BARRIERS ASSOCIATED WITH USING ICT IN THE CLASSROOM

An Investigation Into The Barriers Associated with using ICT in the Classroom

An Investigation Into The Barriers Associated With Using ICT in the classroom.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Introduction

The use of ICT in the classroom is very important for providing opportunities for students to learn to operate in an information age. Studying the obstacles to the use of ICT in education may assist educators to overcome these barriers and become successful technology adopters in the future. This paper provides a meta-analysis of the relevant literature that aims to present the perceived barriers to technology integration in science education. The findings indicate that teachers had a strong desire for to integrate ICT into education; but that, they encountered many barriers. The major barriers were lack of confidence, lack of competence, and lack of access to resources.

Since confidence, competence and accessibility have been found to be the critical components of technology integration in schools, ICT resources including software and hardware, effective professional development, sufficient time, and technical support need to be provided to teachers. No one component in itself is sufficient to provide good teaching. However, the presence of all components increases the possibility of excellent integration of ICT in learning and teaching opportunities. Generally, this paper provides information and recommendation to those responsible for the integration of new technologies into science education. Due to ICT's Importance in society and possibly in the future of education, identifying the possible obstacles to the integration of these technologies in schools would be an important step in improving the quality of teaching and learning. Balanskat, Blamire, and Kefala (2006) argue that although educators appear to acknowledge the value of ICT in schools, difficulties continue to be encountered during the processes of adopting these technologies.

Many studies have been conducted to investigate barriers to the integration of technology in education and in particular in science education (e. g. Al-Alxvani, 2005; Onmes, 2005; Oshnrne & Hennessy, 2003; Ozden, 2007). This paper provides a meta-analysis of this literature that aims to present the perceived barriers to technology integration in science education highlighted in these studies.

What is meant by ICT integration in education

Information and communication technology (ICI) has become an important part of most organisations and businesses these days (Zhang & _ikrnan, 2007). Computers began to be placed in schools in the early 1980s, and several researchers suggest that ICT will be an Important part of education for the next generation too (Bransford, Brown, &Cocking, 2000; Grimus, 2000; Yelland, 2001). Modern technology offers many means of improving teaching and learning in the classroom (Lefebvre, Deaudelin & Loiselle, 2006). Dawes (2)1) is of the view that new technologies have the potential to support education across the curriculum and provide opportunities for effective communication between teachers and students in ways that have not been possible before. ICT in education has the potential to be influential in bringing about changes in ways of teaching. However, this potential may not easily be realised, as Dawes (2001) underlined when he ...