Top 10 Struggles Teachers Face to Integrate Technology in the Classroom
Despite having enormous benefits of technology, It’s not that easy to integrate it into the classroom
Introducing technology-based learning in the classrooms can revolutionize the educational system. It will provide opportunities for collaborative learning and exposing the learners to a self-directed environment of the educational process to enhance their learning.
So, over the past decade, governments around the world are spending enormous sums of money prioritizing teacher training and bringing technology into classrooms on a large scale. The teacher training programs aim to enhance teacher’s capabilities to integrate innovative technological teaching practices.
Digital integration in the classroom is of prime importance for both teachers and students. It will help the students getting easy access to information and a collaborative learning environment that will improve their communication skills.
The modern generation has lesser difficulties adapting to digital learning as they are ‘digital natives’ and are comfortable with the use of technology. Despite that, they need the teacher's guidance to further their studies through digital means. As students are more engaged with technology daily, governments around the world try to harness their capabilities. Therefore, they are devising curriculums that are based on the use of technology across all fields.
So, it required the teachers to develop a general understanding of the students about information and communication technology (ICT). The purpose of the digitalization of the classroom is to prepare future citizens who will understand future global problems and will cope with them properly without endangering the world for future generations. The Australian government has taken an initiative that can be an example for the rest of the world. The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) has effectively implemented the models that support ICT technologies in the classroom.
Despite many opportunities it provides and resources allocated, teachers have expressed their concerns about the negative effects of introducing technology in the classrooms. According to their claim, digital devices disturb the classroom by distracting the students and create teaching hurdles.
Here are the top 10 struggles teachers face to integrate technology in the classrooms:
1. Technology is not the answer
Being a teacher and an avid reader, I prefer printed book more than digital. I can read more in printed books compared to digital ones. I also remember more because, with an actual book in hand, you feel more connected to it. Likewise, I have asked my students in classes what they prefer the most: reading in a printed book or digital ones? Most of them preferred printed books and cited almost the same reason.
Writing manually is more natural for a teacher compared to typing. If technology cannot add anything extra, it develops dissatisfaction in the teacher and renders him/her unproductive.
2. Lack of uniformity in the functions of all devices
With the digitalization of the school, the policy of ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) is on the rise to make use of personal devices in learning. When students are left to their own devices, they may not bring up to date or advance devices that may help them keep up with others. The differences in the devices’ capabilities may hinder their learning and will add more to the struggles of a teacher to provide multiple or even single instructions to students who lag. The students may also find it hard to type or read easily on comparatively small or cheap devices for longer.
3. Devices distract students easily
Students aren’t happy bounded in classrooms and constantly look for opportunities to get an escape if the class is boring. Since they regularly use digital devices for messaging, social media surfing, watching videos and playing games instead of using it for classwork. That’s why instead of tech natives, now they are referred to as ‘digital rebels’ and ‘cyber wanderers’ for their ill use of technologies.
4. Using technology can waste time
Preparing lessons on technology or for situations in which you deliver your class with the help of technology is time-consuming. It takes a lot of time to prepare slides, and then to keep the device charges and safe to be delivered on time. Students also don’t like to use their devices for taking notes or recording. They often pretend their devices aren't working properly or are out of charge. So, the teacher has to struggle to find out the actual reason why something is not working. The pauses and distractions make the entire class a mess.
5. Governments need to work on professional training of teachers
According to research, there are over 300,000 teachers in Australia. All these teachers aren’t trained to implement digital learning properly. They need extensive training in new technologies to have access to ICT improvements for their better implementation in the classrooms.
The teachers should receive this improvement training regularly to keep up with the ever-advancing technology. However, the governments cannot provide the resources regularly and some sections of the teachers are often neglected. This adds more to the struggles of the teachers to work on their personal development and technological advancement.
6. Lack of technology in homes
The problem is that not all the teachers and students own devices at home. They often lack to have access to the internet and sometimes, they find it hard to access technologies because other responsibilities burden them. Some teachers and students can’t afford to buy new technological devices. This creates a digital divide, and students from lower socioeconomic or rural backgrounds lack computer literacy.
So, such situations create hurdles for the teacher to give various tasks to different students. They struggle to accommodate such students who lack technological capabilities. They also can’t avoid setting their homework.
7. The problem of privacy and protection
The teachers face yet another challenge of protecting students' devices from theft in the classroom and protecting their device's privacy. They also need to monitor the students constantly to get them busy in curriculum-based content instead of getting immersed in other irrelevant things. The teachers will also struggle to look after the students’ online behavior and to save them from getting distracted. Thus, teaching, coupled with the problems of various physical and virtual protections of students, poses myriad challenges to the teachers.
8. Teacher’s dissatisfaction with using technology in the classrooms
According to a study, teachers expressed their dissatisfaction with the use of technology in their classrooms. They believe that using technology-based teaching has limited their outputs. The reasons they provided are that implementation of technology-integrated lessons requires more time, teachers are untrained in technology and thus lack technical support, and most of all, students cannot develop computer skills in time that makes the implementation of technology difficult. Thus, despite struggling, the barriers make it difficult to align the learning objectives with the technology-integrated curriculum.
9. Lack of infrastructure and ICT support
The primary challenge the teachers face is the lack of adequate infrastructures such as computer labs, protected software, and high-speed internet. They also lack technical support to address their technical faults in time that may hinder the smooth flow of classes. The policies are also not technology-oriented, which makes further administrative barriers in the execution of digital programs on time. The teachers
10. Conflicts between teachers and students
We have often seen that the use of technology creates tensions between teachers and students. The teachers, often implementing the policies strictly, confiscate the personal devices of the students who misuse them or if there is accessing problem. Another problem teachers face is when the students find conflicting or misleading information online that differs from the teacher’s teaching. So, bridging the divide is a tremendous challenge for the teachers.
Ways to overcome these struggles
The problems and the struggles the teachers face regularly are various and a one-fit-all solution can’t work well. Teaching is not something robotic and the techniques and skills of teachers differ from person to person. Similarly, the subjects also differ and require various approaches. So teaching itself is a demanding job, and integrating it with technology makes it more complex to follow.
To address the teachers’ struggles, we should devise more plans and steps to realize the meaningful integration of technologies. Various aspects of teachers’ preferences must be kept in mind, such as how they teach and what they teach. Professional development can relieve these struggles of the teachers by providing solutions to all the teachers in institutions separately. But the technical support cannot provide adequate solutions for teachers separately.
To successfully help the teachers overcome their struggles, we need a multi-pronged ICT professional development that can handle various problems of the teachers in different situations on various levels.
We can do this by developing a shared vision of the ICT role in education through a shared community of practice. If we failed to improve teachers with training and providing them holistic IT support, we will risk churning out a generation ill-prepared for facing the digital future.
Concluding words
Integrating modern technology is the best thing to enhance student learning. It can revolutionize the teaching and learning process and we are already reaping the rewards of integrated technology in the classrooms.
But it has posed many problems to the teachers and put them to struggles that often render them unproductive. The students’ lack of capability to use the computer or other digital devices for learning, lack of time to implement technology-based lessons, students’ monitoring problems, inadequate digital infrastructure, and lack of IT support create hurdles in achieving the goals.
Integrating technology in the classrooms can be made successful if they provided the teacher with training that caters to their needs. Also, the digital infrastructure, governmental policies, and timely IT support can make it a success.
