Overcoming Barriers to Technology Use in Teacher Preparation Programs

Indiana, Clarion, and Edinboro Universities of Pennsylvania are completing a PT3 grant, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, entitled "Preparing Teachers for the Digital Age." The grant made great progress in infusing technology into the teacher preparation curriculum possible, and participating faculty know how far they have come. But this innovation remains incomplete--some outcomes remain unachieved, and many faculty are still in early stages of technology adoption. Moreover, the barriers to technology adoption--time, support, models, infrastructure, and culture--persist and even reappear with new technologies. This article reviews the status of the barriers to technology adoption and their relationship to the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) and other research. The successful methods used in this project and the lessons learned are also reviewed and related to CBAM and other research. It concludes that change facilitators need to offer multiple forms of support and incentives, tie incentives to desired outcomes, involve faculty in decision-making to secure buy-in, use faculty models, supplement technical support with peer support and well trained student assistants, and cultivate strong administrative support. These methods will help deal with the persistent concerns and barriers to technology diffusion. ********** A consortium of Indiana, Clarion, and Edinboro Universities of Pennsylvania is in the final stages of a three-year Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Starting as normal schools in the mid-1800s, today these three institutions collectively graduate more than 1500 teachers per year. They are NCATE accredited and have some 325 faculty members directly involved in teacher preparation programs and hundreds of others providing subject area courses that support them. They are located in Western Pennsylvania, which is predominantly low-income and rural. The consortium's PT3 grant was entitled "Preparing Teachers for the Digital Age: Implementing a Dynamic Model of Pedagogical Change." The goals of the project were to: 1. Infuse instructional technology more deeply into the teacher education curriculum in both education core courses and selected majors. This goal encompassed faculty training, the integration of technology in courses, creation of technology-enhanced assignments, and revising syllabi to incorporate appropriate uses of technology. Eleven competencies were targeted, along with electronic portfolios, which spanned multiple competencies. 2. Integrate instructional technology into preservice observations and field experiences. 3. Provide a variety of professional support opportunities for faculty and preservice teachers, including technology-based teaching circles and technical support services. 4. Enhance the technology infrastructure of the consortium members to better support the project initiatives, including multimedia capability of computer labs, campus networks, computer replacement schedules, and faculty participation in technology planning. BARRIERS THEN AND NOW The consortium's proposal, written in 1999, identified five major barriers to infusing technology into teacher preparation. After substantial investment in instructional technology since the late 1990s, have we eliminated them? Let us examine those barriers--then and now. 1. Time. Teacher preparation faculty faced more time constraints than other faculty, for student teacher supervision reduced time to revamp courses and access to support. In the language of the CBAM, faculty were at an early or intermediate stage of innovation, either barely aware of the potential of technology or expressing concerns about time management and logistics (Hord, Rutherford, Huling-Austin, & Hall, 1987). Thomas A. Beggs (2000) found that faculty ranked lack of time first among barriers to technology adoption. …