Teachers, Technology, and Change

I was cleaning out my bookshelf and found some issues of the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, a journal published by the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education. As I thumbed through Vol. 13 No. 1 from 2005, I reviewed an article by Ewa McGrail on the perspectives of English teachers on technology and change. I was struck by a passage in which she referenced a qualitative study by Peck, Cuban, and Kirkpatrick (2002) which cited two reasons teachers were still reluctant to integrate technology into classroom practice. The first reason was that teachers were not convinced that technology would help them educate students in their subject matter. Second, they saw technology integration as a secondary goal because there were other primary objectives such as raising test scores, improving graduation rates, etc.

I would like to think that in the years that have passed since these articles were published, teachers’ perspectives on technology and classroom integration practices have changed. I know there are teachers who are looking for new and innovative ways to use the technology to achieve their instructional objectives. I believe they do see the value of technology to help students learn and achieve. So I hope that teacher reluctance to technology integration lessens moving forward. But, I wonder if teachers still perceive technology integration still a secondary goal? And if so, how do address / change that perspective?

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Peck, C., Cuban, L., & Kirkpatrick, K. (2002). Techno-Promoter Dreams, Student Realities. Phi Delta Kappan, 83(6), 472-480.