younger adults who have grown up with access to technology. Within that time frame I have used and grown accustomed to many technological applications and hardware, all varying in their use, practicality, and importance. Considering the vast amount of technology that has transformed our current societal landscape, I consider myself very fortunate to have had early opportunities to expand my knowledge through available technologies. Fast forward to current times and the digital age is continuously evolving and expanding our ability to harness technology for our benefit and enrichment. But it is not a completely seamless occurrence. Depending on where you might reside in the world, there are substantial barriers that hinder optimal integration of technology. Some of those obstacles that I have experienced throughout my own educational journey have been characterized by the following: lack of professional development, substandard administrative support, resource limitation, and limited funding. Sometimes, one or multiple factors may affect technological integration, and, in some cases, a simultaneous occurrence of many factors can create substantial barriers that make technology appear unreliable, untested, and perhaps even unsafe. These and other barriers could be resolved and can only be eradicated when there is common understanding and agreement by all stakeholders on each aspect of utilization of technology in classrooms (Jamil et al. 2016).

Methods of Which to Address Barriers in EdTech

So how might these potential barriers effect someone or a group of people? As a previous employee of a distance learning program, one of the unforeseen barriers I encountered with relation to how students and educators share the classroom experience, is the adoption of technology as a replacement for face-to-face instruction. While someone who is considered a ‘digital native’ might comfortably navigate a teleconference course with digital course delivery methods and video chat in a proficient manner, a student and even an instructor less adept at those concepts can have a difficult time navigating the course in a way that is comfortable and accessible.

These types of obstacles exist for many reasons. Instructors often have very limited time and resources to learn about adapting their skills to technology-driven instruction. In reference to a study of K-12 barriers and benefits Carver (2016) writes:

The teachers involved in the study indicated that they were reluctant to use technology in their classrooms because they felt deficient in their technology skills. Teachers’ lack of proficiency could explain why educators are not yet integrating technology into their instruction.

As a result, training and development can provide a great confidence boost and familiarity for instructors to adapt their pedagogy and methods for optimal integration. On the other side, students are often so accustomed to face-to-face instruction throughout their early educational development, that despite their ingrained comfort with technology, learning in an environment that is solely constructed for digital and online instruction can almost feel like starting all over again. Harrell and Bynum (2018) explain further how these barriers can negatively affect an instructor’s adoption of technology:

Despite increasing access to technology in schools, teachers are usually portrayed as hesitant users. They are accustomed to the old standard which can create frustration when trying to shift to a new paradigm leading them to stray away from the use of 21st-century technological devices. Teachers who are not digitally literate, able to understand and use information from a variety of digital sources, will be the ones who integrate technology.

For me personally, this took a slight adjustment in order to make the learning process comfortable, and I aided those efforts through communication with my instructors. Oftentimes, they shared some of my exact concerns, such as: lack of familiarity with the required technology or students physically on the site of the instructor having the benefit of extended and fact-to-face contact where students at other sites are absent of that benefit. Problems such as these may seem minor at first, but when you realize that a large contingent of students and even their instructors in the southwest Texas area are considered non-traditional students, it makes sense that they would have concerns or encounter difficulty when attempting to acclimate with current technological trends. In this situation I feel that discussions between communities and organizational administration could help in addressing not only the implementation of refined tech-based instruction but also design them based on the needs and concerns of students likely to have the most interest in enhancing their educational experiences.

Advice for EdTech Leaders Moving Forward

It can be difficult to address or correct issues for something that is constantly changing, in this case: technology. It is not a finite concept or relegated to a single form of hardware, software, or platform and thus presents many challenges with how it is adopted for use, regulated, or able to influence change within our society. Seeing as how our study of educational instructional technology focuses on how we investigate the processes inherent to the educational environment in order to improve teaching and learning, it is understandable that we also experience challenges with addressing problems associated with that process. For individuals and groups working within Educational Technology, I believe it is paramount to any measure of success to thoroughly research and discuss as many variables as can be identified, if the integration of technological advances and the learning environment are to become dedicated and reliable forms of the expanding learning experience as we move forward.

 

Reference List

Carver, L. B. (2016). Teacher perception of barriers and benefits in K-12 technology usage. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology-TOJET, 15(1), 110-116.

Harrell, S., & Bynum, Y. (2018). Factors affecting technology integration in the classroom. Alabama Journal of Educational Leadership, 5, 12-18.

Jamil, M., Jamil, S., & Bano, S. (2016). Extrinsic and Intrinsic Barriers of Integrating ICTs Tools in Teaching at Undergraduate and Elementary Level: A Comparative Study. Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences (PJSS), 36(2).

Kalonde, G. (2017). Technology Use in Rural Schools: A Study of a Rural High School Trying to Use iPads in the Classroom. Rural Educator, 38(3), 27-38.