CHALLENGES ON INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY INTO TEACHING AND LEARNING

By

Erwina Tri Astuti

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There are many challenges to integrating technology into teaching and learning. Ertmer et al. (1999) described technology integration barriers in two major categories: first and second- order barriers. First-order barriers, that refer to obstacle that are external to teachers, include such barriers as lack of resources, institution, subject culture, and assessment. On the other hand, second-order barriers are intrinsic to teachers and  include such obstacles as attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and skills. Unfortunately, today many schools lack the platforms necessary to use the digital learning tools now being rapidly developed and in many countries nationwide, access to low-cost broadband internet for all students and teachers is lacking. For many countries, the professional development necessary to train teachers to deliver digital instruction is still being developed, and there are a large number of teachers lacking basic computer literacy skills.

 Although high-level technology uses tend to be associated with learner-centered or constructivist practices, lacking the essential technology skills, teachers tend to use technology mostly for communication and low-level tasks, such as word processing, drill-and-practice activities, and exploring websites, many of which align minimally with core pedagogical goals (Becker, 1994; Brush & Saye, 2009). In order to help teachers create technology-enhanced, learner-centered classrooms, it is essential to understand: (a) how they perceive learner-centered instruction as well as technology; (b) what kinds of barriers they face in creating technology-enhanced, learner-centered classrooms; and (c) what kind of support they need to create such classrooms. It is also possible that teachers who are learner-centered in philosophy are teacher-centered in actual practice. Learner-centered philosophy does not necessarily lead to learner-centered practice. Many things can cause such inconsistency but this is actually because of the long lasting effects of behaviorism dominated educational practices for decades.

Since behaviorism and constructivism both continue to be seen relevant in today’s world of online education, in order to avoid digital traditional practices in classrooms, it is essential to clarify the criteria for constructivist online learning so that successful practical applications of constructivism can be identified and implemented to positively affect learning. With the substantial increase in the number of available technologies, educators

should pay special attention to differentiate between the technologies supporting constructivist learning platforms and behaviorist learning practices.

            There are many factors to be considered in designing curricula and employing instructional strategies apt to the contextual variables shaping the learning environments. It should be kept in mind that student learning depends primarily on what the students do rather than what the teacher does. So, educators are supposed to provide the learners with suitable instructional technology tools to make them think, reflect and develop ideas,and then to test their ideas in a practical meaningful context. Teachers’ new role is integrating technology into the curriculum so that learners build on their own experiences, construct their own meanings, create products, and solve problems successfully. Educational institutions should give up filling the learners’ minds with a bunch of pre-planned content. Instead, they should focus on how to enable learners to find, identify, manipulate and evaluate information and knowledge, to integrate this knowledge in their world of work and life, to solve problems, and to communicate this knowledge to others. Teachers as coaches and mentors are the major actors in learning environments and they are also supposed to be digital learners of the new age.

  References

Mustafa Er and Neslihan Fatma Er.(2013). “Instructional technology as a tool in creating  constructivist Classrooms”.Department of Foreign Languages Education,Turkish Air Force Academy, İstanbul, 34149, Turkey.

Mustafa Er and Neslihan Fatma Er.(2013). “Instructional technology as a tool in creating  constructivist Classrooms”. b Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, İstanbul Kültür University,İstanbul 34156, Turkey. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 9 1441 – 1445       

 Lawrence Tomei Ed.D. (2005).” Instructional technology and distance learning”. Duquesne University. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning.