“The ability to incorporate technology within the curriculum is one of the most difficult tasks for classroom teachers” (Benton Foundation, 1997; Driskell, 1999 cited in Mayo et al., 2005, p. 3). The authors further say that
In addition, the authors say that “technology education for teacher candidates has been to teach them computer skills leaving the application in the classroom to their own initiative” (p. 11).
Results of the study found that technology training for future teachers provided not only the skills but also the attitudes to promote students’ use of technology. “The training taught future teachers to effectively integrate technology into lesson plans” (p. 11). The future teachers with the training were more comfortable using technology and moreover had a higher frequency of technology use. Though training is likely to help future teachers to use more of technology, teachers of children seem to be focusing on integrating technology into the lesson plans instead of integrating lesson plans into technology.
The second barrier is access issues, sometimes known as the digital divide. Although much has been written about the digital divide, the Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that the number of American people using the Internet continues to increase (Fox, 2005a). According to Fox, as of May and June 2005, 68% of the adult U.S. population (137 million) used the Internet. “A new type of digital divide has been created by different access speeds… those truly offline (22% of adults), those with relatively modest connections such as dial-up (40%), and those who are the highly wired broadband elite (33%)” (Evers, 2006, p. 2).
Internet learning is the fastest growing market segment of adult education (Carr-Chellman, 2005). “Although this area only amounted to somewhere around $550 million of the adult education market in 1998, the growth expectations are phenomenal” (p. 2).