How do cultural influences on teacher adoption and integration of technology extend beyond the schoolhouse doors?

Who would have guessed that a statement like the one above, "95% of teachers agree that using tech increases student engagement," would be a controversial one? Perhaps my initial perception of this idea as positive and, dare I say, obvious, is colored by the fact that I am, what Rogers (2003) would describe as an "early adopter" or someone who is quick to try out a new technological trend or idea.  I am eager to learn about new programs, apps and ways to incorporate technology to support my students, my teaching and my hobbies and personal life as well. The plethora of apps, for example, that I have downloaded and tried out in an effort to help students capture and record their learning, to learn math facts more quickly or to stream line my grocery shopping and meal planning process (to name only a few) would indicate that I follow this decision making process (pictured below) both quickly (as I progress through the stages) and frequently (as I try new things).

image found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DoI_Stages.jpg

However, the string of comments attached to the Common Sense Media quote above, helped me to realize that, while I may see many advantages in technology as obvious, the public perception is not always the same. Consider a sampling of the comments below:

• Because they're [teachers] too lazy and lack any sort of creativity to make their own lessons engaging. Lame. Technology shouldn't be a crutch for poor teaching methods.
• But, does it improve their learning? Or does it just entertain them a little better?
• But what of the kids that get addicted to the tech and don't do their school work?
• Yep, the technology sure engages them BUT the real question is: Does it result in an increase in achievement???

As I learned about and reflected upon how and why teachers adopt (or do not adopt) technology, this public perception was not one that I had spent a great deal of time considering until I ran across the quote and graphic from Edutopia in my Facebook feed and read the resulting comments. This notion of technology strictly as entertainment rather than a pedagogical tool or as an indication of "lazy" teaching is certainly not limited to the comments expressed above. A quick Google search  yielded recent news articles with similar sentiments and hundreds of comments decrying the state of education and calling for a "back to basics" approach to education in which students would not need to rely upon calculators, spell check and other "crutches." It seems that, at some level, it may be a generational gap and a difference between digital natives and newcomers (or who Rogers may describe as the "laggards") but I think it also extends beyond that and includes a lack of distinction between technology and media. I was struck by the extent to which the comments above and others found in similar discussions seemed to insinuate that engagement is synonymous with entertainment.  While I wholeheartedly agree that it is not the job of a teacher to entertain his or her students, I do believe that engagement is at the heart of learning and that technology offers many tools to enhance student engagement. 

(for an interesting, though slightly out-of-date, debate on this topic, check out http://www.edutopia.org/groups/walden-university/9752?page=3)

As I read the following quote in Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich's 2010 article "Teacher Technology Change: How Knowledge, Confidence, Beliefs, and Culture Intersect" describing the cultural context within which teachers make decisions about their use of technology, I must admit that I thought only about the school or institutional culture rather than larger societal constructs. 

“Teachers are not ‘free agents’ and their use of ICT [information and communication technologies] for teaching and learning depends on the interlocking cultural, social, and organizational contexts in which they live and work” (Somekh, 2008, p. 450). And, unfortunately, for most, the culture to which they must conform has not adopted a definition of effective teaching that includes the notion of technology as an important tool for facilitating student learning." (Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010, p.264)

I thought about the number of teachers with whom I have worked who do not see that "teaching is effective only when combined with relevant ICT tools and resources."  (Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010, p.259) and focused my attention only on the pressures and hierarchies within schools, but now realize how important it is to think more about the public's perception of technology and how that, too, impacts teachers as they make choices regarding technology adoption. It seems to me that videos such as the one below, can help to educate others about what best practices in technology integration really look like.



As educators who believe in the value of technology we must help a wider audience to expand their vision of technology as essential to teaching and learning in the 21st century. I believe that through the sharing of examples that represent best practices and help to highlight the learning (and yes, engagement) of students and then to point out how technology is a means to those ends we can work to break down this additional barrier that teachers face as they make decisions about using technology and may worry about outsiders (parents, tax payers, citizens and other stakeholders) perceiving their efforts as indolent rather than innovative.