Study Reveals Teachers’ True Views on the Use of Digital Technology in the Classroom
Now long ago, Pew Research published its latest report focused on digital technology and education. The study focuses on schoolteachers’ opinions on the effect of digital technology in the classroom. The results are more than surprising since the majority of teachers actually approved the use of technology in education.
The report is called “The Impact of Digital Tolls on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in Schools.” For the purposes of the study, researchers interviewed thousands of teaches in different middle and high schools. According to the survey, many of them believe that the use of digital technology in the classroom can make students more collaborative in class.
The reason why this finding is so interesting is that only a few months ago, teachers had a different opinion. The last report of Pew Internet on the topic was published back in November 2012. What it showed was that nearly 65% of school teachers saw digital technology in the classroom as distracters for students.
Today, however, about 50% of the teachers who participated in the study share that digital tools make their work much easier. A little over 30% do not think that it affects the teaching process. Barely 18% of them state that technology makes their work harder.
According to the report, among the most popular digital technology in schools today are interactive whiteboards. In addition, the research has found that many schools now incorporate online platforms, like websites and blogs, for sharing materials and works.
In addition, a big part of the teachers who took part in the survey think that some tools can improve students’ writing skills. They had the highest opinion of software that enables pupils to quickly edit and revise their work.
Nevertheless, teachers are against the complete integration of technology in the classroom and in the teaching and studying process. That is because many of them have noticed that the overuse of technology has a bad effect on students. In fact, when digital tools are used too much, they actually result in students’ bad writing skills. According to them, that is because pupils, who rely heavily on technology tools, invest less effort on their work and studies.
A prove for that is the fact that nearly 70% of teachers do not rate their students’ writing skills as excellent. Moreover, one of the main problem which students have at school is their habit to use informal language in their writings. In addition, a big part of them tend to plagiarize, for one reason or another.
The bottom line here seems to be that schools should not fully adapt technology in their teaching and learning activities… not yet, at least.
