Factors Impacting Technology Skills in K-12 Educators

Technology is more and more integrated into the classroom. This continued trend necessitates educators further developing their technology skills in order to keep up with the trend and also meet the needs of the “digital natives” that are now occupying K-12 classrooms. Factors affecting technology skills development in K-12 educators include professional development opportunities, attitudes surrounding technology acceptance, and sustainability. While these factors are listed separately, they have an interconnectedness that without addressing one, the whole practice of technology integration is impeded.

In-service educators advance their technology skills through professional development opportunities. When districts purchase new technologies for their teachers, there is an expectation for teachers to receive training and onboarding for the new technology. However, according to Bart Epstein, school districts will purchase new technologies for their teachers, but forgo paying additional for specialized training, (as cited in Kologrivaya & Shelifer, 2022). Teachers want to improve their education technology skills, but due to high costs for trainings, districts opt out of training for their teachers (Kologrivaya & Shelifer, 2022). This lack of investment in their educators adversely impacts the attitude and culture of the district.

The purpose of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is to explain factors affecting technology integration in the classroom. There are two key factors that impact technology acceptance in the classroom; perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU). When evaluating studies featuring TAM, attitudes towards technology inclusion in the classroom are predicated first on PEU and secondly on PU (Schere et al., 2019). Attitudes also impact “teachers’ confidence, beliefs, and self-efficacy, and with a significant relation to school culture,” (Spiteri & Chang, 2020).

Sustainability is a significant topic of discussion when talking about technology integration. Technology is continuously evolving, with new models, new software, new versions of everything dropping and releasing annually (Tondeur et al., 2016). Take a look at Apple, they update their MacBooks and iPads annually, with new processor chips better than the previous years. Advances in technologies like Augmented Reality (AR) bring new aspects to the education experience. Sustainability also references the culture within the K-12 environment. The culture becomes sustainable, and thereby more accepting of technology inclusion, when educators have opportunities to grow professionally, build professional learning communities, and see real examples of education technology successfully integrated into the classroom (Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010, as cited in Tondeur et al., 2016; Prestridge & Tondeur, 2015 as cited in Tondeur et al., 2016; Tondeur et al., 2016).

There is an interconnectedness between the different factors impacting technology skills development. Attitudes and culture impact acceptance. Perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use connect into sustainability, demonstrating real world successes to educators, allows them to see PEU and PU as a reality and not a proposed theory or selling point. Districts investing in their educators by not only purchasing technology meant to improve the learning experience on both sides of the equation, but also investing in developing their educators’ necessary skills to use the technology, investing in their profession and success. This leads to an improved culture, a respect, growing professionally with the support of their campus.

References

Kologrivaya, K. And Shleifer, E. (2022, April 15). Teachers aren’t getting enough training on technology. It’s a global problem. Ed Surge. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2022-04-15-teachers-aren-t-getting-enough-training-on-technology-it-s-a-global-problem

Scherer, R., Siddiq, F., & Tondeur, J. (2019). The technology acceptance model (TAM): A meta-analytic structural equation modeling approach to explaining teachers’ adoption of digital technology in education. Computers and Education, 128, 13-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.09.009

Spiteri, M., & Chang Rundgren, S. N. (2020). Literature review on the factors affecting primary teachers’ use of digital technology. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 25(1), 115-128.

Tondeur, J., Forkosh-Baruch, A., Prestridge, S., Albion, P., & Edirisinghe, S. (2016). Responding to challenges in teacher professional development for ICT integration in education. Educational Technology & Society, 19(3), 110-120.