Using the Theory of Habitus to Move beyond the Study of Barriers to Technology Integration

Belland, B.R. (2009). Using the Theory of Habitus to Move beyond the Study of Barriers to Technology Integration. Computers & Education, 52, 353-364.

The author speaks of integrating technology into K-12 classrooms aimed at shifting to a more student-centered classroom. The article focuses on schools in Northern New Jersey, and finds that the growth in access to technology in school has not been accompanied by an equal growth in technology integration, and it seems that teachers are not taking advantage of these valuable resources. The article focuses on teachers pedagogical beliefs as "the final frontier in our quest for technology integration." Belland interviews 105 teachers of various backgrounds to explore this idea. He finds that indeed it does seem that regardless of evidence showing how effective technology integration is for students, it is the teachers' perception of the pros and cons of integrating technology that dissuades them from using it as much as possible. Further more, it was found to be statistically significant that most teachers that have been teaching for ten plus years, feel that the time and energy put into integrating this technology is not worth it's benefits.

The results of this article are a little sad. You would hope that a teacher would put their students first and realize that technology integration is worth the effort. However, I am a bit younger and have grown up in a technological world and cannot understand having to relearn all of it. Still, I hope to incorporate technology into my classroom as I feel it is beneficial to learning.