High school classes last 55 minutes each and in that time there are "housekeeping" tasks
that must be done. Then there are other tasks mandated by the district that also take time.
It is not unusual for a class to begin 10 to 12 minutes into the period. If the lesson calls for
students to use computers, and the classroom is not equipped with one for each student,
time is spent moving to a lab. Finally, students must get settled in, receive instructions and
then work on the task at hand. On any given day the computer can freeze, the internet can
go down, or a host of other problems can arise causing a delay in the lesson plan which
throws the plan for the next few days off. Sometimes a project that should only take a
couple of days gets strung out into several more. Along with time management problems,
teachers have other barriers to face when trying to integrated technology into their
curriculum. According to Harvey Barnett, teachers face six barriers to effectively integrating
technology into their curriculum:
Leadership: lack of leadership is the single biggest barrier to the use
of technology.
Access: one or two computers or a weekly visit to a computer lab do
not impact learning.
Time: it takes time for teachers to review software and figure out how
it fits with their instructional program.
Cost: schools often provide only minimal funds to purchase software.
Teachers may not be willing to spend their own money to
purchase multiple copies of software.
Training: Apple Classroom of Tomorrow research found that it takes
training for teachers to move from "How do I turn it on?" to
where they comfortably and routinely integrate technology
into their classroom.
Reform: technology makes its greatest impact when teachrs use
project-based learning practices to engage students. (Barnett, 2001, p. 4)
Thus all the problems, from the "time" problem to the reliability of the equipment seems to
be a reasonable cause for any teacher to be cautious when asked to integrate technology into
daily lesson plans. Finally, the use of technology in high schools in poor districts can be an
exhausting, time consuming ordeal that leaves giant unanswered questions for the teacher
regarding technology integration into daily lessons. The amount of energy needed for
this task is not always in abundant supply for a teacher who has a student load of 180 +
students daily.
Carol Pope and Jeffrey Golub state in their article, Preparing Tomorrow's English
Language Arts Teachers Today: Principles and Practices for Infusing Technology, that
One of the critical lessons to learn as a teacher in a technologically rich
environment is that we will never be completely caught up; we will never
know everything. We will constantly learn with and from out students...
the English language arts classroom will necessarily become learn ing-
centered and learn er centered, with both teacher and student functioning
in both roles (Pope & Golub, 2000, p. 5).
High school teachers in all disciplines, not just English language arts, feel the time crunch as
they move through the curriculum, prep students for standardized tests, and interact with
peers, administrators, and parents.