Complexity of Technology
Challenges of integrating technology within the classroom
Time
Time was a reoccurring issue for my teachers when they tried to implement technology within their classrooms. First, the teachers themselves felt as though they had limited time to figure out which technologies would best fit their classrooms. Due to time constraints and other obligations, the teachers felt like they did not have time to sit and figure out exactly how the different technologies worked. They all personally felt like taking the time to learn how to integrate technology was not worth the risk.
Reliability
The teachers at Burris felt very uncertain about relying on technology to complete tasks. As I witnessed myself during our meetings, the wi-fi connection was very inconsistent. Some days it worked, some days it did not. This was a daily and unpredictable challenge that the teachers seemed to face. The students also had the responsibility of bringing their iPads to school every day. For the teachers, relying on the students to bring their iPads every day, fully charged, was a major challenge. Planning lessons that incorporated iPads became a challenge, as they also had to have a back up plan for students who came to class unprepared.
“There can be infinite uses of the computer and of new age technology, but if teachers themselves are not able to bring it into the classroom and make it work, then it fails.” – Nancy Kassebaum
Fully Implementing Technology The Fullest Potential
Finding the right types of technology to best fit the needs of the students was challenging, but finding ways to efficiently implement it in the classroom was an even bigger challenge. Creating tasks that challenged the students to pursue new ways of thinking was difficult for these teachers, especially since they were considered to be "digital immigrants" in our digital world.