Influences and Barriers of Technology Adoption

Reference:

http://frank.mtsu.edu/~itconf/proceed00/beggs/beggs.htm


Review/Summary:

In this article entitled, "Influences and Barriers to the Adoption of Instructional Technology" written by Thomas A. Beggs who is the Director of Learning Resources for the State University of West Georgia, analysis takes place to determine why technology is not readily used in the classrooms of higher education.  In addition to this, the author takes a look at what are some of the influences that encourage technology use.

One of the primary barriers that has been noted with regards to use of technology in higher education involves a fear of failure of its implementation in the classroom.  Professors are often quite knowledgeable in their subject matter but not in the use of technology.  Also, many instructors are reluctant to use certain types of technology because they fear that it will be hard to use.  If it does prove to be hard to use, then these same instructors will not make efforts to incorporate the technology in their classroom.  Another deterrent of technology use in higher education involves the lack of support staff to assist when problems arise.  Many professors fear job loss if they do not have the skills necessary to incorporate technology in the classroom and those needed to administer distance learning coursework.  The restraint of time also proved to be a significant barrier to the incorporation of technology use. 

On the other hand, some of the things that influence the use of technology in higher education primarily involve such things as improving student learning, the access to equipment, and notable advantages of using instruction with technology compared to traditional instruction along with a higher degree of student interest.

Reflection:

Personally I have encountered some of these same barriers in my own classroom at the middle school level as well as my observation of them at the post secondary level.  When I returned to the classroom in 2002, computer use was becoming more and more prevalent with administrative tasks in teaching such as attendance and grading as well as that of instruction.  One year our school administrator had the teaching staff use three different programs for grading/attendance as he was seeking the best program for these functions at our school.  This was rather frustrating for me and several of the other teachers who almost felt that the traditional gradebook and attendance by paper would have been better than the time required to learn these various programs.  A few years later, I was allowed to have use of an interactive whiteboard in my classroom.  Unfortunately, I did not feel that I had the time or training to use this device to its fullest capacity.  While taking coursework at the higher education level a couple of years ago, I noted that a certain professor who was very knowledgeable in her subject matter experienced similar complications with technology (interactive whiteboard) and initially seemed reluctant to use the device with classroom instruction.