Obstacles to Integrating Technology into the Middle School Curricula

Studies have examined the relation between use of technology as a teaching resource and higher student academic achievement while other studies have documented the lack of technology use by most teachers. However, there is deficient information regarding teachers' perceptions of available technology, support, professional development as obstacles to better use technology. Consequently, this descriptive case study investigated teachers' experiences integrating technology in the classroom and possible ways for teachers to increase the use of technology. More specifically, the research questions addressed teachers' perception of the obstacles to integrating technology into their practice and ways to overcome them. In a concurrent mixed methodology approach, 36 of 42 teachers at a Southern U.S. public middle school returned a questionnaire that included hardware and software inventory to classify accessibility and usage as well as open ended questions that described the essential themes of teachers' experiences when integrating technology. Additionally, 19 teachers participated in the semi-structured interviews that expanded on data on teachers' experiences from the survey. Transcribed open-ended data were coded into a priori themes aligned to the research questions and combined with quantitative data on class size, student/computer ratios, time delegated to the use of technology in class. The combined findings were used to identify core themes that included lack of time, lack of professional development opportunities, and lack of hardware as common major obstacles to integrate technology in their teaching practice. These findings can be used to develop best practices to integrate technology in the middle school curricula. This study's potential for social change rests in its findings ability to help administrator planning to resolve the obstacles teachers face when they try to use technology to enhance students' academic and social skills.