June 2008 — News
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Classroom Technology 'Woefully Inadequate,' Study Finds
"Despite the progress schools have made in bringing computers and the Internet to students and staff," researchers reported, "these groups need still greater access if technology is to become a reliable tool for teaching and learning. The findings from the present study and other recent studies show that technology is woefully inadequate in most classrooms."
Significant numbers of educators reported inadequate resources in the area of education technology support, including inadequate professional development/training and IT support (i.e., keeping computers in working condition, troubleshooting technical problems, etc.).
Interesting--and somewhat troubling--is that a large minority of educators (34.8 percent on the whole) reported that teachers and affiliated staff were not involved in decisions about software purchases. Coupled with the fact that significant percentages of teachers reported inadequate training and support, this begs a fundamental question that the survey did not address: If in many cases no input is being sought from the professionals who interact with students every day, what are the bases for software purchasing decisions in the nation's schools? Are these decisions being made in the IT vacuum and then left to teachers to sort out for themselves?
This was less of an issue in rural schools, where 70.3 percent of teachers reported being involved in software decision making. But in urban districts, 40.9 percent reported being uninvolved. Teachers in urban districts were also the least likely to have reported receiving adequate training in five out of seven technology categories, ranging from using instructional software and designing individual lessons to using administrative software.
For the most part, educators did report that they'd received "adequate" training in the technologies they use for teaching and other aspects of their work. Again, however, a large minority said they did not have at least adequate training in using technology equipment (31.7 percent reporting inadequate training), using administrative software (also 31.7 percent), using instructional software (38.7 percent), using technology to evaluate student progress (42.4 percent), integrating technology into instruction (44.3 percent), and using technology to design individualized lesson plans (54.4 percent). The category of using the Internet for research was the only area in the study in which dissatisfaction dipped below 30 percent, with 71.1 percent of respondents saying they were happy with their training, rating it as "adequate" or "more than adequate."
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Satisfaction with the type of support provided by technology personnel was considerably higher, although the percentage of dissatisfied teachers was still significant.
Almost 33 percent rated support for troubleshooting problems as less than adequate; 29.3 percent rated assistance with computer setup and use as less than adequate; and 26.6 percent rated the working condition of their computers as less than adequate.