Exploring ELT Teachers’ Reluctance towards Technology:
Education Technology vs. ELT Instructors
Last July (2012), after being hired by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Central America to train a group of teachers in Costa Rica, I was confronted with the fact that ELT k-12 teachers were not exactly comfortable with the use of education technology in their school. Bearing in mind this reluctance by teachers, a question has been whirling in my mind all these weeks: Why were/are they so reluctant to using technology?
Teacher’s “comfort zone” is one of the issues teachers have to overcome before they start implementing technology in their classrooms and daily planning. Many private schools do have interactive white boards (IWBs) in many of their classrooms, but up to what extend are they really being used? Then again, IWBs are not the panacea for taking teachers out of their “teaching comfort zone” and helping them use the new tools publishing houses have for them to accompany their course books and language series. If teachers are not happy with education technology, they won’t get to use it eagerly.
Teachers of certain age and social background are not “exactly” happy with new technology in class since their students are better at using these new gadgets. Even though this is fallacious, many ELT instructors, -it seems to be the norm over here in Costa Rica-, don’t feel at ease dealing with gadgets or web pages they are not accustomed to using. The fact is that anyone can become competent in using anything by being properly trained or by being self-taught. Becoming competent –in terms of technology- will help ELT instructors voluntarily get out of their teaching comfort zones.
My main concern as a teacher trainer at this point is to alert school officials and administrators that, -even though education is turning technologically-oriented, teachers must become competent to fully have their students benefit from education technology. In addition, school administrators and heads of departments must also become confident in its use to “somehow” train parents since many of the new technologies for/in education are geared towards allowing parents participate in their children’s schooling and learning (i.e. Let’s Go by OUP). It looks like teachers are also worried about having to deal with parental training if their technological competency is not fully developed.
To conclude, part of the answer to the question stated at the beginning of this paper in regards to teachers’ reluctance towards technology is linked to three different areas: a) Teachers’ teaching comfort zone, b) the need for teachers to develop their technological competency, and c) the lack of parental training to use these new educational technologies to help their own kids.
To fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue, it’s advisable to research these areas:
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How to develop technological competencies
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2
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Parental understanding of education technologies
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Teachers and parents’ understanding of the importance of EdTech
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Teachers’ teaching comfort zones
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5
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Why education technology in k-12 and beyond
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Jonathan Acuña
ELT Instructor & Trainer
Curricular Developer at CCCN
Senior ELT Professor at Universidad Latina
For further comments or suggestions, reach me at:
@jonacuso – Twitter
jonacuso@gmail.com
Sunday, September 09, 2012
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