Enablers

The article ENABLING TEACHERS TO MAKE SUCCESSFUL USE OF ICT looks at the positives for using ICT in teaching.

BECTA Literature review

The REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH LITERATURE ON BARRIERS TO THE UPTAKE OF ICT BY TEACHERS seems to cover a lot of ground I need to cover in my review on ICT uptake.

It identifies the barriers as:

? A very significant determinant of teachers? levels of engagement in ICT is their level of confidence in using the technology.
? There is a close relationship between levels of confidence and many other issues which themselves can be considered as barriers to ICT.
? Levels of access to ICT are significant in determining levels of use of ICT by teachers
? Inappropriate training styles result in low levels of ICT use by teachers.
? Teachers are sometimes unable to make full use of technology because they lack the time needed to fully prepare and research materials for lessons, particularly where this involves online or multimedia content.
? Technical faults with ICT equipment are likely to lead to lower levels of ICT use by teachers.
? Resistance to change is a factor which prevents the full integration of ICT in the classroom.
? Teachers who do not realise the advantages of using technology in their teaching are less likely to make use of ICT.
? Little evidence was found in the literature to support the view that age affects levels of teachers? ICT use.
? There is some evidence to suggest that teachers? gender has an effect on the degree to which they use ICT.
? There are close relationships between many of the identified barriers to ICT use; any factors influencing one barrier are likely also to influence several other barriers.

Sugestions for research included:
? Looking at sector specific and subject specific barriers. This could then lead to identifying the ICT enablers ? those factors which motivate teachers into fully engaging with ICT in their work.
? Researching the barriers and enablers specific to individual technologies, such as the internet, interactive whiteboards, or digital video.
? Investigating some of the barriers in more detail to understand how they group together, and the specific actions that may be taken to overcome the main ICT barriers.

This latter one appears relatively important and a fairly new way forward - the paper clearly identifies possible correlation i.e. a lack of ICT knolwedge will lead to...

Has this paper stolen my thunder

Barriers to use of elearning

Does the article Educational research on ... provide a good starting point for my dissertation or has it negated the work because it already has been done.

The article elearning at universities - where will it go is based around swiss / german experiences. Highlighting the possible 'issues' it sees change management being required with 5 key dimensions facilitated through a four phase approach.

Review of 'What happened to elearning and why'

The review looks at an American paper surveying why elarning has not succeeded.

Elearning barriers

The Seven E-learning
Barriers Facing Employees is an example of a survey from America into the barriers to using elearning. Undertaken through a web-based anonymised survey it categorises the type of barriers identified from a learners perspective.

The typology is relatively (an refreshingly) comprehensive and while it's complexity may hinder analysis it tackles the issues in a realistic way. It identifies the barriers into:

- Types e.g. personal, learning style, organisational
- Factors e.g. competence, organisation
- Influences e.g. age, sex.

It also saw a relationship for management between (1) person, (2) behavior, and (3) environment in thatL

- Person must have the correct cognitive skills to undertake the elearning.
- Organisation must provide the correct supporting mechanism
- Belief and behaviour must be positive towards the use within teaching and learning.