BARRIERS TO THE EFFECTIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and Local Education Authorities (LEAs) have become increasingly involved in the process of procuring what schools need to deliver ICT effectively.  This has led to a conflict between larger organisations being able to offer economics of scale and schools' autonomy and wish to choose their own ways of providing ICT which best fits their own circumstances.  (Gillespie. H. 2007)

In relation to funding ICT, questions were being asked about whether the money spent on ICT is justified by the improvement in pupil attainment?  A study, to tackle the issue of how to measure the impact of ICT on teaching and learning, examining both methodologies  and data on ICT in schools, was the ImpaCT2  (Harrison, Comber, et al, 2002), the results were that there were clearly differences in attainment associated with the greater use of IC t, this was present in more than a third of all comparisons made between pupils' expected and actual scores in National Tests or GCSE's, these  were not large differences.  In none of the comparisons was there a statistically significant advantage to the groups with lower use of ICT.  (Gillespie. H. 2007)

An ICT sceptic might say that because the improvements in attainment are slight, therefore money being spent on ICT is not having a positive impact on the learning of most pupils.  To look at the other side of the argument, with supporters of ICT, they may argue that investment in ICT over a number of years might see more extensive benefits than those indicated in ImpaCT2.
(Gillespie. H. 2007)

In 2003, Becta, the government's lead agency for ICT in education, has been gathering data on the ICT barriers currently perceived by teachers.  This data was collected through a questionnaire, available online and also on Becta's stands at the BETT show and Education show.
170 individuals completed the questionnaire, many of them citing more than one barrier, the total number of suggestions was 226.  The number of survey responses for each item were :-  Lack of confidence - 48;  Lack of access to quality resources - 47;  Lack of time - 37;  Lack of personal access - 11;  Age - 4.
As this was only an initial survey, and being a relatively small sample means it cannot be representative of the views of the teaching population as a whole. (www.becta.org.uk)

There will surely always be barriers to the effective use of technology in education because there are always people afraid of change.