Issues and Barriers to Advanced Faculty Use of Technology
Hsueh-Hua Chuang
Iowa State University
hhchuang@iastate.edu
Ann Thompson
Iowa State University
eat@iastate.edu
Denise Schmidt
Iowa State University
dschmidt@iastate.edu
Abstract: This paper reveals what six faculty members who have used technology significantly in teaching and learning
see as issues and barriers to t heir continued use of technology in their teacher preparation courses. These barriers and
issues include time, technology downtime, meaningful use of technology, and a need of community of support faculty
and staff. Future work in addressing these issues is recommended to sustain innovative technology integration in
teacher education programs .
.
Introduction
Successful faculty professional development programs for technology integration can lay the
foundation for systematic and sustainable change in teacher education institutions. Efforts to integrate uses of
technology into teacher education programs have received considerable funding support form the Preparing
Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) to assist teacher preparation faculty as they advance to integrate
technology into their teaching. Although most PT3 grantees agree on the challenge in initiating effective faculty
development, how to sustain the systematic change brought by effective faculty development is becoming an
emerging challenge. Previous research has shown the potential barriers involved in getting the faculty to use
computer-related technology (Barron & Goldman, 1994, OTA 1995, Strudler et al, 1995, Topp et al, 1995 ).
Further investigation in determining how to keep the faculty, who have significantly used technology in their
teacher preparation courses, continuing to grow in the use of these technologies is an area worth exploring.
This paper reveals what six faculty members in Technology Scholars program at Iowa State University
see as the issues and barriers related to faculty and their continued use of technology in teacher preparation
courses. This proposed pilot study is aimed to understand barriers and issues that faculty are finding for their
continued use of technology integration.
Method
Participants
Technology Scholars is a program connected with Iowa State University’s Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers
to Use Technology (PT3) grant. Specifically, this PT3 project provides teacher educators with the necessary
support to study and work one-on-one with a technology mentor to develop materials and ideas for integrating
technology into teacher preparation courses. Workshops were also used to promote the effective use of
technology in teaching and learning through the Tech Scholars’ program. These six faculty members have been
identified as Tech Scholars since the year 2000. Table 1 provides a general profile of these six Tech Scholars.
They are from different content areas in the department of Curriculum and Instruction. Two of these six Tech
Scholars are in the field of Language and Arts. The other four are in the areas of Special Education,
Mathematics Education, Foreign Language Education and Multicultural Education respectively. They also vary
in the length of years teaching in higher education and the experience in technology use/integration in their
teacher preparation courses. They have used technology for various purposes in their courses (See Table 2).
They all have been involved with one-on-one faculty technology mentoring program for some time. Several of
them have also participated in technology workshops (see Table 3).
Table 1
Years in Teaching and Technology Use
Dr. A
Dr. B
Dr. C
Dr. D
Dr. E
Dr. F
Gender
Female
Male
Female
Female
Female
Female
Years of
9 years
8 Years
7 years
17 years
8 years
19 years
4
6
8
10
13
10
Teaching in
Higher
Education
Semesters of Use
of
Computer-related
Technology in
Courses
Table 2
Use of Technology in Courses
Course
Dr. A
Dr. B
Dr. C
Dr. D
Dr. E
Dr. F
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
Dr. E
Dr. F
Management
Information
Seeking
Course
Delivery
√
Course
Instruction
Student
√
√
√
Project
√
Others
Table 3
Faculty Development Participation
Dr. A
Dr. B
Dr. C
Dr. D
√
Large Group
√
Workshop
Small Group
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
Workshop
One-on-one
Mentoring
Program
Data Collection
For this paper, data were collected through in-depth interviews with each faculty member who have
named as Tech Scholars through the Technology Scholars’ Program. Each interview began with a specific grand
tour question to allow the researchers to understand what a typical technology using/integration class is like and
then moved to ten open-ended questions. Specifically, the interviews with these six technology scholars were
used to investigate what they consider barriers to their continued use of technology and higher levels of
technology integration. Class observations and artifacts such as their WebCT sites and publications on
integrating technology into their content areas were also collected to add to the data sources. Issues and barriers
to advanced use of technology for the faculty were identified and categorized through the data analysis.
Findings
Barriers and Issues to Continued Use of Technology
When asked about the difficulties in achieving their goals in technology integration in their teacher
preparation courses, most of them agreed that time constraint and hardware/software issues are two main
difficulties. Commitment to make time to get acquainted with new technology and further to make good use of
technology is a big concern for these technology scholars. Technical problems were sometimes frustrating, too.
Given that rich experience in technology integration in their teacher preparation courses, these six Tech Scholars
have also identified what they think the barriers and issues for their continued use of technology in their course.
Those issues and barriers include:
•
time
•
technology downtime
•
meaningful use of technology
•
a need of community of support staff and faculty
Time
The commitment and investment of time in the use of technology is huge for most of these six faculty
members. Researches found that time was the most common barrier reported by teacher educators in their
attempts to use and integrate technology (Spott & Bowman, 1993; NCATE, 1997;Quick, 1999). However, these
Tech Scholars have also identified other related issues in addition to the personal investment of time in acquiring
technology skills. One mentioned the advancement of communication technology actually changes the time
structure of traditional classrooms. He does not have fixed office hours but, instead, students have access to him
24 hours a day and seven days a week via communication tools like email. The use of technology changes space
and time.
It seems to me that office hours now become 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As opposed to the
two-hour period during the week, where you meet face to face. Also because of the different forums
[online discussion forums] and email, you’re looking at regular email vs. looking at the use of Eudora [an
email managing system] or WebCT [an online course platform adopted by Iowa State University]. (Dr. B)
Another tech scholar mentioned being involved with a project like PT3 provided a good incentive to make time
for technology integration in her course:
Time is the biggest [difficulty], and certainly PT3 [the Tech Scholars program], if it weren’t for that
I wouldn’t have made the time. (Dr. C)
Technology downtime
Technical problems were repeatedly brought up by most of the Tech Scholars as a barrier. These problems
could range from a broken projector to a new operating system in a computer. However, they seemed to find
ways to resolve the issue. They have learned how to troubleshoot.
I think there are the little things and the big things. Like last night, I could not get the projection tool to
work. After I read the directions, I didn’t turn things on in the right sequence. It was a problem because
there I was with power point slides, and no one could see them but me….I use discourse [an interactive
computer-mediated communication system] everyday with my class and there are some days when one or
two of them won’t work and we have to switch them…. Things like that, you can work around. (Dr. E)
Dede (2000) argues that hardware/software troubleshooting is one of the useful skills for educators in respect to
technology use and integration. Most of the Tech Scholars also mentioned that both Tech Scholars program and
the mentoring program provided necessary incentives and support in conquering some technical obstacles:
Sometimes equipment, with my entire hard drive being taken up, I couldn’t store [any video clip files], and
it wasn’t until just last month that Denise[director of Tech Scholars program] got me a portable hard drive,
and it has made everything possible. (Dr. C)
I think it’s becoming easier because there’s more tech support. There are more, I think through mentoring,
and being part of the Tech Scholars program. (Dr. B)
If I didn’t have support [the technology mentor and Staff in Center for Technology in Learning and
Teaching] there, I probably would not have digital video [clips]. So having the support has made all the
difference for me. (Dr. F)
We have such a strong technology department here that I knew I could call downstairs and get help if I
needed to, but really through the PT3 grant [Tech Scholars program] and the connections that I have
through my mentor. (Dr. A)
In addition, they usually had back up plan in case of some unexpected technology down time. “I went to plan B.
I went through the options, and I just decided to do without [technology]”, said Dr. E.
Meaningful use of technology
The goal setting stage was actually the most challenging part for mo st of these Tech Scholars. They had to
align any particular technology to the overall curriculum and their specific content area. Their goal is to achieve
seamless technology integration and thus technology will not dictate the content and it will not interfere
teaching itself. Meaningful use of technology has been the major concern for these Tech Scholars, and also a
new issue other than the common hardware and software accessibility one.
So I think the barrier is [whether]being thoughtful or not in how we use any [technology]tool. Any tool can
be ineffective so I think the barrier is just thoughtful use and careful rationale [in technology integration]…I
think it [technology] can only be thought of as a tool…. And in my opinion, literacy is just a perfect area for
considering technology as a tool. I think that we have to carefully consider what role technology plays.
(Dr. D)
To me, it is really about incentives…what I gain by using it [technology]. Right now, it would be really
hard for me not to teach without discourse [a computer-mediated interactive communication system]
because I feel like I don’t know where the group [the students] is. So, that is a natural incentive to me. It
makes teaching easier and more effective. (Dr. E)
I need to work and to think that is this [technology] something that is really going to take my students to
where they need to go? (Dr. B)
Given this, educational technologies or instructional technologies are not hardware and software related issues.
They are, instead, a complex combination of the instruction delivered and the equipment used. Technology
alone does not transform teaching but rather the meaningful use of technology in an appropriate context has the
power to transform teaching and learning (Means & Olson, 1994).
A need of community of support faculty and staff
The establishment of a learning community that can provide the faculty with both technology and pedagogy
support is very crucial to potential of technology in contribution to the transformation of teacher education
program. Most of these six Tech Scholars appreciated the accessible technology support, valued the
opportunities to exchange ideas with other faculty members and, most of all, identified the need to develop “a
cohort of learners”. Research has found that the establishment of learning communities with appropriate
counseling is essential for the faculty to make necessary connections in respect of technology infusion into the
curriculum (Chuang, Thompson, & Schmidt, 2002).
By having somebody come in and help me the first couple of times [when]I tried something new, so that
relieved the anxiety [of technical problems]a little bit. (Dr. A)
When I have individuals who are supporting me with technology use, if they don’t have a firm
understanding of multicultural education themselves, then I think their usefulness to me is limited because I
really need a community of support staff and faculty who are very much aware of what it is and what I am
trying to do [in multicultural education]. (Dr. B)
I think that has created a little bit of a bond in the sense that, if I need something explained or demonstrated
that I know someone else has completed successfully, with their mentor or on their own. I can call James[a
faculty member], I can pop down and see Jeff [a faculty member]. Marcia [a faculty member] is just a
wealth of experience. And that has created a different layer for me that I think has been really enjoyable.
(Dr. D)
I think that there is a relationship amongst the Tech Scholars that will allow us to ask advice of each other. I
wish we could have more chances to talk to each other. (Dr. F)
Learning to use technology and to infuse it into curriculum in a meaningful way requires both ongoing
technology and content support from a connected community of learners. The existence of the learning
community seems very critical in proving sustainable support for the faculty to grow in the use of technology
and continue technology integration in their teacher preparation course.
Conclusion
The purpose of this paper is to reveal what six faculty members in the Technology Scholars program
identified as barriers and issues to advanced faculty use of technology. The major barriers identified are time,
technology downtime, meaningful use of technology, and a need of community of support staff and faculty. To
succeed in achieving the goal of technology infusion into the pre-service teachers core courses, we need to have
faculty members in teacher education who are willing to continue on their journey of innovative technology
integration. Therefore, barriers and issues identified by these Tech Scholars need to be addressed for the faculty
to grow in use of technology in their teacher preparation course. Further research and investigation in finding
successful solutions to the barriers for the faculty's continued use technology in their teacher preparation courses
would be beneficial to creating sustainable technology infusion programs in teacher education.
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