Barriers To The Effective Use Of Technology In Learning

When considering content for this post my initial thought on the main barrier to the effective use of technology in learning was the struggle of getting students with learning difficulties to use the technology, but then I considered a bigger barrier that I had encountered as a student myself: Teachers.

Back in my undergraduate days I had one lecturer for a module akin to Contextual Studies that would dictate direct from his hand-written notes to a room full of students who were all forced to hand-write the notes as they were dictated. In another module I had a lecturer who was teaching us a piece of software by going through the learning this software for beginners book chapter by chapter. At times I was also taught outdated technology within an industry that is ever-evolving and to succeed you must be on the cusp of every new technological advance.

Thankfully, within that department at least (where I now work as a lecturer) things have changed to the point where the focus is entirely on new technologies: From using motion sensors that trigger sound effects in customised nano-computers; to staff and students working on integrated, cloud-based calendars that allow for constant updates to the smartphone of every department member. This all sounds quite promising, until I point out that I work in the Digital Media department. If you take a trip outside of this department you almost instantly regress back into the world of handwritten notes, paper diaries and e-mail systems that nobody ever checks. This isn't an issue that is singular to the university in question, it is one that I fear runs across the entire educational system.

The first thought would be that this is an age issues - that older teachers are becoming out of touch with 21st century technologies, whereas "youth born after roughly 1980 are presumably used to parallel processing (simultaneously processing different incoming stimuli) and multitasking (completing different tasks simultaneously)"(Guo et al, 20018) due to their upbringing coinciding with the digital age. Prensky notes that:

"Today’s students have not just changed incrementally from those of the past, nor simply changed their slang, clothes, body adornments, or styles, as has happened between generations previously. A really big discontinuity has taken place. One might even call it a “singularity” – an event which changes things so fundamentally that there is absolutely no going back. This so-called “singularity” is the arrival and rapid dissemination of digital technology in the last decades of the 20th century". (Prensky, 2001)


While there may be a link between age and technological capability, I do not feel it is a direct link, I have seen many people within my generation who show the same distain and distrust of technology. But the fact remains that the students we are teaching prefer to use these technologies and so, as 21st century teachers, we must be willing to embrace these technologies, or step aside for those who are willing.

References

Guo, et Al. (2008). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: An Analysis Of Age And ICT Competency In Teacher Education. Journal of Educational Computing Research, [online] 38(3), pp.235-254. Available at: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen_Petrina/publication/253603266_Digital_Natives_Digital_Immigrants_An_Analysis_of_Age_and_ICT_Competency_in_Teacher_Education/links/54238e820cf238c6ea6e445f.pdf [Accessed 17 Nov. 2015].

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On The Horizon, 9(5).