Abstract:
This paper aims to clarify causes of the apparent reluctance of some classroom teachers to assist students to learn through the use computers. The main emphasis will be on primary school teaching, but it will be argued that the same, or similar, issues affect teachers at secondary and tertiary levels. It should be noted that the focus is on planned learning with the assistance of computers rather than on whether teachers and students do or do not use computers in the classrooms.Teacher communications, both formal and informal, together with classroom research reports indicate the existence of underlying concerns about promoting student learning with ICT. This paper proposes that the reluctance of some teachers to make ICT an integral part of their classroom teaching practices is related to factors over which they have limited control. This reluctance occurs even though teachers tend to use various forms of social networking as part of their non-classroom lifestyle in a technologically ubiquitous environment. Over the past decade the author has participated in several small-scale research projects conducted in Australian schools. Each project has been a mini-case study and data has been collected through video-recording lessons and interviewing teachers.The projects discussed here include working with a whole class in a computer room but not in a classroom with a limited number of computers, teachers encouraged to use the Internet to connect with students from their class who were in hospital for extended periods, and teachers in a suburban primary school who were asked to use of both online and paper-based testing of their students.Much reported research into teacher use of ICT, especially in the first decade of this century, has identified the major restrictions as a lack of teacher confidence in teaching with ICT and a perceived lack of access to quality resources such as hardware, software, and professional training. These factors focus on the technology and still appear in recent reports (for example OECD, 2015), but they are considered to be in the process of being overcome. Three issues that were found to affect both experienced and beginning teachers related to their personal involvement in learning with technology, the whole-class approach of much professional development, and continual changing and upgrading of educational technologies. These issues have implications for both pre- and in-service education of classroom teachers.OECD, (2015). Teaching in Focus Brief No. 12 - Teaching with technology. Available online: http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/teaching-with-technology_5jrxnhpp6p8v-en