Based on the TPACK frame work, technology integration in education can be explained that, the transactional relationship between all the three components i.e. Content Knowledge (CK), Pedagogical knowledge (PK) and technological knowledge (TK). A teacher capable of negotiating these three components can be defined as an expert or professionally competent on his subject. I will not explain what each component means In this blog but the factors how the teacher can be stimulated to integrate technology in his education system.
First of all I can say that, the situation can be different based on the context where the teacher is available. For example, the factors for the teacher here in Netherlands may not be the same with the teacher in Ethiopia. Nevertheless, in both cases there can be a common factors which influence the effective integration of technology. I prefer to explain the common factors first and then at the end to see the exceptional cases based on different context (in developing countries) as an example, which I thought, may make sense to visualize some real situations.
Common Factors
- Professional Competence (Access, Confidence and Skills)
First of all the teacher should have competency on technological knowledge how to effectively manipulate variety of technologies. Not only manipulating but also how to select an appropriate and relevant technology for his intended subject. Unless otherwise the teacher is capable, he develops anxiety and become negative to accept and to apply technology based on his way of teaching. In this case, the professional development program need to be in place to fill the skill gap, which will make sense for the teacher to be more confident and familiar with.
Filling the gap of technological knowledge of the teacher relevant with TPACK concept become one of the stimulating factor for a teacher to integrate technology in his education. In some cases, there may be an age factor where some teachers completely not ready to accept the new technology approach.
- · Digital Divides
Individual differences between educators influence access to ICT, use, confidence and skills (Jones, 2004). The level of the teacher like age and gender are the main cases in this case. Teachers who didn’t know about computer for example get complex and lose confidence on his daily teaching process because he is looking the others using the technology. The gender problem (gender divide) actually mainly happened in developing countries where female teachers had no chance to actively participate in technology, and also no chance to go further to build their capacity (due to various cases!!). Apart from gender and age, the teachers’ subject domain may influence to integrate technology.
The language also another problem in this case to be confident since it may be the second language for the teacher. In all cases to stimulate the teacher, the gender, age and the language barrier need to be considered.
- · Availability of infrastructures
The other main factor which can influence to stimulate teacher is the availability of ICT infrastructure within and outside the school. Unless infrastructure and access to technology in school is available, it is worthless to be competent for a teacher to integrating technology. On the other hand, if there is technology in school, the technology itself will stimulate and pull the teacher to integrate it. In this case, the infrastructure may be the responsibility in macro or meso level.
- · Integrating with Curriculum
The integration of technology in curriculum at national or school level will make easier and confident for a teacher to apply it. Integrating in a curriculum means widely accepted by leadership and properly designed by professionals. In this case, the support will be easily available for a teacher in case of any gap during the process, from the National as well as school level . The teacher also feel confident since the overall structure will support his activity.
Participating the teacher as a design team while developing the curriculum also the main factor to stimulate the teacher. Because, the teacher will feel a sense of ownership and develop responsibility for his education system.
- · Technical support ( ICT coordinator, design team)
Technology is always dynamic and there is always an update which need to be in place. The ICT coordinator and the design teams are aware of that and always support the teacher to make him familiarized with the new technology. Which also give more confidence for a teacher to update himself.
- · Students prior knowledge
It will be very easier for a teacher to design his lesson and to integrate based on the available technology, if his students have prior knowledge about technology. To solve such problems, some countries include ICT as a main subject in their curriculum.
To sum up, basically the teacher become more confident and can be stimulated to integrate technology if he knows his content (subject matter) very well, if he knows various pedagogical approaches supported by technology, and knowledge and skill on how to access technology based on his subject matter. However, the availability of infrastructure in the school, the digital divides, curriculum support, technical support from experts, and students prior knowledge to technology can be the other main factors to stimulate the teacher to integrate technology.
Additional factors (especially in developing countries) may be gender, the monthly income for a teacher, support from leadership, complete absence of students technological knowledge and failure to have basic infrastructures like electricity and accessibility to Internet. At the school level, important contextual factors are socio-cultural setting of a school and structural characteristics like government ICT policy, ICT infrastructure and school type.
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