Novice Teachers and their Preparedness to Integrate Educational Technology into the Classroom

Educational technology is the study and practice of simplifying learning and refining student performance by generating, applying and organizing appropriate technological practices and resources inside of the classroom (Campion & Finn, 1991). Thus, educational institutions and school administrations must broaden their contributions to prepare teachers to use technology effectively. This can be accomplished by including state and district technology standards as part of quality teacher preparation programs; comprising assessments of teacher mastery of these standards; and adding ongoing documented professional developments of classroom technologies (Jones, Fox & Levin, 2001). Several qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used to triangulate the data in this study. These methods consisted of an open-ended questionnaire, interview questions, and a Likert scale survey. Data revealed that it is essential for college educational institutions and school districts to infuse proper preparations and continuing professional development in the field of educational technology in the classroom setting to increase learning and motivation. Furthermore, the data in this study revealed that educators recognized that students appreciated and used technology often; therefore it must be implemented into classroom instruction.