Factors Affecting the Integration of ICT into Teaching

The product of ICT such as computers are powerful and flexible tools that can enhance teaching and learning in innumerable ways. Computers can be used to help make learning more engaging, better address the needs of individual students, provide access to a wealth of information, and encourage students to explore and create (Kleiman, 2000). ICT is an effective means for widening educational opportunities. It is also effective in cultivating collaboration.  Computers can also be excellent resource tools for teaching problem solving and critical thinking skills. They provide a way to visually represent numerous realworld situations and identify patterns in data; therefore, they enhance problem solving skills in the learning process (Ranasinghe, 2009).

Over the past decade, many articles have appeared in popular and educational journals providing anecdotal evidence of changes that educational technology can make in schools (Baylor & Ritchie, 2002). Technology can help schools achieve such desirable outcomes as improved test scores, reduced failure rates, lower absenteeism, fewer student withdrawals, increased graduation rates, improved job placement rates, and overall improvement in motivation (Duffy & Jonassen, 2005; Coffey, 2012; Kleiman, 2000; Saglam & Sert, 2012).

Despite the fact that many researches admit that technology can enhance the quality of teaching since it facilitates the young learner’s world (Duffy & Jonassen, 1992). On the other hand, however, not all teachers are adopting ICT into their teaching. The enduring concern is the reluctance of the teachers to integrate ICT into teaching. Therefore, there is still a gape left between the envisioned advantages of the integration of technology into teaching and its real implementation in the classroom. The question is therefore, what keeps this distance to prevail? The integration of ICT into teaching is affected by many factors.

Teachers’ Beliefs

Individual beliefs play a significant role in the adoption of new Information and Communication Technology (Boling, 2008; Wang, 2008). The beliefs of teachers towards technology greatly influence their adoption and integration of computers into their teaching (Parchoma, 2007; Jakopovic, 2010). Teachers who were enthusiastic about using ICT in general in their teaching were more likely to feel enthusiastic about the adoption of mobile learning (McCallum & Jeffrey, 2009). How teachers view their role as teachers influences how they teach with technology. Teachers’ beliefs about classroom practice appear to shape their goals for technology use as well as the weight they assign to different barriers (Angers & Machtmes, 2005).

Self Confidence

Teachers may be aware the positive effect on technology on their teaching. However, they are reluctant to integrate it into their teaching. The reason is that they have poor confidence in using technology as medium of delivery. Many teachers who do not consider themselves to be well skilled in using ICT feel anxious about using it in front of a class of children who perhaps know more than they do. Larner and Timberlake in British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (2004) found that teachers were worried about showing their pupils that they did not know how to use the equipment, and that it was the teachers who experienced this kind of anxiety who were less willing and or able to make use of computers in their teaching. In addition, pupils’ attitudes and expectations of their teachers’ competence in ICT are likely to contribute to this teacher anxiety.

Work Load

Some recent studies indicated that many teachers have competence and confidence in using computer in the classrooms. And yet, they have not really take advantage in its use because they have no enough time (Lumpe and Chambers in Jakopovic, 2010). Understanding and using technology into teaching and learning require that a certain amount of time be dedicated to the preparation and planning activities. This time is often difficult to come by because teachers are facing many other works to do. The teachers particularly emphasized that they could not use video teaching materials often due to limited time. The teachers generally use ICT-based resources with others materials such as textbooks. In addition, due to the fact that the course content of social studies is very extensive, teachers cannot spare enough time for different ICT materials (Unal & Ozturk, 2012; Oigara & Wallace, 2012).

ICT Skills

On the one hand, the number of new technologies which can be utilized for educational purposes increases rapidly today. On the other hand however, incorporating these technologies into school curriculums and utilizing them effectively in classroom settings is not easy. Some researchers revealed that neither the staff nor the students are adequately prepared for the integration of ICT tools into teaching and learning process. Their level of computer literacy may not be adequate to handle the tools associated with integrating ICT into teaching and learning (Laborde, 2001).

Access to internet

Fabry and Higgs in British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (2004) point out that if teachers and their students are to have adequate access to computers which are to enhance learning, then not only do those computers need to be located in a position where all can access them, but they also need to be of a high enough specification to make their use worthwhile. This involves ensuring that they are internet connected, for example, to allow access to rich resources beyond the school, and also inter-connected, or networked, to allow teachers and students to communicate and collaborate. In their study Fabry and Higgs found that many of the schools claiming to have a low pupil: computer ratio had a large number of computers which were not capable of fulfilling these requirements (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 2004).

Hardware and Software

McCallum & Jeffrey (2009) and Demirci (2009) found that physical condition is determinant of the integration of technology into teaching. Demirci (2009) stated that physical conditions at secondary schools and classrooms are not adequate in terms of hardware and software to incorporate GIS into geography lessons throughout Turkey. Nearly all schools have a computer laboratory. However, almost half of the teachers indicated that there are some obstacles in using those laboratories for their geography lessons. The number of classrooms which include a computer, an LCD projector, and an Internet connection was found to be insufficient in the study.

Leader’s Support

Teachers’ positive attitudes toward integration of ICT into teaching were shaped by institutional policies concerning utilization of technology because educational technology and resources were mentioned frequently (Saglam & Sert, 2012). Leng (2008) admitted that a lot more has to be done by school leaders to be transformational in their role in fully integrating ICT into the curriculum and, in a wider context, in managing change. But she underlined the importance for leaders to have vision. Leaders in schools, she said, must first of all be concerned with the development of a clear and appealing vision. While, Shattuck (2010) stressed the importance of the alignment between teacher’s vision and leader’s vision. If a teacher’s vision is not aligned with the principal’s vision, he said, and then the principal’s vision will not be implemented.

Professional Development

Regardless of the amount of technology or its sophistication, technology will not be used unless faculty members have the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to infuse it into the curriculum. Generally this comes through self-education or professional development. Schools can assist by providing in-service training that meets the needs of the faculty, and by promoting continual growth both within and outside the school boundaries (Baylor & Ritchie, 2002).