Sunday, October 13, 2024

Barriers in Math Education Technology

 Modern education is requiring teachers to integrate technology at a level that is unprecedented in human history. As a result, teachers are presented with many barriers which inhibited them from effectively integrating the newest technology in the classroom.



Prior Learning Experience

One of the strongest barriers teachers have with integrating technology in the classroom is the teacher's own inability of seeing the usefulness of technology. Many modern educators did not have these technologies when they were learning, so many feel the technology is unnecessary to really understanding concepts (de Freitas, and Spangenberg, 2019).

Lack of Proper Training

With the above reason, another aspect of the barriers which modern education faces with properly integrating technology in the classroom is effective professional development (Kalonde, 2017). Because teachers are apprehensive of changing their pedagogical approaches to teaching, they need resources to inspire them to see the necessity of integrating technology in the classroom. 

Speed of Developing Technology

Another aspect of barriers of technological implementation in the classroom is an unavoidable reality of the evolution of technology. What was relevant last year is now completely obsolete. Compounding this with the genera; apathy educators have of changing their pedagogical approaches leads to a lack technological integration in the classroom.


Addressing the Problem

One thing educators can do to combat technological barriers to education is promote professional development. Also, in these sessions a fostering technological acceptance should be sought to inspire teachers to adjust their practices to ever developing technological landscape.

References

de Freitas, G., & Spangenberg, E. D. (2019). Mathematics teachers’ levels of technological pedagogical
     content knowledge and information and communication technology integration barriers. Pythagoras,
     40(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/pythagoras.v40i1.431

Kalonde, G. (2017). Technology Use in Rural Schools: A Study of a Rural High School Trying to Use
     iPads in the Classroom. The Rural Educator, 38(3), 27–38.

Monday, October 7, 2024

Technological Trends

 The more advanced our society becomes, the more rapidly technology evolves with that advancement. As a result, it becomes important to adapt to the changing landscape. However, this adaptation becomes exceedingly difficult. This is partly due to the speed of new technologies being produced but is also due to differentiating how to properly integrate the new technology in a substantial way.



Emerging Technology Trends

 Emerging technological trends, as it relates to education, is the study of emerging technologies and the analysis of how that technology interacts with the society as a whole. This is accomplished by integrating and collecting data to assess the impact of the burgeoning technology.


The Digital Divide

One aspect of emerging technological trends we need to consider is the divide we see in global connectivity. While it may seem that we are more connected than ever, this is really only true in Western societies. In Western societies, connectivity is above 70% (exceptions being mostly rural communities), while countries in Asia and Africa are less than 50%.


Obstacles

A major reason for this inequity of internet usage is accessibility. However, we also see inequity in Arabic States with women. There is a striking disparity between cell phone and internet usage for woman in these cultures. 61% percent of woman use cell phones and internet, which is juxtaposed by 76% male usage. While this data seems alarming, we can see from previous years that women are starting to get more access to connectivity. 70 million women had no access to internet in 2017, and now 51 million do not. It may be a slow process, but it seems that the gender gap is closing.


References

Gender Gap - Mobile for Development. (n.d.). Mobile for Development.
     https://www.gsma.com/r/gender-gap/

‌Signé, L. (2023, July 5). Fixing the global digital divide and digital access gap. Brookings.
     https://www.brookings.edu/articles/fixing-the-global-digital-divide-and-digital-access-gap/

Barriers in Math Education Technology

 Modern education is requiring teachers to integrate technology at a level that is unprecedented in human history. As a result, teachers are...