Teachers & Technology:
A Snapshot of a Texas High School
Draft by Kathrine Box
May 1999
Instrument
Teachers & Technology: A Snap-Shot Survey was designed to ask teachers directly about their classroom technology related needs and beliefs. Version 3.1 includes demographic questions, a likert-like section on beliefs, a 5-point scale on urgency of technology needs, questions about student and instructional time using computers and a stage of technology adoptions self assessment. Internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha) for the 25 scaled items was calculated at .72
Sample
Data was collected from a high school in a north Texas town 30 miles from a major metropolitan area. The districts have a total of 11 school buildings with 1 high school. The student enrollment for 1998 school year was 6092 with 1722 students at the high school. The school average for teachers with advanced degrees, years of teaching experience and teacher turnover rates are near the state median.
Teachers & Technology: A Snap-Shot Survey (version 3.1) was distributed at a meeting at the high school. A total of 97 surveys were collected of which 72 (74%) were high school teachers. The sample contained 39 (40%) males and 54 (56%) females. Age groups are shown in the table below:
| Age group | Frequency | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| 20-29 | 10 | 10% |
| 30-39 | 19 | 20% |
| 40-49 | 32 | 33% |
| 50+ | 31 | 32% |
Table 1: Age distribution
Of the 97 respondents, 61 (63%) reported having a computer at home and 50 (52%) have Internet access at home. A slightly smaller number use their home computer for school related activities: 53 (55%) use the computer in general and 39 (40%) use the Internet from home for school related activities. The number reporting a compatible computer between home and work was 43 (44%), while 7 (7%) have a laptop available for school work.
Of the 72 who marked that they were high school teachers, 50 (69%) reported having a computer at home and 47 (65%) have Internet access at home. A slightly smaller number use their home computer for school related activities: 40 (56%) use the computer in general and 31 (43%) use the Internet from home for school related activities. The number reporting a compatible computer between home and work was 36 (50%), while 6 (8%) have a laptop available for school work.
Findings and Discussion
Several questions can be answered using the data collected. Some will be compared with a group of data gathered from other sources using the same instrument.
Where do they get information about teaching with technology?
The subjects were asked to estimate the percentage of information they received about teaching with technology in six sources. Equal assignment would have resulted in approxmently 17% in each category. If they responded 50% or more, it was considered a major source of information. The table below displays the number of responses greater than 17% and 50%.
| Source | Number of people answering greater than 17% | Number of people answering 50% or more |
|---|---|---|
| Peers and colleagues | 41 |
21 |
| Conferences | 29 |
12 |
| Internet | 29 |
8 |
| Teacher Magazines | 14 |
4 |
| Local resource person | 17 |
3 |
| Research Journals | 14 |
2 |
Table 2: Responses to source of information about teaching with technology
The table illustrates that peers and colleagues are considered a major source of information about teaching and learning with technology.
How do they rate themselves?
The educators were asked to select one of six levels that best described their stage of technology adoption. Stage one is Awareness and stage six is Creative application to new contexts. This group represented a wide range of self rated technological competence with respondents at all levels. The average of the group on this question was 3.52 with a standard deviation of 1.53. The chart below graphically displays the distribution of responses.
Figure 1: distibution of stage of adoption of technology
A comparison group of teachers from 13 school districts in north Texas averaged 4.10, demonstrating a higher average level of technology integration confidence than the school in this report. A different group consisting mostly of technology conference attendees reported an average stage of 4.94 demonstrating that that teachers who go to conferences tend to rate themselves higher on this scale.
What technology needs do they have?
The educators were asked "What, if anything, do you need to make technology an integral part of your school or classroom's curricular activities?" The responses ranged from less urgent (1) to most urgent (5). At this high school, the most urgent need in the list was "Need more software that is curricular-based" (average = 4.02), followed closely with "Need more training with technology" (average = 3.98). The lowest scoring statement by far was "Need more compelling reasons why I should incorporate technology into the classroom" (average = 2.93). The second lowest average was 3.50.
 |
 |
| Fig 2: distribution of answers to "need more software that is curricular based" | Figure 3: distribution of answers to "need more compelling reasons why I should incorporate technology into the classroom" |
One interpretation of these results may be that they have the reasons but not the skill or software in order to integrate technology into the curriculum. All of the needs are listed below in rank order with the mean of the responses and standard deviations.
| Mean | S.D. | |
|---|---|---|
| Need more software that is curricular-based | 4.02 |
.87 |
| Need more technical support to keep the computers working | 3.98 |
1.00 |
| Need access to more computers for my students | 3.90 |
1.06 |
| Need more access to the Internet | 3.87 |
1.17 |
| Need to be able to try out technology-enhanced curriculum units in my classroom before I am comfortable with them | 3.85 |
.99 |
| Need more resources that illustrate how to integrate technology into the curriculum | 3.75 |
.84 |
| Need more opportunities to work with colleagues to become more proficient using technology-enhanced curriculum units | 3.65 |
1.03 |
| Need more training with technology | 3.63 |
1.12 |
| Need more time to change the curriculum to better incorporate the technology | 3.56 |
1.02 |
| Need more training with curriculum and pedagogy that integrates technology | 3.52 |
1.06 |
| Need more time to learn to use computers and the Internet | 3.50 |
1.17 |
| Need more compelling reasons why I should incorporate technology into the classroom | 2.93 |
1.32 |
Table 3: List of technology needs with means and standard deviations
The mean column in table 3 contains the average response for each of the need questions. The differences between the individual needs listed in this order no more than .10 except between the last and next to last which was .57. In fact, all but the last means are within .52 collectively while the gap is .57 between the last and next to last. One interpretation of these results is that they really don't need reasons, they need the stuff and know how. The difference between means is illustrated graphically in figure 5.
Figure 4: Distribution of Needs Means
What beliefs are held about educational technology?
The educators were asked to read a statement and mark their degree of agreement on a five point scale where 1= strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. The highest amount of agreement was to the statement "If my district offered Internet based professional development activities, I would use them." (average = 4.01) The statement receiving the lowest amount of agreement was "Student time on the Internet is time well spent." (average=3.07)
All the belief questions are listed below in rank order with averages and standard deviations.
| Mean | S.D. | |
|---|---|---|
| If my district offered Internet based professional development activities, I would use them. | 4.01 |
.91 |
| Technology can help accommodate different learning styles. | 3.90 |
.98 |
| I believe that the role of schools will be dramatically changed because of the Internet within 5 years. | 3.80 |
1.08 |
| I believe that the role of the teacher will be dramatically changed because of the Internet within 5 years. | 3.63 |
1.11 |
| I believe that I am a better teacher with technology. | 3.48 |
1.24 |
| Student time on the Internet is time well spent. | 3.22 |
1.18 |
| I believe that textbooks will be replaced by electronic media within 5 years. | 3.13 |
1.27 |
| I believe that the Internet will help narrow the societal gap between the "haves" and "have nots". | 3.07 |
1.20 |
Table 4: Beliefs with mean and standard deviations
If they have computers and the Internet in the classroom, how much are they used?
Most of the sample has at least one computer in their classroom and about one third have at least one Internet connection in their classroom. The table below illustrates the number of computers and Internet connections using only the responses from the 72 high school teachers.
| One | More than one | |
|---|---|---|
| Computers | 45 (63%) |
14 (19%) |
| Internet connections | 26 (36%) |
8 (11%) |
Table 5: distribution of computers and Internet connections by classroom
Overall, 68% reported that there was no use of computers by students. Surprisingly, in 78% of classrooms with one computer and 36% of classrooms with more than one computer, the teacher reported no student use of computers. In those classrooms with one Internet connection, 83% of the teachers reported that the students did not use the Internet for curricular related activities. The chart below illustrates the student computer use in number of minutes per week for curricular purposes by availability of classroom computers.
Figure 5: Student activity on computers compared to number of computers in the classroom.
Teachers use of technology for teaching was reported at higher levels than student usage. Only 32% of the sample reported no teaching related use of computers. However, 68% of the teachers with one classroom Internet connection and 50% of those with more than one connection reported no use of the Internet for teaching related activities.
There is a high correlation between teacher's time using computers and teacher's time using the Internet (.386, p<.01). A high correlation between student time using computers and student time on the Internet was also significant (.462, p<.01). Significant correlations were also found between teacher time on computers and student time on computers (.316, p<.05) and between teacher time on the Internet and student time on the Internet (.257, p<.05). Correlations were also found significant between the number of computers in the classroom and student time using computers (.292, p<.05) and number of computers in the classroom and student time on the Internet (.323, p<.05) as well as number of Internet connections and student time on the Internet (.375, p<.01).
Conclusions
While there are computers in about half the classrooms at this high school, many teachers do not plan for student use of the technology. They have sufficient motivation but do not believe that they have the tools or skills to integrate technology into the curriculum.
References
Becker, H. J. (1999) Internet Use by Teachers: Conditions of Professional Use an Teacher-Directed Use. [available: http://www.crito.uci.edu/TLC/findings/Internet-Use/startpage.htm]
CEO Forum (1999) The CEO Forum School Technology and Readiness Report CEO Forum on Education & Technology: Washington, DC [available: http://www.ceoforum.org]
Jerald, C. D. (1998) By the numbers. Education Week (28:5), 102.
Jerald, C. D. (1998) How Technology Is Used. Education Week (28:5), 110.
U. S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics (1999) Issue Brief: Internet Access in Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994-98 [available: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=1999017]
U. S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics (1999) Issue Brief: Internet access in public and private schools. [available: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=1999005]
U. S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics (1998) Toward Better Teaching: Professional Development in 1993-94 [available: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=98230]
| Box, K (1999) Teachers & Technology: A Snapshot of a Texas High School. [Available: http://www.tcet.unt.edu/research/techrept/snap1.htm] |