There are numerous barriers
to the effective use of technology in education; these barriers vary according
to different human, economic and technological circumstances affecting learners
and institutions.
As technology is an
exceptionally large subject I will focus primarily here on ILT.
The barriers to effective
use of technology in education often affect people in different ways, depending
largely on their age and experiences. Older learners often have relatively
lower computer literacy levels than younger learners. According to Petty older
learners tend to have concerns about experimenting and exploring software
(2004: 376). Younger learners by contrast, often have a tendency to be
distracted by all the offerings of the web especially social media, gaming and
entertainment. In terms of solutions, older leaners could benefit from training
in small groups and being set tasks that encourage them to learn through experiment
and practice, whilst younger learners could benefit from a teacher that is the
good sense to encourage and steer young learner into using technology for
educational purposes.
According to the cognitive
psychologist and neuroscientist D. J. Levitin writing in the Observer today,
image and link below, everyone in modern society who uses a smartphone is
negatively affected by the constant updates and fiddling around with apps and argues
that this stress is taking its toll on our ability to stay on task effectively.
In terms of economic
circumstances, there are barriers for both students and learning institutions
to overcome. The average college does not have enough laptops to be used freely
amongst students in classrooms, are not always available and often do not
function very well. Also, not all
classrooms are equipped with projectors or interactive whiteboards (Reece and
Walker, 2007: 193). For the future
looking teacher, personal mobile technology in the form of a Smartphone or
tablet would seem to be the best option.
This would be best for the effective use of technology in the classroom
as these forms of technology tend to function well, are wireless, do not need
pre-booking and are very responsive. However, an issue here would be that not
all students have equal access to Smartphones. (Just fifty per cent of the
learners I asked in my class had Smartphones).
Paradoxically, in my
experience as a learner, it is technology itself that often is the greatest
barrier to learning. To give a few
examples of this in my PGCE ICT class we had numerous problems setting up our
blogs. When my class experimented with distance learning, no learners were able
to communicate with the teacher; in fact in every ICT/ILT class I have attended
on my course so far there have been technical problems and/or software glitches
and bugs. To quote from Geoff Elliot's
blog: "The 'technology enhanced' teacher must be equipped not just with a
good idea of how to use tech but she/he needs to deal with situations when the
tech doesn't work properly. (Elliot, G. 2014)
In conclusion, while
technology has amazing possibilities for teaching and learning we are still a way
off it being a reliable and effective teaching and learning tool in education. Only
through greater investment in technology for all at the individual and
institutional level can the human, economic and technological factors, which
hinder access to ICT, be overcome.
References
Elliot, G. (2014) 'The PGCE Gang'. Available at: http://thepgcegang.blogspot.co.uk/?zx=30d070efd7dd370c [Accessed: 18th January 2015]
Petty, G. (2004) 'Teaching today' (3rd ed.).
Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes.
Reece, I. and Walker, S.
(2007) 'Teaching, training and learning: a
practical guide' (6th revised ed.). Tyne and Wear: Business
Education.
Bibliography
Levitin, D. J. (2015) 'Why
the modern world is bad for your brain'. Available at
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jan/18/modern-world-bad-for-brain-daniel-j-levitin-organized-mind-information-overload
[Accessed 18th January 2015].
Lifelong Learning UK,
Professional Standards ITTS Bilingual. Available at: www.lifelonglearning.org
[Accessed: 10th January 2015].
Petty, G. (2015) ‘Excellence
in Teaching: Lesson Observation/Self Assessment Form’. Available at:
http://geoffpetty.com/for-team-leaders/downloads/ [Accessed: 18th January
2015].
Teacher toolbox. Available at: http://www.teacherstoolbox.co.uk/T_Teaching_Intelligence.html [Accessed: 18th January 2015]
