How to stimulate teachers to integrate technology in education?

In my previous post I reflect on the design process of my final assignment and I also told something about working with TPACK. In that post I said that I found it very nice to work with TPACK and during the design process we only looked at the components of TPACK in our design for one or two times. So, we weren’t busy with thinking about the T, P and C in our design. They just found their way in the program.

But in different posts before the last one I also talked about TPACK and about teachers using technology in education. But we also have to think about the integration of technology in education. In this post I will try to tell something about the way that we can stimulate the teachers to integrate technology and not only use it in education.

The process to integration technology consist of a couple of phases I think. At first there is knowledge needed on technology, then the attitude of teachers has to be positive towards technology, they have to believe that it can work in education. And to really use it there are skills needed to work with technology. Going through all these phases can lead to integration of technology, but teachers can’t do it alone. They need support to go through the several phases and of course they need time to get used to technology in education and working with it.

Knowledge on technology

To really integrate technology in education, I think that teachers need knowledge about the technologies in the class. They need to know what they can do with them, what the technology can mean for the teacher and of course for the student. To know more about technology they need experiences with technology. In that way they can see what the technology can do and with an interactive workshop about the several technologies they can learn more about the technologies.

Attitude and beliefs  towards technology

When a teacher knows more about technology then it isn’t directly so that they will use technology in their classrooms. The teachers need a positive attitude towards technology and willingness to integrate technology in their education. You can stimulate these positive thoughts by let them experience technology in a positive way. Teachers need positive experiences to understand that technology can be useful in the lessons and that it is a good thing to integrate technology into the education.

Skills to use technology

When teachers finally have a positive attitude and willingness to integrate technology and they also know more about the value of technology, they only need more skills to really integrate technology. To really be able to use the technology and also integrate it in education I think that teachers need to learn how to work with it, learn more about it and also try a lot. Here are experiences also a very important thing. These experiences build on the knowledge and skills of the teachers and make them able to use technology in the right ways. I think that when teachers know how they can use technology, that the integration into education will be much easier.

Support and time

We can leave teacher alone in the world of technology and hope that they will understand it and are able to integrate it in their lessons. But I think that teachers need support in the whole process that is mentioned. The support can be given from two different groups. At first it is important that there is an expert that support the teachers. This expert can show the teacher a lot and the teacher can learn from this expert. I think that it also gives a feeling of trust, when someone with knowledge stands next to you. I would feel secure and also would know that the expert can help me out. But later on the expert can also be supportive by helping the teachers integrating the technology, but I think that it is very important that other teachers and people from the leading and supporting staff of a school are working with the teacher. All of these people can give support to each other, and help each other to work with technology and integrate it in the lessons. By working in teams with each other, there is also the possibility to overcome barriers with each other and then you can reach more then when you need to do it alone.

A really big issue in stimulating integration of technology is the time that a teacher has. We all know that teachers are very busy and they have to do a lot more then only teach. I think that the support that is given from different kinds of people isn’t ending after two or three weeks. I think that teachers needs guidance for a longer time. It is hard to integrate technology, when you are used to work with your blackboard and the books that were there for years. But with guidance for a longer time there is stimulant to really try to integrate technology.

As I said before, I think that integrating technology is a process that a teacher needs to work through. But by giving the teacher support and the opportunity to experience technology in different ways, I think that it can stimulate the integration of technology in the right way. I think that when the teacher has the willingness to learn about technology and really wants to work with it, then I think that the integration of technology will come. But the support and the time is a big issue that we, as educational scientists and designers have to think about. We can want a lot, but we have to make sure that it is able for our teachers to work with it. So giving them the support that they need to create ownership on technology, will give them the self-efficacy that we want them to have. But it is a process that takes time and it needs to be done in a careful way, otherwise teachers won’t work on integration of technology.