A Theoretical Analysis of Factors Influencing the Decision of Faculty to Use Educational Technologies in the Context of Institutions of Higher Education. Khan, M.A., Omrane, A., & Rodriguez, A. M. (2017). Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 4(1) 147-164.
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Abstract
In this paper, we study factors influencing faculty decisions to use educational technologies to support their pedagogical strategies.
We briefly describe educational technologies commonly used by faculty to support teaching, such as emails, video conferences, chat rooms, video lectures, blackboard discussions and PowerPoint Presentations.
We explain in detail faculty factors (e.g., gender, age, and cultural background), student factors (e.g., academic performance and gender), and contextual factors (e.g., classroom size, institutional support, course subject, and time constraints) as influential factors in the use of educational technologies by the faculty to support teaching.
The paper’s findings suggest that the factors under study do influence the faculty’s decision to use educational technologies to support teaching. However, certain strategies can be used by educational institutions to overcome the barriers that discourage the faculty from fully integrating technology into their pedagogical strategies.
Recommendations and implications
It is concluded that educational technologies are parts and parcels of the education system, and there is no way to deny the use of educational technologies in one way or another.
Nonetheless, it is also concluded that there is still resistance from different forces within and without the education institutions to fully integrate educational technologies into the regular pedagogical strategies across the board. Therefore, several practical recommendations are put forward for academic institutions and their leadership to pursue while trying or wanting to adopt educational technologies to support pedagogical strategies.
(1) Faculty attitude must be changed from negative to positive towards technology and the uses of technology for teaching purposes. They must be assured that technology will make their teaching interesting, more accessible, more fun, motivating and enjoyable (Bruce & Levin, 2001).
(2) Faculty should be aware that technology in teaching is helpful for students alike since it encourages inquiry, helps communication, constructing teaching products, and assists students’ self-expression (McCannon & Crews, 2000).
(3) The issue of the use of technology and its usefulness must be part of programs of faculty development and when discussing instruction, education, or training issues (Snelbecker, 1999).
(4) Faculty perception of the technology’s usefulness should be improved, and the constraints of self-efficacy and structure must be removed (Buchanan et al., 2013).
(5) Educational institutions must remove or at least reduce the barriers:
- Lack of time to integrate educational technology into teaching activities;
- lack of funding to purchase the equipment and software needed;
- insufficient computing infrastructure (servers, bandwidth, storage capacity;
- Insufficient computing facilities (labs, technology-equipped classrooms;
- not enough training offered in the areas that interest you; not enough assistance with
technical problems; not interested in using technology (Fu, 2013).
(6) Provide training and workshops related to technology to update teachers’ skills and knowledge (Al-Bataineh et al. 2008).
(7) Support partnerships that help teachers share effective technology practices and experiences (Ertmer & Otternbreit-Leftwich 2010).
(8) Augment curricula with technology-enhanced materials (Goktas, Yildirim & Yildirim 2009).
(9) Provide teachers with enough freedom to select and cover curriculum material (Honan 2008).
(10) Provide adequate technical support to the faculty and students (Liu & Szabo 2009).
However, the implementation task of such recommendations is not without limitations (Gilakjani, 2013).
Firstly, the use of instructional technology alone does not guarantee its effective use for teaching purposes.
Secondly, there is a need for proper planning, implementation and evaluation of the technology-pedagogy integration work. The use of technology in teaching should enhance both the quality and productivity of the education services provided to students. Achieving optimal conditions for faculty, students and the institution to integrate and maintain the technology-pedagogy integration is pivotal. It demands time, money, culture and strategy from the academic leadership. It is also imperative to provide enough time, financial assistance, technical help and pedagogical guidance to the faculty to design teaching activities and experiences supported by technology, implement such activities as planned and assess the effectiveness of technology-based teaching.
Thirdly, as suggested by researchers in the field (i.e., Gilakjani, 2013), faculty will have to understand and be responsible for the social, ethical, legal, and human issues in connection with the technology-pedagogy integration.
Fourthly, exercising extreme patience from all the concerned corners is needed since integrating technology-pedagogy fully and truly is a slow and time-consuming process and task (Collins, 1997).
Fifthly, continuous collaboration and good communication among the institutional leadership, faculty,
Students, technology support centres, and pedagogical specialists will enable the technology pedagogy integration process and system to function smoothly and properly. For this to happen, all relevant stakeholders must meet regularly to share best practices and timely information (Usun, 2005). The technology pedagogy integration management should include faculty evaluation and feedback on how they used technology in their classes and the impact of the same on their teaching effectiveness (Dahlstrom, 2015).
Sixthly, it is also cumbersome to identify and match differing variables such as new advances in educational technologies, the nature of the course, the learning outcomes of the course, lecture type and materials, students’ learning styles, and professors´ teaching styles (Trucano, 2005).
Additionally, institutions of higher education must make adopting new technologies to support pedagogical strategies an essential component of institutional strategic planning.
Seventhly, and finally, the macro environment (society, industry and technology) surrounding organizations constantly changes and thus demands permanent need assessment methods, change strategy, new organizational systems (Balash et al., 2011), culture and strong leadership.