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These days, it seems nearly everyone has something to say about
teachers and their technology expertise. Consider this quote from
the New York Times: "Computers and Internet connections
are fast becoming standard features of the American public school,
but many teachers do not -- so far, at least -- make regular use
of them for teaching."
While school leaders scramble to provide professional development
opportunities for their teachers, they also are making other decisions
that affect teachers, such as moving computers from labs to classrooms
and installing Internet connections. Not surprisingly, the schools
and districts want to track the impact of the changes, such as
finding out if professional development activities around the
technology have led to increased use of technology.
Answers to these kinds of questions shouldn't be a matter of
opinion; instead, they should rest on scientific research. However,
carrying out tightly designed studies is a costly, time-consuming
activity. (See, for example, "Teaching,
Learning, and Computing 1998," a national survey of schools
and teachers.) Individual schools or school districts don't have
the money to commission such rigorous empirical studies. Even
if they did have the money, such a study would take two to three
years. The changes that happen as a matter of course, especially
in the fast-paced world of technology, could easily make the findings
invalid.
On the other hand, various media organizations carry out quick
surveys (for example, CNN Quick Vote
) that are provocative, but concerns over the methodology behind
these "instant statistics" linger.
Reaching toward a middle ground, we have been developing what
we call the "snapshot survey" methodology, which allows us to
administer, on paper or online, a short (back and front of a legal-sized
sheet of paper), focused questionnaire.
We have administered the snapshot survey to more than 18 groups
in the past 16 months: teachers and administrators attending state
and national conferences on technology and education (such as
the Florida Educational Technology Conference and the National
Educational Computing Conference); teachers in individual schools
(such as all teachers in a small high school in Texas); and entire
districts (such as all the teachers in several Nebraska districts).
Because the individuals taking the snapshot surveys have not
been randomly selected, our results cannot be generalized to the
"representative teacher." But, as we describe more fully below,
in carrying out our survey, we have come to see that the representative
teacher is actually a myth, and that the characteristics that
differentiate teachers are important to understand.
The survey
Our snapshot survey asks professional educators questions about
three major issues: activities using technology, beliefs about
technology, and needs in order to use technology. View the entire
survey (or to take it,
by selecting "Testing" as the Group ID). The following are sample
questions:
What, if anything, do you need to make
technology an integral part of your school or classroom's curricular
activities?
1. More time to learn to
use computers and the Internet.
2. More time to change the
curriculum to better incorporate the technology.
3. More training with technology.
4. More compelling reasons
why I should incorporate technology into the classroom.
Please circle the number that best
reflects your belief, where 1 = Strongly disagree, 3 = No opinion,
and 5 = Strongly Agree.
1. I believe textbooks will
be replaced by electronic media within five years.
2. I believe the role of schools
will be dramatically changed because of the Internet within five
years.
3. I believe the role of teachers
will be dramatically changed because of the Internet within five
years.
We customize the snapshot survey to ask questions that the local
school community is interested in. For example, we worked with
educators from Nebraska to redesign a portion of the survey to
ask questions they are interested in as we geared up for an all-online,
statewide administration of the survey this spring. Recently,
we administered the snapshot survey to a school district a second
time to see what changes have come about after its districtwide
technology initiative. Our plan is to enable schools and districts
to customize a survey to their needs.
While we are working with schools to create their own surveys,
we also are compiling the results of our survey, and we believe
our findings will interest school leaders. We've culled three
findings from the snapshot survey we administered from June 1998
through September 1999:
- Technology savvy varies greatly among teachers.
- Teachers and administrators have different ideas on the future
of technology in schools.
- Teachers and administrators with every type of technology
background and training are beginning to see the value of the
Internet for their students.
Let's look at these three findings in turn.
Teachers' knowledge and needs differ
Teachers are not a homogenous group. Their activities with technology,
their needs for technology, and their beliefs about technology
can be substantively different. To illustrate this point, we compared
the findings from 70 conference attendee teachers who were education
technology grant winners in Michigan with the findings from 140
teachers in a small, rural Michigan district who were attending
an in-service workshop on technology.
The question that drew the largest disparity was about Internet
use in the classroom: 60 percent of the grant winners said they
use the Internet for instruction at least 16 minutes a week. Less
than a quarter of the rural teachers said they did this. When
they were asked if their students use the Internet in class for
at least 16 minutes a week, 47 percent of the grant winners said
yes; only 7 percent of the rural teachers answered yes.
Many more of the grant winners used e-mail at home: 81 percent,
compared with 47 percent of the rural teachers. When asked their
highest need in technology, a majority of the grant winners said
they needed more time to change the curriculum; the rural teachers
responded that they needed more time to learn to use technology.
Not surprisingly, the more technologically mature group of teachers
used e-mail at home, used the Internet in their classrooms, felt
that their teaching was improved through the use of technology,
and needed more time to integrate the technology into the curriculum.
In contrast, the teachers in the rural school district, who were
just beginning a technology initiative in their district, were
less technologically mature. Fewer of these teachers used e-mail
at home; fewer used the Internet in the classroom; and fewer were
convinced that technology improved their teaching. Notice, too,
that the need they identified was simply to have more access to
the technology.
Interestingly, however, these two groups of teachers did share
a number of opinions: Neither group believed that textbooks would
be replaced by electronic media in five years, and neither group
believed that the role of the teachers would be dramatically changed
within the next five years.
There is a bit of folk wisdom that goes like this: Teachers
who use technology for their own work, and thus see the value
of the technology in their own lives, will be more likely to have
their students use technology for their work. While our information
is consistent with that view, these data do not permit us to argue
that technology use by teachers causes technology use by students,
tempting as such an argument might be.
Finally, while we have focused on two specific groups in this
analysis, the picture presented here holds across all the sites
(approximately 1,200 educational professionals) we surveyed. Teachers
who were more technologically mature, as indicated by the use
of e-mail at home for example, "looked" like the grant winners,
while those teachers who reported low e-mail usage at home "looked"
like the rural teachers.
Administrators and teachers see change
differently
Three questions on the snapshot survey asked how technology
will change education. Administrators' responses showed a statistically
significant difference from teachers' responses. When asked if
they believed textbooks would be replaced by electronic media
within five years, teachers responded, "Absolutely not." Administrators,
on the other hand, said, "Well, maybe."
Similarly, when asked if they believed the role of schools will
be dramatically changed because of the Internet within five years,
teachers replied "No, not really." Administrators answered, "Yes,
I think so." On the final question, whether the role of the teacher
would change because of the Internet, teachers replied, "No, not
really." Administrators answered, "Yes, I think so."
At least two interpretations are possible: Either administrators
are more visionary and more open to change than teachers, or administrators
are less in touch with the realities of the classroom than teachers.
Under either interpretation, if administrators act on their beliefs
and attempt to make changes in their schools, they must make sure
their teachers are on board -- otherwise, in the end, change won't
occur.
The pedagogical value of the Internet
When we reviewed teachers' responses to the question "What do
you need with respect to technology?" we were struck by how few
answered "more Internet connections." Given the hullabaloo around
putting the Internet in classrooms, we thought we would see this
need ranked much higher than it was. What was going on? Perhaps
educators didn't see any pedagogical value in the Internet and
thus didn't want it in their classrooms, we thought, or perhaps
they already had enough Internet connections.
To explore these explanations, we added another question: "Is
time spent on the Internet by your students time well spent?"
Nearly half of the respondents said yes, while only a handful
actively disagreed. Specifically, about 47 percent of teachers
agreed; 20 percent disagreed; and 33 percent had no opinion. Nearly
half of the administrators agreed; 10 percent disagreed; and 42
percent had no opinion.
Most interesting, the pattern of responses -- about a third
with no opinion, about half agreeing with the statement, and only
a small percentage disagreeing -- held across the board. This
pattern held for teachers who reported using the Internet in the
classroom, and it held for teachers who reported not using the
Internet in their classroom. It held for teachers who appeared
to be more technologically mature, and it held for those who did
not.
Next year, these data will serve as a baseline for comparison,
but until then, our single question about Internet usage is still
too coarse grained, which means we need to be cautious about interpreting
these data. Nevertheless, of the approximately 600 teachers and
administrators surveyed, only 10 to 20 percent were clearly negative
about the pedagogical value of the Internet. That tells us there
isn't widespread negativism about using the Internet in schools.
The future of the snapshot survey
The data from the snapshot survey paint an interesting picture:
While teachers are not sanguine that technology will have a major
impact on schools, they do believe it has pedagogical value for
their students. Moreover, if we can address the different needs
of teachers, we should see increased use of the technology in
the classroom. Administrators are more upbeat about technology's
role in changing education, and with their ability to bring about
changes in their schools and districts, they are positioned to
help address those needs. Taken together, then, these findings
suggest that we on a trajectory for seeing an increase in the
use of technology in our schools and districts.
We believe the snapshot survey on technology can provide assistance
as education moves ahead with the integration of technology. Schools
and districts should find out what their teachers and administrators
do, believe, and need all along the way, so midcourse corrections
can be made. The Internet can be the mechanism through which short
surveys are developed to address local questions. It can be the
place where teachers and administrators drop by and participate
in helping their communities grow smarter about the issues that
affect their efforts to integrate technology into their classrooms
and schools.
Cathleen
A. Norris is a professor in the Department
of Technology and Cognition, College of Education, at the University
of North Texas, Denton. Elliot
Soloway is a professor in the Department of Engineering and
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, College
of Engineering, School of Information, School of Education, at
the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Gerald
Knezek is an associate professor of Technology and Cognition
in the College of Education at the University of North Texas,
Denton. Neal
W. Topp is an associate professor in the Teacher Education
Department, College of Education, at the University of Nebraska,
Omaha. Jon Young is a professor in the Department of Technology
and Cognition, College of Education, at the University of North
Texas, Denton. Katherine
L. Box is a doctoral candidate in curriculum and research
at the University of North Texas, Denton.
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