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Technical Problems – the human factor
If you are in the academic sphere, you must have heard the common saying ‘Publish or die’. I wonder if a modified version of this saying can be applied to the technical and technological situation in my country, Egypt, and others more. I wonder if something like ‘Integrate technology or lose your students’ is appropriate to use in describing the complicated situation of school teachers.
The discussion on my previous post stimulated me to consider the reasons behind the unpleasant situation of little or none use of technology in our schools. Pardon my reference to the Egyptian context often as it is the only context I’m very familiar with. Believing that teachers are the ambassadors of change, I decided to start with this human factor in the education system and try to go deeper into their reasons for going on without considering technology.
Why do most Egyptian EFL teachers are not considering the integration of technology in their teaching? Having been a school teacher for many years, I was in close contact with many EFL teachers and I can assume I’m aware of many of the thoughts haunting many of them:
- Some teachers think that technology is a waste of time, if they have been ‘good’ teachers for years without technology, why bother about it now? They are just satisfied the way they are.
- Some teachers believe that technology is not for them. “I’m not into technology and I don’t think I can ever be’.
- Some teachers feel, which is true sometimes, that it takes a lot of time and effort to learn even basic stuff about technology. Many of them can afford neither the time, money, nor the effort technology requires.
- Other teachers blame the situation on the somehow discouraging conditions they have to work under: large classes, the widespread of private tutoring, indifferent students, unsupportive administration, mocking colleagues, … NAME IT! Honestly speaking, I sympathize with them at some of those points.
- Some teachers can’t simply see what technology may add to their classes; NOBODY told them before.
This list does not go in any specific order. I just recalled how things were like when I was a school teacher a few years ago. No, it’s not from the past, believe me; this is the exact current situation.
These are my two cents for now. Eager to know what you have to say and how similar/different things might be in your context.
February 5th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Hi… I’m checking the groups’ blogs through google reader and getting caught up on LAST’s weeks work… Your post caught my eye (beautiful blog, btw)…
I have been simply blown away these past few weeks to find out how much I don’t know about Web 2.0 and how far behind the breaking wave I actually am! ….Even MORE startling has been the discovery that many of my colleagues are even further behind than I am in this respect… and I am living in one of the “more developed” and forward-thinking nations of the world!
I would like to add to your list of “reasons” that teachers don’t use technology in the classroom: the simple reason that the learning curve (on top of our already heavy workloads and other commitments) is quite steep. It takes dedication and drive to WANT to learn to use these new tools + a few late nights, not to mention an acceptance of the fact that what I am learning today will be out-of-date by next year!
However, I do think that this is the future of education, and Internet technology has important implications for parts of the world that historically have not had such easy access to teachers and materials.
Gina
http://webgina.edublogs.org/
February 5th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Hi there,
I find all your reflections very accurate for many others’ teaching contexts. You really make a point here, and have to say that it’s the same here in Salta (Argentina), even when speaking about private schools. And I specify my province because there might be other realities somewhere in my country, say Buenos Aires for example, though I’m sure there are just a few exceptions.
I’d like to quote some of your reflections in my blog, as I’m trying to deal with the same topic.
Thanks, and congratulations on a very neat and brilliant thinking.
Pato
http://reflectingonweb20.blogspot.com/
February 6th, 2008 at 3:46 am
Hi
Well what you say about other teachers and their attitude to technology is not so surprising. It is for many of the reasons you have stated and the steep learning curve as stated by Gina. But it is also, I think, the frustration that one can experience with technology, you can write a long post, not save it elsewhere and them in one fell swoop,press the wrong button (or a problem in the internet connection or innumerable other problems)and everything just disappears. I am not really into technology as such, but when compared with other teachers that I work with I seem to be. Now I work in the freshman department of a university in Turkey which prides itself on being a leader in terms of technology. That means that every student is given a laptop, wireless access is everywhere in the university, all lecture halls and classrooms have projectors etc. Yet I know many instructors who won’t even take the time to learn how to construct a powerpoint presentation- basically time issues and technology frustrations. On the other hand, for 2 semesters I have required blogs in class and I get a very mixed response from the students. Some tell me that they just hate technology and don’t want to learn how to use simple things like blogs even, others tell that they just don’t want to be bothered. And this is for the generation who was brought up with computers and the internet. Pretty much all of our students are from wealthy backgrounds as well. I think it is a combination of the above. I wonder how your students feel about the use of computers. You only talked about the teachers’ attitudes.
I, however, do see it as the future of learning, which is why I have educated myself on how to use it in the classroom.
Jo
February 6th, 2008 at 7:53 am
[...] fact, since yesterday I’ve been thinking of the best way to reply to Lilian’s Human Factor post about her Egyptian context of teachers not feeling the need or not willing to incorporate [...]
February 6th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Patricia,
Thanks a million for your reflection and comment on my post. Please feel free to quote the part you’re interested in. We can also link our blogs for teachers to reflect on both of them.
Cheers
February 6th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Fear 2.0 …
I’m afraid I couldn’t really comprehend your comment as some parts of it was missing. I’d appreciate it if you post it again.
Lilian
February 6th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Dear Lilian,
In fact it was me who wrote a post, and this is what we call “trackback”. I mentioned your post and linked it in my post, so it gets here just to let you know that I linked to it, and probably I’m referring to it.
What happened was that I wanted to answer you in a more complete way, so I ended up writing a post on your ideas and getting other people’s ideas on the topic. This is the true power of conversations in the blogosphere, right?
So, here’s the link to the post, but you’ll notice that it is already hyperlinked in the extract from the trackback above. Cool, isn’t it?
http://explorations.bloxi.jp/a/fear-20/
February 6th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Hi
I think we teachers are all human beings. Countries, social economic situation, time, and so on are just labels and excuses and do not explain why technology is used or not. I think the issue has to do with our beliefs and with our fears as Carla has hinted in her post. I have seen teachers who work in the most unfavorable situations concerning technology support produce wonderful web 2.0, or other tech related/produced work. On the other hand, I have also seen teachers in institutions that are fully equiped with the latest tech gadgets who are still unaware or dismiss the potential of these tools for teaching. I believe that at the bottom of this issue lies our belief in finding the perfect method for teaching. Sometimes we wish technological or traditional methods would just be embraced by all as a religion and that is not going to happen. However, this does not mean that neither is inefective or obsolete. I think both are valid and conductive to learning. Maybe our concepts of learning and what it means to learn need to be revised. I am totally in favor of the use of technology for teaching/learning and I think that denying learners the possibility of integrating the tools they use in their dayly lives to help them learn, is stealing from them the chance of seeing learning as an ongoing process that is not restricted to books and lectures.
Thanks a lot
February 8th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
[...] Since week 4 started, I’ve been reading non-stop. From Konrad’s reflective post to Lilian’s teaching context and Carla’s reaction with Fear 2.0 plus all their comments! I simply don’t know where to start [...]
February 9th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Lost in the blogosphere: from the B4Ed wiki through the technorati link trying to get here I find carla arena’s – “So, here’s the link to the post, but you’ll notice that it is already hyperlinked in the extract from the trackback above.” – Goodness there’s more out there – but I’m jumping in all the same.
I can see two valid problems for academics:
a). it is customary to ensure that one is more, rather than less, au fait about what has been said already before “publishing”…. and here we are drowned in information
and
b). living in France – whose motto includes “Egalité” – lots of teachers are most concerned about the digital divide – the tremendous advantage of the student who has easy access to wifi at home compared to those that have access only in the university buildings, which close at 7pm.
This being said – after just one week of introducing my university students to blogging as a class activity, the enthousiam of some of the students is overwelming – confirming 100% what you said : “Integrate technology or lose your students”
Beautiful blog – congratulation
Elizabeth
February 9th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Elizabeth,
You’ve made an excellent point. In a world where our students are more technologically savoy than we teachers are, integrating technology, and the web-based one in particular, is becoming a matter of life or death for our careers. In the program I’m teaching in now, I started an e-mail exchange program with a US based class. This encouraged many of them to have an e-mail to participate in the program. They began paying attention to their writing and typos. Although, to most of them, it was a whole new experience and they haven’t been online before, they enjoyed themselves greatly. Gradually, they became aware of the progress they have made in their proficiency. They can now see a benefit of the English classes that goes beyond the walls of the class.
Thanks for your contribution. What’s your blog URL?
Lilian
February 10th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Thanks you for your kind words – “my” website is a very temporary first try with a group of 4th year University students, who I have for just 9 weeks – and some of them have actually spent a year in the UK. It’s not of great interest ourside the class, but if you do visit, look in the blogroll at Marjorie – who has spent a year in the UK, and Roland who has never left France.
The students were already assessed on a courselog – so for assessment purposes we’ve simply transferred the courselog to a blog
http://m1physfebruary2008.edublogs.org/
What I find far more interesting is the amazing clip of my 3rd grandchild, 18month old Gabriel skiing on http://eliza-bethsphotos.blogspot.com !!!