Ideally most teachers would love to create a classroom that embraces technology and enhances their students learning across curriculum. Unfortunately there are many obstacles that come up that teachers and administration need to face, but there are solutions to help overcome them. According to David Nagel (2013) there are six technology challenges that educators have to face:
1. Professional Development
Obstacle: As part of my school's technology committee, the number one reason that teacher's do not integrate more technology into their curriculum is lack of training and understanding of what the particular technology can do to help their students. There is a overall lack of professional development for teachers across the U.S. to encourage the use of technology and help teachers become more comfortable using it. Schools that offer various technologies are often underutilized or not used at all.
Solution: Our technology committee has decided to use its members to teach the staff a particular technology, whether it is at a staff meeting or via video lesson, to help other teachers understand the technology and how to use it. Also, to help on a daily basis, each tech member was assigned a group of teachers who could come and ask questions about integrating technology into their classroom. This small group setting was established to encourage team building and give teachers access to help when needed.
2. Resistance to Change
Obstacle: Many teachers who are used to teaching the same way they always have are resistant to change. They don't want to go out of their comfort zone and don't know how to use the technology.
Solution: Our technology committee sent out a survey to the entire staff about what they are comfortable with, uncomfortable with, and what they would like to learn about. Again, like the first solution the goal is to provide proper training and a staff contact to help teachers who are unfamiliar with the newer technologies.
3. MOOCs and other new models for schooling
Obstacle: MOOCs (massive open online course) which encourages online courses with unlimited participation and open access on the web. More K-12 new model school are challenging the traditional model of schooling.
Solution: This is a choice that the learner must make on what is the best type of education for that person. For K-12 there should be limits to ensure that there is a personal aspect to the learning and it is not just another user name on the web. Online courses are good options for various students, but there needs to be standards to ensure that those students are getting an education that is based on standards and have a connection with classmates and the instructor.
4. Delivering informal learning
Obstacle: There is a failure to challenge students in a rigid lecture-and-test model style of learning. Students need to be engaged and challenged in the educational setting.
Solution: Flipped classroom, which blend formal and informal learning engage students and challenge them in the non-traditional classrooms.
5. Failures of personalized learning
Obstacle: Teachers are not being given the tools to personalize the learning in their classrooms and provide differentiated instruction.
Solution: There are many technologies that allow this to be possible and with proper training by the school teachers will be able to solve this problem. Teachers can deliver instruction through multiple forms of media, one example is using an interactive whiteboard (Rubenstein, 2010). Using response clicks to get immediate feedback from students and giving students options of how they want to present (PowerPoint or a comic strip) allows students to use their creativity and do their best on the assignment.
6. Failure to use technology to deliver effective formative assessments
Obstacle: The assessment gap in curricula and new skill demands needs to be addressed. As technology changes, schools don't always make the proper changes in assessments.
Solution: Some technologies that can be used are Socrative, Kahoot, Zaption, Backchannel Chat Tools like Chatzy or Google Docs.
In a social studies classroom each of these obstacles are seen and can be addressed. As a teacher who has tried to integrate technology into my daily lesson plans, it is sometimes difficult to use it as much as I would like based on the standards and information that I need to cover in a school year. Because of the overall information that my students need to learn there is little room to add in a project-based learning activity, which I think would be beneficial to my students. Each year I am trying to add in a new technology. Currently I use media the most - CNN Student News is presented in part or whole each day depending on the news stories that are addressed. My middle school students are engaged and it helps spark discussion in class. My students then sign-up for a day to present a current event. They are given options to how they will present their information - poster board, PowerPoint, Prezi, etc.
My lecture notes are presented in a PowerPoint, but I add in multimedia to engage my learners and maps to build upon their geographically knowledge (Google Maps and Google Earth). I am working on using Google Classroom to connect with my students and their parents - as of right now I use a school program called SchoolSpeak. I have learned new technologies in this course I hope to use to solve some of the problems with the integration of technology into the everyday classroom.
Resources
Davis, V.. (2015). 5 Fantastic, Fast, Formative Assessment Tools. Retrieved November 10, 2016, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/5-fast-formative-assessment-tools-vicki-davis
Nagel, B. D. (June 4, 2013). 6 Technology Challenges Facing Education -- THE Journal. Retrieved November 10, 2016, from https://thejournal.com/articles/2013/06/04/6-technology-challenges-facing-education.aspx
Rubenstein, G. (2010). Ten Tips for Personalized Learning via Technology. Retrieved November 10, 2016, from https://www.edutopia.org/stw-differentiated-instruction-ten-key-lessons
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