Alison Q. - Article #3

Article #3: Why Some Teachers Are Against Technology In Education  

(https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/why-some-teachers-are-against-technology-in-education/) 


This article explains that many teachers feel strongly about technology use in the classroom (both for it and against it), and explores why teachers may feel negatively about technology.  Some of the reasons include the following:

  1. Change.  It can seem like education is constantly undergoing changes, some of which don't seem to amount to much.  This constant changing can leave teachers feeling exhausted and resistant to changing things just for the sake of it.  The integration of new technologies into the classroom can be included in this for some teachers.

  2. There can be a failure to identify different types of technology (learning models vs. learning platforms vs. types of technology, etc.).  Without being able to place different kinds of technology into the appropriate category, teachers may not be able to adequately determine their effectiveness.  For example, let's say a teacher thinks TikTok (social media) is a distraction with no classroom utility.  If this teacher puts TikTok into the same category as Chromebooks, Nearpod, flipped classrooms, etc., the teacher may fail to see how any of these technologies might be useful in the classroom.

  3. Utilizing technology in the classroom means that the teacher needs to understand it and be good at it.  It takes practice to become proficient at incorporating various technologies into lessons.  This is in addition to the content knowledge and teaching skills educators must possess.  

  4. Technology can be expensive and not all schools can afford it.

  5. Technology can distract students from learning course material if used ineffectively and/or inappropriately.  Some teachers feel the distraction is not worth the potential benefits.

  6. The implementation of technology does not just affect single lessons - its use alters key components of the educational framework such as the way we assess students, the way we design course curricula, the way we manage our classrooms, and more.  This is possibly the point of most concern, as it shakes the foundational ideas that many have about what school looks like or should look like..

However, regardless of teachers' opinions, technology use in the classroom does not appear to be going away.  Technology provides new opportunities all the time and does not seem to be a passing fad.  The article states that, as educators, we should not ask ourselves if we should use technology in the classroom, but rather how we should use it.  


I thought this article was really thought-provoking.  The point that was made about how technology changes critical components of the educational system really resonated with me.  I definitely had to make changes about my classroom management, assessment and feedback practices, and lesson planning techniques as I taught this past year during the COVID-19 pandemic.  I taught synchronously and asynchronously, 100% online, hybrid, and face-to-face (as many other teachers did) in the course of one school year and I continually had to make adjustments based on the amount and types of technology I was using at the time.  My techniques and strategies that I have used for years in a 100% face-to-face classroom setting simply did not work the same way and so I had to adjust.  I would love to see a follow-up to this article written after a year of pandemic teaching to see how teachers' attitudes toward technology have changed, if at all.  

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