Younger Teachers Report Having More Time to Plan Lessons With Technology Than Older Teachers

In a recent survey to a sample of South Dakota teachers, I asked several questions about barriers that were present and that might keep teachers from implementing technology in the classroom. Here's a list of the barriers to technology use that are common in the literature on this issue:

• Access to technology tools and resources
• Technology training and support
• Administrative support
• Time
• Beliefs about the importance and usefulness of technology tools and resources

Overall responses from all survey participants

To explain these items briefly, teachers need to first have access to technology tools and resources if they are going to implement them in their classroom teaching and learning. They also need adequate technology training and support or they won't know how to use technology tools and resources appropriately in the classroom. Administrative leaders in districts must also support the use of technology for teaching and learning. Teachers who wish to implement technology enhanced lessons must have the time they need to plan and prepare such lessons. Finally, teachers and administrators must have beliefs consistent with a technology enhanced approach, including that technology tools and resources are useful and important and that teachers can be successful when integrating technology into learning experiences. 

For the matter of time, some significant findings came out of my survey. It turns out that if you come from a bigger school district, you are statistically significantly more likely to report that you have more time to plan and prepare lessons that integrate technology, however the effect size for this calculation was very small (partial eta squared = .006). The more significant finding in this area was age. Respondents who were in their younger ages (20s) were less likely to report that they had little time to plan and prepare lessons that used technology. The effect size for these questions was still small (partial eta squared = .026), but certainly statistically significant (p < .001).  

Overall responses from all survey participants

Whatever the reasons for these findings, it seems to make sense to find ways to provide older teachers with more time so that they can develop lessons with technology integration. Take a look at some previous findings about technologies available in classrooms from this survey for more information. 

Survey Data: What technology Tools are Available in SD Classrooms?

I recently sent out a survey gathering information about educational technology use among South Dakota teachers. There are approximately 12,000 teachers in our state, my survey email was sent to 12,161 potential respondents and I recieved roughly 10 percent of responses back, about 1187 people responded by filling out the survey. I'll present some of the interesting findings here on the Educational Technology for teachers blog as occasion permits. Since I have not yet analyzed the data from the survey, these results are just preliminary, but still compelling. Today's post is about the availability of key technology tools in the South Dakota classroom.

Teachers were asked which of the following items are always or almost always available in their classroom, here's how they responded:

Technologies that are always or almost always available in South Dakota K-12 classrooms

Based on these results, we can infer that about 72% of South Dakota teachers have a laptop to do their work while only about 46% have desktop computers in their classroom. Only about 40% of teachers have a tablet computer such as an iPad to work with in the classroom. The most common technological tool in today's South Dakota classrooms is an interactive whiteboard such as a Smart Board, Promethean board or another brand. These are found in over 75% of South Dakota classrooms.

Based on this data, in all there are roughly 53% of south dakota classrooms that are 1:1 environments, in which a device is available for all students in the class, whether that device is a tablet, laptop or desktop computer. The most common 1:1 device is the laptop computer, and 34% of South Dakota classrooms have a laptop available for each student.

Another question that teachers responded to was about the technology tools available at schools but not always in the classroom. Here's how they responded:

Technologies that are available at South Dakota K-12 schools, but not always available in classrooms

Many different technology tools are available at schools, but some of the more commonly available items are laptop computers (35%), printers (59%), document cameras (35%), interactive whiteboards (32%) and classroom clickers for each student (37%). All of these items, except interactive whiteboards, are more likely to be available for checkout and occasional use rather than constant use in the classroom.