Since the inception of DT within education, practitioners have travelled a tempestuous journey. Hence, research being instrumental in determining the causes of inadequate integration of technologies, and the consistent themes, instrumental in re-shaping the future of DT integration within education.
Originally, digital technologies were designed for business purposes, as discussed by (Watson, 2001, p. 251). As DT infiltrated education, practitioners were expected to utilise digital technologies, without themselves receiving training (Wastiau, 2011, p. 16). Digital tools, traditionally complex to utilise and not aligned with traditional teaching pedagogies, caused difficulties in their implementation (Bull, 2016, p. 117), resulting in abandonment of their integration (Watson, 2001, p. 253).
As a project worker within education, these themes, highlighted within research, are issues that I have encountered within my work. Although a shift in organisational approaches to DT integration is evident. The establishment of working groups and organisational plans, to counteract these issues (Wastiau, 2011, p. 18) have evolved.
Although great strides, integration of DT still encounters resistance. Investment in staff development and capacity building are on the agenda, influenced keenly, by increased access to well-developed online training modules, now mandatory for many staff (Trust, 2018, p. 55). Instrumental, are the huge efforts being undertaken to utilise DT tools that can be successfully integrated into educator pedagogies, a massive leap in the right direction, given that this has been difficult in the past (Wastiau, 2011, p. 23).
The implementation of DT for educational practitioners, has been, and continues to be, challenging. However, integration of DT within education is changing, many institutions are implementing strategies to counteract these inhibitors.
References
Bull, G., Thompson, A. D., Schmidt-Crawford. D., Garofalo, J. (2016). Evaluating the Impact of Educational Technology, Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 32:4, 117-118. https://doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2016.1217052
Trust, T. (2018). Why Do We Need Technology in Education? Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 34(2), pp. 54–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2018.1442073
Wastiau, P., Blamire, R., Kearney, C. (2013). The Use of ICT in Education: A Survey of Schools in Europe, European Journal of Education, Vol.48(1), p.11-27.
Watson, D.M. (2001). Pedagogy before Technology: Rethinking the relationship between ICT and teaching. Education and Information technologies 6:4, 251-266. doi:DOI: 10.1023/A:1012976702296