Understanding What Administrators See as Barriers to the Adoption of Technology for Learning and Intervention Measures to Overcome the Barriers
by David S. Bail
[This article has been divided into a number of separate web pages for browser-loading ease. You may view (and select) the contents by section title from the Contents, or click on the "Next" button at the bottom of each page.]
Chapter 3 -- Methodology
Introduction
Considering that it was introduced as long as thirty years ago, technology is not being used for learning to the extent envisioned by the Riverside Unified School District Strategic Plan, nor to the level of expectations of many. The purpose of this study has been to address what administrators think are the barriers to the adoption of technology for learning in the Riverside Unified School District and to discover what are the intervention measures that can be taken to accelerate this adoption. This Methodology chapter will attempt to communicate how the data were collected for this research project and to describe the statistical methods applied to analyze the data.
Research Design
Research Strategy
The research strategy chosen for this inquiry was collection of data from a mailed survey, having the intended objective of discovering in the minds of administrators what are the variables that serve as barriers to the use of technology for learning in K-12 public school districts and in the Riverside Unified School District, which barriers are controlled by districts, which barriers can be altered to improve the use of technology, and what interventions have been taken by districts to overcome the barriers to the use of technology for learning.
Population and Sample
Out of a nationwide population of 15,360 school districts, the sample chosen to be surveyed consisted of the instructional administration of the Riverside Unified School District, assistant superintendents of instruction of forty-five other large California school districts, and the assistant superintendents of instruction of 324 districts that are members of the National School Boards Association's Technology and Learning Network.
The study sample was augmented further by the selection of 101 classroom teachers (55 from a high technology adoption school and 46 from a lower technology adoption school) of the Riverside Unified School District, chosen as a comparison group to ascertain if a variance existed between teachers and administrators in the perception of barriers to the adoption of technology for learning.
Measurement of Variables
The return rate of usable questionnaires was 48.9 percent for school districts, 47.8 percent for the teachers at the lower technology using school, and 30.9 percent for the teachers at the higher technology using school. The factors to be confirmed or denied were:
- What beliefs do administrators have that
vary with measures of the factors associated with the adoption
of technology for learning; and
- Which factors vary most closely with the adoption of technology for learning?
Instruments
The survey instrument was constructed so that each respondent could chose an answer to each question corresponding to his agreement with a statement. The questionnaire consisted of two open-ended narrative response items and thirty-three items to which the subjects could respond on a 4-point Likert-type scale.
The questions were developed based upon the adoption of innovations model and stages of concerns, the lifecycle stages of organizations model, restructuring and reforms such as "instructionism" versus constructivism, the learning organizations model and transformational leadership theory, and literature from the field of instructional technology implementation.
The questions assembled by group are as follows:
Adoption of innovations model and stages of concerns (SOC)
1. Use of technology is an experiment:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
2. Use of computers in instruction creates too many problems:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
3. Computers are too complicated to use:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
4. I do not want to use a computer:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
5. I use a computer:
Not at all ____ Only Word Processing ____ Word Processing and one other application ____
Word Processing, E Mail or Online Services, and one or more other applications ____6. Computer use should be encouraged by my district:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
7. Using computers adds motivational interest to classroom lessons:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
8. There are districts that I respect that are successfully using technology for learning:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
31. I need more training about instructional technology:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
33. I plan on increasing the use of instructional technology:
This year ____ Within next two years ____ Beyond two years ____ Unknown ____
Restructuring and reforms, such as "instructionism" versus constructivism (REF)
9. I believe that students must be taught the basics above all else:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
10. My district believes that students must be taught the basics above all else:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
11. I believe that children should take all the necessary time to learn to construct meaning and knowledge:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
12. My district believes that children should take all the necessary time to learn to construct meaning and knowledge:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
26. We are clear on the use of technology as a tool for increased learning, not as an add-on:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
Lifecycle stages of organizations model (LSO)
17. My district is centered on learning regardless of consequences:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
18. My district is willing to take rational risks for instructional improvement over the long haul:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
19. My district evaluates impacts of proposals on scarce resources above all else:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
20. My district is bound by restrictive controls to the point of sacrificing the possibility of new movement:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
Learning organizations model and transformational leadership theory (LOL)
13. My district can choose what it wants to emphasize in curriculum:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
14. The community climate of my district allows experiments:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
15. The internal climate of my district allows experiments:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
16. I am "OK" if an experiment fails:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
24. We have developed a shared vision of the integration of technology into instruction:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
25. I have widely communicated that shared vision of the integration of technology into instruction:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
Instructional technology implementation (ITI)
21. My discretionary funds are:
None ____ A small amount ____ Some ____ Comfortable ____
22. I get support for timely and effective equipment repair for instructional technology:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
23. It is possible for me to get support for timely and effective equipment repair for instructional technology:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
29. I make sure that principals and teachers get support for assistance in selecting technology for instruction:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
30. I make decisions that give support for staff development for the use of instructional technology:
Strongly Disagree ____ Disagree ____ Agree ____ Strongly Agree ____
The questions eliciting the dependent variables were (DEP)
27. The instructional computers in my district are:
stand-alone models ____ networked on-site only ____ networked district-wide ____ networked district-wide and to the outside world ____
28. Instructional computers in my district are used by students:
Elementary grades:
Less than two hours per day ____ Two hours to three hours per day ____
Three hours to four hours per day ____ More than four hours per day ____Middle grades:
Less than two hours per day ____ Two hours to three hours per day ____
Three hours to four hours per day ____ More than four hours per day ____High School grades:
Less than two hours per day ____ Two hours to three hours per day ____
Three hours to four hours per day ____ More than four hours per day ____32. My ratio of students to each instructional computer is:
More than 30 to 0ne ____ Between 29 and 19 to One ____ Between 18 and 9 to One ____
Less than 9 to One ____The open-ended narrative questions were:
34. What would influence you to increase its use sooner? (Narrative)
35. What do you see as the most appropriate uses of instructional technology? (Narrative)
Sampling Methods and Procedures
This sample has been deliberately non-randomly selected because per se it represents districts thought likely to be further along the road toward the adoption of technology for learning and therefore more likely to have identified any barriers that exist and any intervention measures that accelerate adoption.
Further, obviously the non-random selection of the 101 teachers from Riverside Unified School District high- and low-technology adoption schools cannot be thought to be representative of the population of 2.43 million public school teachers in the United States, but it was thought that their viewpoints could add a small taste of practitioner's flavor to this study of administration to ascertain any differences of perception.
Analytical Methods
Each item on the returned surveys was analyzed for its correlation with the factor being measured and the hypothesis being tested. Correlation and regression were chosen because they are the methods appropriate to indicate and gauge causality and by which prediction of future effects can be made. A confidence level of ninety-five percent was accepted as the measure of acceptance or rejection of each hypothesis. Covariance analysis between factors was also conducted to be sure none were mutually dependent
The alternative hypothesis is that variables exist which influence the degree of the adoption of technology for learning in the Riverside Unified School District and in K-12 public school districts, and that those variables could be altered and other intervention measures taken as well to hasten the degree of adoption. The null hypothesis was that no variables were found to exist which influence the degree of the adoption of technology for learning, and that no intervention measures were found to exist which could accelerate the rate of adoption.
Summary
An exploratory study of the factors underlying administrators' attitudes toward the use of technology for instruction was designed to investigate the proposition that seven factors accounted for a large majority of the variance in their attitudes, which could be barriers to the adoption of technology for instruction. The factors are: the administrator's degree of personal technology acceptance or use; the administrator's degree of focus on the learner's learning opportunities as the center of their efforts; their assessment of their own and their district's and their community's belief in the value of educational use of technology as a reform; their self-assessment of their degree of freedom to innovate for instruction; the degree to which they have developed and communicated a shared vision on the educational use of technology; and their assessment of the adequacy of their own resource infrastructure.
Questions were developed for a survey which would probe those areas: the adoption of innovations model and stages of concerns; the lifecycle stages of organizations model, restructuring and reforms such as "instructionism" versus constructivism; the learning organizations model and transformational leadership theory; and literature from field work in actual instructional technology implementation. The two open-ended questions were intended to elicit whether there would be narrative responses indicating conditions such as the necessity of a climate granting permission to innovate and improve, the necessity of a knowledge of how to use technology successfully in instruction, and the availability of resource infrastructure as important intervention measures, to accelerate successful adoption.
