Reviving a Graduate Certificate in Online Learning and Assessment: Crisis as Opportunity for Distributed Leadership

P-12 Teachers And Technology Integration

Technology integration in teaching has been increasingly relevant for quite some time, particularly as many districts purchased desktop computers, laptops, and tablets for student use (Cuban, 2001). More recently, technology rollouts in P-12 education meant one-to-one devices first for secondary students, with students in elementary grades following suit and increasingly utilizing devices as part of the school day (Barbour, 2014). Regrettably, access to devices arguably has often taken greater priority than essential conditions described by the International Society for Technology in Education (2022) like ensuring that students had reliable internet access or that teachers had the requisite training or a shared sense of vision to help confidently incorporate technology into their teaching.

Existing research on technology integration in teachers’ pedagogy is complex, and by nature is a field of study which evolves rapidly. Ertmer’s (2005) quest for technology integration focused on the product of the technology for student-centered, constructivist technology use in K12 education. Liu et al. (2018) examined teacher beliefs and how technology self-efficacy affects whether they even decide to integrate technology in their lessons. Mueller et al. (2008) found teachers’ prior computer use was the most significant factor related to technology integration. More closely connected to recent pandemic teaching is Barsalou’s (2015) research similarly has suggested that a decision to take action to integrate technology is based on that person’s experiences, from the social and physical conditions that are present and change over time.