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Technology Integration Barriers: Urban School Mathematics Teachers

Perspectives

Article in Journal of Science Education and Technology · February 2011

DOI: 10.1007/s10956-010-9230-y

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J Sci Educ Technol (2011) 20:17–25
DOI 10.1007/s10956-010-9230-y

Technology Integration Barriers: Urban School Mathematics

Teachers Perspectives
Patrick Wachira • Jared Keengwe

Published online: 27 May 2010

 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010

Abstract Despite the promise of technology in education, potential of technology to reform or even transform edu-
many practicing teachers face several challenges when try- cation (Cradler et al. 2002), educational technologies are
ing to effectively integrate technology into their classroom yet to be effectively integrated into instruction in most
instruction. Additionally, while national statistics cite a K-12 classrooms (Levin and Wadmany 2008).
remarkable improvement in access to computer technology Surveys of teachers show consistent declines in the
tools in schools, teacher surveys show consistent declines in classroom use of technologies. A report by the National
the use and integration of computer technology to enhance Center for Education Statistics (2005) indicated that 44%
student learning. This article reports on primary technology of teachers used technology for classroom instruction, 42%
integration barriers that mathematics teachers identified for computer applications, 12% for practice drills, 41%
when using technology in their classrooms. Suggestions to required research using the Internet, 27% had students
overcome some of these barriers are also provided. conduct research using CD-ROMs, 27% assigned multi-
media projects, 23% assigned graphical presentations of
Keywords Teachers
Urban schools
Technology materials, 21% assigned demonstrations, 20% required
integration
Integration barriers
Student learning students to use technology to solve problems and analyze
data, and 7% assigned students to correspond with others
using the Internet. These low figures imply that effective
Introduction integration of technology into classroom instruction has yet
to be realized. This article presents findings on primary
The need for teacher preparation to integrate technology technology integration barriers that mathematics teachers
into their teaching has been voiced by federal agencies, identified when using technology in their classrooms.
national professional organizations, and teacher education Technology integration means incorporating technology
accreditation agencies for over a decade. However, despite and technology-based practices into all aspects of teaching
reports of increased investments in instructional technol- and learning specifically, incorporating appropriate tech-
ogy resources (Culp et al. 2005), the near universality of nology in objectives, lessons, and assessment of learning
computers, Internet access and other forms of technology outcomes. Technology in the context of teaching and
within the nation’s schools (Wells and Lewis 2006) and the learning mathematics includes computers with appropriate
mathematical software, online discussion boards and Java
tools. Applets on the Internet allow students to interact
P. Wachira
with the mathematics problems. Other technologies include
Department of Teacher Education, Cleveland State University,
Cleveland, OH 44115, USA dynamic software such as those used in geometry and data
e-mail: [Link]@[Link] analysis that allow for interactivity, graphing calculators,
handheld computing devices such as palm pilots that allow
J. Keengwe (&)
for real time data collection, analysis and representations,
Department of Teaching and Learning, University of North
Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202, USA and some applications software such as spreadsheets that
e-mail: [Link]@[Link] allow for algebra and data analysis.

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18 J Sci Educ Technol (2011) 20:17–25

Technology tools can help students to extend the range Teachers also need time to learn how to use the hardware
and quality of their mathematical investigations and to and software, time to plan, time to collaborate with other
encounter mathematical ideas in more realistic settings. teachers and time to incorporate technology into their
Technology tools provide powerful capabilities for com- curriculum. Lack of adequate time implies that teachers are
putation, construction, and visual representations offering less likely to commit themselves using technology to
students access to mathematical content and contexts that enhance student learning (Bauer and Kenton 2005).
would otherwise be too complex for them to explore. Some teachers lack technology skills and pedagogy in
Calculators, computer software tools, and other technolo- using technology (Hughes 2005; Koehler and Mishra
gies assist in the collection, recording, organization, and 2005), while others are unwilling to try because of anxiety,
analysis of data. Technology tools also provide, accurate, lack of interest, or lack of motivation (Duhaney 2001).
convenient, and dynamic drawing of graphs. Many teachers cite ineffective technological leadership in
their institutions as a big challenge to computer technology
integration (Duhaney 2001; Krueger et al. 2000). Cuban
Barriers to Technology Integration (2001) reported lack of time and poor technical support as
barriers to technology integration in the classroom. Dvorak
Teachers who may be committed to integrating computer and Buchanan (2002) cited lack of time, funds and the
technology in the classroom may find the process chal- connection between technology training and the curriculum
lenging due to the barriers that exist. Some have classified as barriers to integration of technology in the classroom.
these as either external (first order) or internal (second
order) barriers (Snoeyink and Ertmer 2001). First order
Purpose of Study
barriers include lack of equipment, unreliability of equip-
ment, lack of technical support and other resource-related
While the use of technology has been found to be an
issues. Second-order barriers include both school-level
effective means to produce growth in students’ under-
factors such as organizational culture and teacher-level
standing of mathematics content (Cradler et al. 2002),
factors such as beliefs and attitudes about teaching and
research findings indicate that few teachers integrate
technology and openness to change.
technology into their teaching to enhance student learning
Teachers’ decisions on whether and how to use tech-
(Cuban 2001). This study sought to explore urban teachers’
nology for instruction ultimately depends on the teachers
perspectives on barriers that hinder technology integration
themselves and the beliefs they hold about technology
in their mathematics classrooms. While there are a number
(Bitner and Bitner 2002; Ertmer 2005). Others studies have
of studies examining the integration of technology into
identified resistance to change, negative attitudes toward
teaching, few of them focus on perspectives of urban
computers, constraints on training and support, cost, and a
mathematics teachers and the barriers they encounter in
lack of access to the right types of technology in appropriate
integrating technology into their instruction.
locations as key barriers to integration of technology in the
classroom (Ertmer 2005; Harris and Sullivan 2000; Zhao
et al. 2002). Zhao et al. (2002) found that although schools Research Questions
have computers housed in laboratories or the media center,
access to them is limited because of competition with other The following three questions guided this study:
teachers for laboratory time. Another overlooked yet a
(a) What are some of the technologies that are available
strong barrier to integration of educational technology in the
for teaching mathematics?
classroom is change. Harris and Sullivan (2000) note:
(b) What are the primary reasons as to why technology is
When teachers are asked to integrate technology they not widely used in the teaching of mathematics?
are really being asked to change and adopt new (c) What are the major reasons as to why teachers do not
teaching tools such as the computer and the Internet. use technology in their classrooms?
These are vastly different tools from the classroom
tools many currently use such as the chalkboard,
overhead projector, or television (p. 12).
Methods and Procedures
Other studies reported lack of time, lack of equipment,
and lack of training as barriers to technology integration Research Setting and Participants
(Beggs 2000; Bauer and Kenton 2005). Without adequate
hardware and software, there is little opportunity for A mixed methodology combining qualitative and quanti-
teachers to integrate technology into the curriculum. tative elements was used (Creswell 2002) to investigate

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J Sci Educ Technol (2011) 20:17–25 19

urban school teachers’ perspectives on barriers that hinder preliminary analysis of the survey and written question-
technology use in the mathematics classrooms. The sample naire had been done. Teachers were observed as they
consisted of 20 teacher; 15 female and 5 male teachers. interacted with the technology in the course throughout the
These cohort teachers were enrolled in ‘‘Teaching mathe- semester. Notes from classroom discussions and observa-
matics with technology’’ graduate course at a large mid- tions of the teachers while learning to use technology
western university in the United States in the Spring provided more qualitative data.
semester of 2008. This course was a requirement for a
masters’ degree program that these teachers were pursuing. Data Analysis
The teachers were informed that participation in the study
would not affect their grade in any way nor the instructor’s Qualitative data was analyzed by thematic analysis, ‘‘a
attitude towards them. Two researchers, the classroom process for encoding qualitative information’’ (Boyatzis
instructor and an instructional technology support staff were 1998, p. vi). Each data source was analyzed independently
involved in data collection over the course of the semester. by the researchers for patterns which were coded induc-
A third researcher was involved as an outside consultant. tively and sorted for emerging themes. Data were coded as
The mathematics course was selected for this study belonging to one theme (category) only. Triangulation was
because it was a content-specific course. Garofalo et al. accomplished through the use of multiple data sources
(2000) recommended that features of technology be intro- (interviews, survey, and researchers’ notes from classroom
duced and illustrated in the context of meaningful content- discussions), double-checking findings, and checking for
based activities rather than on generic teacher learning and relationships that converge. Triangulation was also con-
development. They argued that teachers who learn to use ducted by cross checking and comparing findings among
technology while exploring relevant mathematics topics the two researchers. The analysis of the questions from the
are more likely to see its potential benefits and use it in survey was descriptive in nature. This article used
their subsequent teaching. Harris (2008) also suggested that responses of selected questions from the survey. Analysis
a logical approach to helping teachers to better integrate and reflection of data from the researchers’ notes was an
technologies in their teaching is to directly link students’ ongoing process throughout the semester. This process
content-related learning needs with particular content- helped clarify the teachers’ responses from the survey and
based learning activities and related educational technolo- written questionnaire.
gies that will best support the activities’ successful
implementation.
Findings
Data Collection
The urban teachers in this study identified several barriers
Qualitative data was drawn from the teachers’ written that hinder their own technology integration. This paper
responses to the three questions that guided the study and uses Snoeyink and Ertmer (2001) framework to categorize
from class discussions and in-depth interviews in which the the barriers as either internal or external. While these
participants had the opportunity to clarify their responses. barriers are not independent of each other and sometimes
Quantitative data meant to supplement the qualitative data, overlap, they are discussed separately to highlight their
was drawn from the teachers’ responses to a survey importance. The results from the qualitative data are dis-
adapted from Gado (2004) that included items designed to cussed first.
assess their beliefs and attitudes about mathematics and
about technology. Three of the participants were selected External Barriers
for an in-depth interview. The three were selected because
they were teacher leaders or math coaches in their school Availability of Technology
district. Math coaches worked directly with teachers in 2–3
schools where they observed and provided feedback on From the interviews and classroom discussions, the par-
effective teaching strategies. Math coaches sometimes took ticipating teachers acknowledged that progress had been
over a class to present model lessons or to free up teachers made in the provision of technology in their schools;
allowing them to collaborate on lessons planning. These however, they agreed that generally it was not adequate.
coaches were therefore knowledgeable about the techno- They cited lack of hardware and appropriate software as
logical resources available in their schools. primary barrier to technology integration. When asked
The written questionnaire and attitudes survey were what technologies were available in their schools, most
administered at the beginning of this study. In-depth said they had a few computers with internet access, cal-
interviews were conducted 2 weeks later after a culators, textbook publishers’ tutorial sites and CD-ROMs

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used to ‘enhance learning’, though the teachers felt these problem was only worsened by technical support that was
were mainly for drill and practice. They lacked dynamic very slow in responding to their needs. Also since teachers
software such as those used in geometry and data analysis did not often use computers, many forgot their passwords
that allow for interactivity yet these are technologies that and had to call technical support to reset their passwords.
can support sound mathematical curricular goals of The problem is that there may be just one technical support
exploration and investigative learning. They reported that person in the building or as stated by one teacher:
due to lack of funds, their district would never spend over
Tech services is located somewhere (downtown?).
$1,000 for a site license.
Support is available if you have phoned in a work
From the class discussion and interviews, it emerged
order. Your work order may be in the bottom of the
that there was wide disparity in the availability of tech-
pile and may take days or weeks to get an issue
nology within the school district. One of the math coaches
resolved.
said of the schools she supervised, ‘‘in all, there are about
four computers in the elementary classrooms and two in the Teachers also were of the opinion that their school
high school classrooms. About half of these are not func- lacked technology leadership. The lack of leadership led to
tioning’’. Another math coach interviewed noted that of the the acquisition of a ‘mishmash’ of technology, tools, as one
two schools she supervised, one had just one computer lab teacher put it, some of which may not be useful to the
while the other had four labs. All of the three teachers teachers. It also created disparities in the availability of
interviewed pointed out that in many cases teachers lacked technology in a school or even within a grade level thus
access to computers in class let alone a couple of them for creating inequities in student access to technology since
the students. One teacher said, ‘‘Teachers in my school some teachers used technology while others did not.
shared one or two computers in the teachers’ lounge. I have Teachers including the math coaches reported that they
to work on the computer with someone watching over my were hardly involved in decision making as to what tech-
shoulder asking when I will be done’’. The three math nology was needed in their schools. Only one of the coa-
coaches interviewed said that calculators were available ches interviewed had been consulted on spending the funds
but often were too few for an entire class, thus discouraging for the purchase of technology. Many teachers also said
teachers from using them since they could not have one for they were not authorized to download or install any soft-
each student. ware even though they felt it may be useful. In other cases
it was left to the teachers to take the initiative of writing
Unreliability of Technology grants to purchase technology tools and attend workshops
or conferences where they would learn how to use the
The other major obstacle to technology integration was that technology.
where available, the technology was often unreliable. One
of the coaches said, ‘‘There is a computer lab in the school
Internal Barriers
with laptops but they have not worked at all this year. The
district is trying to have the lab working’’. She stated that
Teachers in this study reported that where technology was
they had a computer lab with brand new computers but
available, it was mostly underutilized. They cited various
these were missing cords to connect to printers and even to
reasons including, the lack of time, a lack of knowledge on
electrical outlets. In the whole class discussion, many
appropriate technology use, anxiety and a lack of confi-
teachers complained that because computers were con-
dence in using technology.
nected to a network, it was often difficult to use them as the
servers were slow or at times the server was down. She
summed the lack of technology integration in two words: Lack of Time
‘‘unpredictable functionality’’ and argued that many
teachers that she worked with avoided using any kind of Teachers stated that they did not have the time to invest in
technology because they were afraid it might fail in the learning to use or to develop specific technology activities
middle of instruction. for classroom use. They cited increasing accountability
demands, such as the urgency of meeting curricular
Technology Support and Technology Leadership benchmarks and preparing students for the state tests as the
reasons that make it simply too hard for them to find the
Another barrier mentioned by many of the teachers had to time to explore, experiment with and incorporate technol-
do with the lack of technical support and technology ogy use as a regular part of their instructional practice.
leadership. On the technical aspect, the teachers said that Using technology was seen as additional work, as one
with the available technology being so unpredictable, the teacher noted, ‘‘We are just too busy to do anything extra.’’

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J Sci Educ Technol (2011) 20:17–25 21

The lack of adequate technology, and where available, Anxiety and Confidence
unreliable technology only served to discourage them fur-
ther as they did not have the opportunities to consistently From the interviews, discussions and instructor observa-
work and experiment with the existing technology tools. As tions it emerged that the participating teachers lacked the
one teacher said, ‘‘The unpredictable functionality and the confidence and had anxiety in using technology in their
uncertainty of getting timely technical support make it teaching. They cited unreliability of technology and the
almost not worth the time to learn and use technology.’’ knowledge that technical assistance would not be available
Another issue raised by the teachers was classroom if and when they needed it as one of the factors that con-
management and discipline. Many teachers felt that it tributed to this anxiety. They were afraid of making mis-
would be difficult to manage a large number of students in takes while using technology or damage to the technology
a computer lab and many students would be off-task. Many tools. The fear that something might happen was observed
teachers also cited inability to manage the classroom by the instructor on several occasions. While working on
technology. Some teachers said that they often chose not to the computers, it was observed that one of the coaches,
use calculators with students because, more often than not, panicked whenever she made a mistake and was almost
the calculators went missing and the teachers did not want helpless and did not want to touch the computer anymore.
to be responsible for missing or lost technology resources. When the instructor helped simply by undoing the previous
task, she would respond ‘‘How did you do that? You are so
patient’’. She was often afraid to experiment with the
Lack of Knowledge technology in case she made a mistake and easily gave up
and constantly needed reassurance that the computer would
Teachers may lack knowledge in two ways: lack of skills not always fail.
and expertise in using technology and the lack of peda-
gogical knowledge in using technology appropriately.
From the interviews, the math coaches admitted lacking Findings from Quantitative Data
skills to effectively integrate technology into daily class-
room practices. Their teachers reported similar experi- The teachers responded to several survey questions
ences. The instructor also observed during the course of the designed to assess their dispositions toward using tech-
semester that the teachers did not have the ability to use nology and their beliefs about appropriate use of technol-
technology to develop appropriate activities. Two-thirds of ogy. This was in light of findings in the literature review
the teachers interviewed did not have the skills and that suggest that teachers’ attitudes might be a barrier to
expertise on using widely available applications, such as technology integration.
spreadsheets and PowerPoint.
Teachers cited the lack of training on appropriate tech- Teacher Dispositions to Learn
nology use as a key reason for their lack of knowledge in
using technology. Most of the teachers said that the tech- Results from the survey (Table 1) show that while a sig-
nology training they had so far had been generic and did nificant portion (item 20, 61% agree or strongly agree) of
not help them learn content-specific ways of technology the teachers were unsure of their abilities to integrate
integration. One teacher pointed out that many teachers did technology into their teaching, they generally held positive
not know how to engage their students in learning with dispositions in regards to learning how to use technology
technology. One math coach remarked: tools. A majority of them (item 1, 92% agree or strongly
agree) said they enjoyed learning to use technology. They
I observed a teacher teaching proportions and wat- all expressed willingness to learn more on how to use
ched students bogged down performing long division technology for instructional activities (item 14, 100%) if
when they should have been allowed to use the cal- given the opportunity and almost all expressed confidence
culator as they were already familiar with long divi- that they could learn technology skills (item 27, 92.4%
sion algorithm. The teacher should have allowed the agreed or strongly agreed).
use of calculators so the focus was not on computa-
tion but understanding of the proportions con- Appropriate Uses of Technology
cept…perhaps the use of calculators would have
helped students quickly compute the mean and Teachers were generally convinced of the cognitive
median, again shifting the focus to learning rather advantages of technology to improve students under-
than spending time with routine computational standing of mathematics (item 9, 77% agree or strongly
procedures. agree), that technology can create more learning

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Table 1 Teacher dispositions to learn and to use technology Table 2 Beliefs about technology use
Frequency (Percent) Frequency (Percents)
Item Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly SA Agree Disagree SD
agree disagree
9. Using technologies in 4(30.8) 6(46.2) 3(23.1) 0
1. I enjoy learning how to use 7(53.4) 5(38.5) 1(7.7) 0 mathematics lessons will
technology improve students
14. If given the opportunity, I 7(53.4) 6(46.2) 0 0 understanding
would like to learn more on of mathematics
how to use technology for 17. Technology can create more 6(46.2) 6(46.2) 1(7.7) 0
instructional activities. learning opportunities for
20. I am unsure of my ability 4(30.8) 4(30.8) 4(30.8) 1(7.7) students
to integrate technology in 26. Students should not be 1(7.7) 2(15.4) 8(61.5) 2(15.4)
my classes. allowed to use any technology
27. I am confident that I could 6(46.2) 6(46.2) 1(7.7) 0 until they have mastered the
learn technology skills. concept or procedure
31. Calculators will cause a 3(23.1) 2(15.4) 7(53.8) 1(7.7)
decline in basic arithmetic
facts
opportunities for students (item 17, 92.2% agree or strongly 32. Technology is motivational 6(46.2) 6(46.2) 1(7.7) 0
agree) and that more problems can be solved when students 33. Technology makes 6(46.2) 6(46.2) 1(7.7) 0
have access to technology such as calculators (item 36, mathematics fun
69.2%, agree or strongly agree). Only a small portion of the 36. More interesting 3(23.1) 6(46.2) 4(30.8) 0
teachers felt that technology would cause a decline in basic mathematics problems can be
done when students have
facts (item 31, 38.5% agree or disagree) compared to access to calculators
61.5% who disagreed or strongly disagreed with this 39. Technology are only tools 0 3(23.1) 8(61.5) 3(23.1)
statement. A significant portion of teachers (item 26, for doing calculations more
76.9%) disagreed or strongly disagreed that students should quickly
not be allowed to use technology until they have mastered 40. Technology should only be 0 2(15.4) 10(76.9) 2(15.4)
the concept or procedure. They acknowledged that tech- used to check work once the
problem has been worked out
nology tools are not merely for doing calculations more
on paper
quickly (item 39, 84.6% disagree or strongly disagree) or
should only be used to check work once the problem has
been worked out on paper (item 40, 92.3% disagree or
strongly disagree). Most teachers realized that that tech- Education Statistics (2005), findings from this study sug-
nology is motivational (item 32, 92.4%) and technology gest that some schools are still suffering from lack of
makes mathematics fun (item 33, 92.4% agree or strongly technology. The teachers in this study cited lack of ade-
disagree). These results are provided in Table 2. quate technology resources or access to technology in
appropriate locations, such as classrooms, and poor
administrative support as key barriers to their own inte-
Discussion gration. The availability of computers and interactive
whiteboards for instance, was limited to a lab setting or the
From the interviews, classroom discussions, instructor’s school’s media center. Scheduling of their time in the
notes and results from the survey, the major barriers that computer labs was inadequate and thus a barrier to inte-
stood out with this group of urban teachers in the use and grating technology into instructional activities in a mean-
integration of technology in their classrooms included (a) ingful way making it difficult to meet the goals of
unavailability and unreliability of technology, (b) lack of technology access for both teachers and students.
technology support and technology leadership (c) anxiety Several of the teachers blamed the lack of proper lead-
and lack of confidence in using technology and (d) lack of ership and a lack of support from the administration in
knowledge. ensuring that technology is available and reliable and that
technical support is available and efficient. With no tech-
Availability, Reliability and Administrative Support nology leadership, availability is haphazard as only those
who have an interest are able to obtain needed technology
While many studies and national statistics indicate that through grants or some other means. The fact that a teacher
access to technology has improved National Center for who is committed to using technology has to write own

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J Sci Educ Technol (2011) 20:17–25 23

grants for such technology, creates disparities on avail- consistent basis for instructional activities. Findings from
ability even within a school thus creating inequity in the National Center for Education Statistics indicate that
learning where some students are exposed to technology the availability of classroom technology correlates to tea-
while others are not. cher use of computers, and teachers who had adequate
To ensure effective integration of technologies an computers in their classes more often assigned activities in
effective technology policy is required where the school which students used technology (National Center for
administration has commitment to the teachers and to the Education Statistics 2005). Teachers in this study still felt
students. Administrators should strive to support teachers that technology training they were getting in this course
who may be committed to integrating technology while was not of much use if there would be no opportunities to
encouraging those who may not be. Teachers should be put the skills learned in practice; they were just taking the
trusted in identifying and making decisions on technology course to fulfill their degree requirement.
purchases in their school. In addition good leadership
would ensure continuous funding to make sure resources
Anxiety and Confidence
were adequate and to replace broken and missing equip-
ment. Technology expertise can also be achieved only
While the teachers who participated in this study agreed
when technology tools are available all the time so that
that they were unsure of their abilities to integrate tech-
teachers can have flexible time to learn it, experiment with
nology into their teaching, results from the quantitative
it, and plan to use it on a consistent basis for instructional
data and from the interviews indicated that they generally
activities.
held positive dispositions towards learning how to use
technology in their classrooms. They stated that they were
Appropriate Technology Use
confident they can learn and given the opportunity they
would like to learn how to integrate technology into their
Teachers are constantly challenged to teach with technol-
teaching. However, they acknowledged that teaching with
ogy yet the teachers themselves are new to various tech-
technology requires extensive investments of time and
nology uses and may have had no personal experiences as
accountability demands left them little time to invest in
students themselves in technology-infused classrooms
learning and developing meaningful activities using
(Jacobsen et al. 2002). Similar to previous findings which
technology.
have shown that teachers have a limited knowledge of
Inadequate, unreliable technology and poor technical
appropriate ways of using technology to enhance learning
support only served to further discourage the teachers from
(Wachira et al. 2008; Koehler and Mishra 2005), the
using technology and heighten the anxiety for those who
teachers in this study cited as a barrier the lack of appro-
may want to use it. To attain confidence, teachers need
priate knowledge on how to integrate technology in their
time to learn, time to plan, time to collaborate with other
teaching. While the results from the survey indicate that the
teachers and time off to engage in professional develop-
teachers were generally convinced of the cognitive and
ment opportunities such as attending conferences, work-
affective advantages of technology in improving students’
shops and seminars, where they can develop positive
understanding of mathematics, their lack of content-spe-
dispositions towards technology use. Teachers need time to
cific training hindered their own abilities to develop
be comfortable with technology in order to use or integrate
meaningful mathematics activities that use technology.
it in their courses.
From the interviews and class discussions, it emerged
that teachers did not know how to take advantage of
technology as powerful tools to strengthen students’
understanding of mathematics. Teaching with technology Implications and Recommendations
is not simply adding technology to the existing teaching
and content domain. True technology integration involves To enhance computer use and integration in education,
understanding and developing sensitivity to the dynamic, recommendations for effecting change over the long term
transactional relationship between the three components of include improving classroom access to hardware, software,
knowledge: technology, pedagogy, and content as modeled and the Internet, bolstering technical and administrative
in the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge support to teachers and strengthen professional develop-
(TPCK) framework (Koehler and Mishra 2005). ment around content specific instructional uses of tech-
Teachers in this study also lacked the expertise with nology. There are also some immediate measures that
technology because it was not available in their schools. teachers in this study for instance, can take to over-
Expertise with technology can only be achieved when come barriers to their own integration of technology in
teachers have appropriate technology and use it on a their teaching such as forming professional learning

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communities, taking advantage of existing technology Technology Professional Learning Communities

resources in their schools and in their communities. Some
of the recommendations are presented below. Teachers’ anxiety and lack of confidence in technology use
can be lessened in various ways. One strategy is to
encourage teachers to form small-group professional
Strengthen Teacher Support learning communities in which they support each other as
they learn how to use various technology tools. Learning
Teachers generally teach the way they were taught and communities can be critical in helping teachers to over-
infusing technological tools into instruction poses unique come their fear of the unknown and build their confidence
challenges to instructors who lack the technology or don’t in experimenting with and using technology tools. The
have the knowledge and skills to teach with technology. social context of a learning community provides mathe-
Consequently, it is important for schools districts to seek matics teachers with opportunities for interaction where
out professional development that is content-specific. they share and discuss ideas with their peers on how to
Professional development that is content-specific may effectively integrate technology in their teaching. Teachers
provide a clear vision for appropriate technology use thus can bring and share examples of something cool that they
helping address teachers questions and misconceptions on have done with their students. Peer support can also sup-
whether and how technology-based activities address plement technical support and is especially crucial for less
educational objectives. Such professional development technologically proficient teachers making the effort to
opportunities are now available in the many universities integrate technology. Many teachers need someone who
including the one in which this study was conducted, will support them when trying new tools and techniques.
through summer workshops or content-specific whole
semester courses and principals and teachers can take Take Advantage of Existing Resources
advantage of these.
Teachers require time during the regular school day to To mitigate the effects of inadequate technology or lack of
learn from one another. Creating time and opportunities for appropriate software, teachers need to be creative. Teach-
teachers to share ideas can accelerate their use of instruc- ers can seek out and take advantage of free and easy to use
tional technology tools. The administration should technology resources. Often overlooked, for instance, is
encourage teachers to be more professionally engaged for Excel’s math, statistics and graphing capabilities; powerful
instance in frequent conversations and classroom obser- tools to develop and enhance learning of math concepts.
vation with peers, frequently participating on technology Most computers if not all even in poor urban districts are
committees, attending conferences and seminars, taking loaded with Excel which comes as a part of the Microsoft
college courses, mentoring and giving workshops. Through Office suite. Many teachers also have personal computers
such professional engagement teachers see the modeling of at home which they can use to learn and experiment with
appropriate technology use in content-specific contexts. Excel spreadsheets. Teachers can also take advantage of
When teachers are professionally engaged they will be available community resources, such as the public library.
more likely to be active users of technology in their Public libraries are often within walking distance of where
teaching. students live. These libraries are open all week including
Since teachers are the ones at the forefront of reform in Sundays with some closing as late as 9 pm. Assignments
mathematics education, they should be an integral part of requiring the use of the Internet or spreadsheets can be
the process of technology integration. Administrative done at the local libraries.
support therefore means that teachers should be involved in
the decision-making to acquire technology for use in the
classrooms. Teachers should also be given the flexibility to Conclusion
download or install software that they would like to
experiment with and perhaps adopt in their classrooms. While the teachers in this study were enthusiastic about the
Administrative support means encouraging and assisting role technology can play in improving learning and held
those who may want to seek grants. Lack of support by the positive dispositions to learning using technology tools,
school administration implies that teachers may resist using many do not have the opportunity or are still unprepared to
technology as they believe that it takes time away from take advantage of such tools in the mathematics classroom.
their actual instruction and other responsibilities. Teachers These teachers cited lack of technology, unreliability of
more readily adopt practices with technology that improve existing technology, poor administrative and technical
the quality of their work without increasing the demands on support and a lack of Technology and pedagogical
their time (Zhao and Frank 2003). knowledge in using technology as major barriers to

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