J Sci Educ Technol (2011) 20:1725 DOI 10.

1007/s10956-010-9230-y

Technology Integration Barriers: Urban School Mathematics Teachers Perspectives

Patrick Wachira Jared Keengwe

Published online: 27 May 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010

Abstract Despite the promise of technology in education, many practicing teachers face several challenges when trying to effectively integrate technology into their classroom instruction. Additionally, while national statistics cite a remarkable improvement in access to computer technology tools in schools, teacher surveys show consistent declines in the use and integration of computer technology to enhance student learning. This article reports on primary technology integration barriers that mathematics teachers identied when using technology in their classrooms. Suggestions to overcome some of these barriers are also provided. Keywords Teachers Urban schools Technology integration Integration barriers Student learning

Introduction The need for teacher preparation to integrate technology into their teaching has been voiced by federal agencies, national professional organizations, and teacher education accreditation agencies for over a decade. However, despite reports of increased investments in instructional technology resources (Culp et al. 2005), the near universality of computers, Internet access and other forms of technology within the nations schools (Wells and Lewis 2006) and the
P. Wachira Department of Teacher Education, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH 44115, USA e-mail: p.wachira@csuohio.edu J. Keengwe (&) Department of Teaching and Learning, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202, USA e-mail: jared.keengwe@und.edu

potential of technology to reform or even transform education (Cradler et al. 2002), educational technologies are yet to be effectively integrated into instruction in most K-12 classrooms (Levin and Wadmany 2008). Surveys of teachers show consistent declines in the classroom use of technologies. A report by the National Center for Education Statistics (2005) indicated that 44% of teachers used technology for classroom instruction, 42% for computer applications, 12% for practice drills, 41% required research using the Internet, 27% had students conduct research using CD-ROMs, 27% assigned multimedia projects, 23% assigned graphical presentations of materials, 21% assigned demonstrations, 20% required students to use technology to solve problems and analyze data, and 7% assigned students to correspond with others using the Internet. These low gures imply that effective integration of technology into classroom instruction has yet to be realized. This article presents ndings on primary technology integration barriers that mathematics teachers identied when using technology in their classrooms. Technology integration means incorporating technology and technology-based practices into all aspects of teaching and learning specically, incorporating appropriate technology in objectives, lessons, and assessment of learning outcomes. Technology in the context of teaching and learning mathematics includes computers with appropriate mathematical software, online discussion boards and Java tools. Applets on the Internet allow students to interact with the mathematics problems. Other technologies include dynamic software such as those used in geometry and data analysis that allow for interactivity, graphing calculators, handheld computing devices such as palm pilots that allow for real time data collection, analysis and representations, and some applications software such as spreadsheets that allow for algebra and data analysis.

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Technology tools can help students to extend the range and quality of their mathematical investigations and to encounter mathematical ideas in more realistic settings. Technology tools provide powerful capabilities for computation, construction, and visual representations offering students access to mathematical content and contexts that would otherwise be too complex for them to explore. Calculators, computer software tools, and other technologies assist in the collection, recording, organization, and analysis of data. Technology tools also provide, accurate, convenient, and dynamic drawing of graphs.

Barriers to Technology Integration Teachers who may be committed to integrating computer technology in the classroom may nd the process challenging due to the barriers that exist. Some have classied these as either external (rst order) or internal (second order) barriers (Snoeyink and Ertmer 2001). First order barriers include lack of equipment, unreliability of equipment, lack of technical support and other resource-related issues. Second-order barriers include both school-level factors such as organizational culture and teacher-level factors such as beliefs and attitudes about teaching and technology and openness to change. Teachers decisions on whether and how to use technology for instruction ultimately depends on the teachers themselves and the beliefs they hold about technology (Bitner and Bitner 2002; Ertmer 2005). Others studies have identied resistance to change, negative attitudes toward computers, constraints on training and support, cost, and a lack of access to the right types of technology in appropriate locations as key barriers to integration of technology in the classroom (Ertmer 2005; Harris and Sullivan 2000; Zhao et al. 2002). Zhao et al. (2002) found that although schools have computers housed in laboratories or the media center, access to them is limited because of competition with other teachers for laboratory time. Another overlooked yet a strong barrier to integration of educational technology in the classroom is change. Harris and Sullivan (2000) note: When teachers are asked to integrate technology they are really being asked to change and adopt new teaching tools such as the computer and the Internet. These are vastly different tools from the classroom tools many currently use such as the chalkboard, overhead projector, or television (p. 12). Other studies reported lack of time, lack of equipment, and lack of training as barriers to technology integration (Beggs 2000; Bauer and Kenton 2005). Without adequate hardware and software, there is little opportunity for teachers to integrate technology into the curriculum.

Teachers also need time to learn how to use the hardware and software, time to plan, time to collaborate with other teachers and time to incorporate technology into their curriculum. Lack of adequate time implies that teachers are less likely to commit themselves using technology to enhance student learning (Bauer and Kenton 2005). Some teachers lack technology skills and pedagogy in using technology (Hughes 2005; Koehler and Mishra 2005), while others are unwilling to try because of anxiety, lack of interest, or lack of motivation (Duhaney 2001). Many teachers cite ineffective technological leadership in their institutions as a big challenge to computer technology integration (Duhaney 2001; Krueger et al. 2000). Cuban (2001) reported lack of time and poor technical support as barriers to technology integration in the classroom. Dvorak and Buchanan (2002) cited lack of time, funds and the connection between technology training and the curriculum as barriers to integration of technology in the classroom. Purpose of Study While the use of technology has been found to be an effective means to produce growth in students understanding of mathematics content (Cradler et al. 2002), research ndings indicate that few teachers integrate technology into their teaching to enhance student learning (Cuban 2001). This study sought to explore urban teachers perspectives on barriers that hinder technology integration in their mathematics classrooms. While there are a number of studies examining the integration of technology into teaching, few of them focus on perspectives of urban mathematics teachers and the barriers they encounter in integrating technology into their instruction. Research Questions The following three questions guided this study: (a) What are some of the technologies that are available for teaching mathematics? (b) What are the primary reasons as to why technology is not widely used in the teaching of mathematics? (c) What are the major reasons as to why teachers do not use technology in their classrooms?

Methods and Procedures Research Setting and Participants A mixed methodology combining qualitative and quantitative elements was used (Creswell 2002) to investigate

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urban school teachers perspectives on barriers that hinder technology use in the mathematics classrooms. The sample consisted of 20 teacher; 15 female and 5 male teachers. These cohort teachers were enrolled in Teaching mathematics with technology graduate course at a large midwestern university in the United States in the Spring semester of 2008. This course was a requirement for a masters degree program that these teachers were pursuing. The teachers were informed that participation in the study would not affect their grade in any way nor the instructors attitude towards them. Two researchers, the classroom instructor and an instructional technology support staff were involved in data collection over the course of the semester. A third researcher was involved as an outside consultant. The mathematics course was selected for this study because it was a content-specic course. Garofalo et al. (2000) recommended that features of technology be introduced and illustrated in the context of meaningful contentbased activities rather than on generic teacher learning and development. They argued that teachers who learn to use technology while exploring relevant mathematics topics are more likely to see its potential benets and use it in their subsequent teaching. Harris (2008) also suggested that a logical approach to helping teachers to better integrate technologies in their teaching is to directly link students content-related learning needs with particular contentbased learning activities and related educational technologies that will best support the activities successful implementation. Data Collection Qualitative data was drawn from the teachers written responses to the three questions that guided the study and from class discussions and in-depth interviews in which the participants had the opportunity to clarify their responses. Quantitative data meant to supplement the qualitative data, was drawn from the teachers responses to a survey adapted from Gado (2004) that included items designed to assess their beliefs and attitudes about mathematics and about technology. Three of the participants were selected for an in-depth interview. The three were selected because they were teacher leaders or math coaches in their school district. Math coaches worked directly with teachers in 23 schools where they observed and provided feedback on effective teaching strategies. Math coaches sometimes took over a class to present model lessons or to free up teachers allowing them to collaborate on lessons planning. These coaches were therefore knowledgeable about the technological resources available in their schools. The written questionnaire and attitudes survey were administered at the beginning of this study. In-depth interviews were conducted 2 weeks later after a

preliminary analysis of the survey and written questionnaire had been done. Teachers were observed as they interacted with the technology in the course throughout the semester. Notes from classroom discussions and observations of the teachers while learning to use technology provided more qualitative data. Data Analysis Qualitative data was analyzed by thematic analysis, a process for encoding qualitative information (Boyatzis 1998, p. vi). Each data source was analyzed independently by the researchers for patterns which were coded inductively and sorted for emerging themes. Data were coded as belonging to one theme (category) only. Triangulation was accomplished through the use of multiple data sources (interviews, survey, and researchers notes from classroom discussions), double-checking ndings, and checking for relationships that converge. Triangulation was also conducted by cross checking and comparing ndings among the two researchers. The analysis of the questions from the survey was descriptive in nature. This article used responses of selected questions from the survey. Analysis and reection of data from the researchers notes was an ongoing process throughout the semester. This process helped clarify the teachers responses from the survey and written questionnaire.

Findings The urban teachers in this study identied several barriers that hinder their own technology integration. This paper uses Snoeyink and Ertmer (2001) framework to categorize the barriers as either internal or external. While these barriers are not independent of each other and sometimes overlap, they are discussed separately to highlight their importance. The results from the qualitative data are discussed rst. External Barriers Availability of Technology From the interviews and classroom discussions, the participating teachers acknowledged that progress had been made in the provision of technology in their schools; however, they agreed that generally it was not adequate. They cited lack of hardware and appropriate software as primary barrier to technology integration. When asked what technologies were available in their schools, most said they had a few computers with internet access, calculators, textbook publishers tutorial sites and CD-ROMs

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used to enhance learning, though the teachers felt these were mainly for drill and practice. They lacked dynamic software such as those used in geometry and data analysis that allow for interactivity yet these are technologies that can support sound mathematical curricular goals of exploration and investigative learning. They reported that due to lack of funds, their district would never spend over $1,000 for a site license. From the class discussion and interviews, it emerged that there was wide disparity in the availability of technology within the school district. One of the math coaches said of the schools she supervised, in all, there are about four computers in the elementary classrooms and two in the high school classrooms. About half of these are not functioning. Another math coach interviewed noted that of the two schools she supervised, one had just one computer lab while the other had four labs. All of the three teachers interviewed pointed out that in many cases teachers lacked access to computers in class let alone a couple of them for the students. One teacher said, Teachers in my school shared one or two computers in the teachers lounge. I have to work on the computer with someone watching over my shoulder asking when I will be done. The three math coaches interviewed said that calculators were available but often were too few for an entire class, thus discouraging teachers from using them since they could not have one for each student. Unreliability of Technology The other major obstacle to technology integration was that where available, the technology was often unreliable. One of the coaches said, There is a computer lab in the school with laptops but they have not worked at all this year. The district is trying to have the lab working. She stated that they had a computer lab with brand new computers but these were missing cords to connect to printers and even to electrical outlets. In the whole class discussion, many teachers complained that because computers were connected to a network, it was often difcult to use them as the servers were slow or at times the server was down. She summed the lack of technology integration in two words: unpredictable functionality and argued that many teachers that she worked with avoided using any kind of technology because they were afraid it might fail in the middle of instruction. Technology Support and Technology Leadership Another barrier mentioned by many of the teachers had to do with the lack of technical support and technology leadership. On the technical aspect, the teachers said that with the available technology being so unpredictable, the

problem was only worsened by technical support that was very slow in responding to their needs. Also since teachers did not often use computers, many forgot their passwords and had to call technical support to reset their passwords. The problem is that there may be just one technical support person in the building or as stated by one teacher: Tech services is located somewhere (downtown?). Support is available if you have phoned in a work order. Your work order may be in the bottom of the pile and may take days or weeks to get an issue resolved. Teachers also were of the opinion that their school lacked technology leadership. The lack of leadership led to the acquisition of a mishmash of technology, tools, as one teacher put it, some of which may not be useful to the teachers. It also created disparities in the availability of technology in a school or even within a grade level thus creating inequities in student access to technology since some teachers used technology while others did not. Teachers including the math coaches reported that they were hardly involved in decision making as to what technology was needed in their schools. Only one of the coaches interviewed had been consulted on spending the funds for the purchase of technology. Many teachers also said they were not authorized to download or install any software even though they felt it may be useful. In other cases it was left to the teachers to take the initiative of writing grants to purchase technology tools and attend workshops or conferences where they would learn how to use the technology. Internal Barriers Teachers in this study reported that where technology was available, it was mostly underutilized. They cited various reasons including, the lack of time, a lack of knowledge on appropriate technology use, anxiety and a lack of condence in using technology. Lack of Time Teachers stated that they did not have the time to invest in learning to use or to develop specic technology activities for classroom use. They cited increasing accountability demands, such as the urgency of meeting curricular benchmarks and preparing students for the state tests as the reasons that make it simply too hard for them to nd the time to explore, experiment with and incorporate technology use as a regular part of their instructional practice. Using technology was seen as additional work, as one teacher noted, We are just too busy to do anything extra.

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The lack of adequate technology, and where available, unreliable technology only served to discourage them further as they did not have the opportunities to consistently work and experiment with the existing technology tools. As one teacher said, The unpredictable functionality and the uncertainty of getting timely technical support make it almost not worth the time to learn and use technology. Another issue raised by the teachers was classroom management and discipline. Many teachers felt that it would be difcult to manage a large number of students in a computer lab and many students would be off-task. Many teachers also cited inability to manage the classroom technology. Some teachers said that they often chose not to use calculators with students because, more often than not, the calculators went missing and the teachers did not want to be responsible for missing or lost technology resources.

Anxiety and Condence From the interviews, discussions and instructor observations it emerged that the participating teachers lacked the condence and had anxiety in using technology in their teaching. They cited unreliability of technology and the knowledge that technical assistance would not be available if and when they needed it as one of the factors that contributed to this anxiety. They were afraid of making mistakes while using technology or damage to the technology tools. The fear that something might happen was observed by the instructor on several occasions. While working on the computers, it was observed that one of the coaches, panicked whenever she made a mistake and was almost helpless and did not want to touch the computer anymore. When the instructor helped simply by undoing the previous task, she would respond How did you do that? You are so patient. She was often afraid to experiment with the technology in case she made a mistake and easily gave up and constantly needed reassurance that the computer would not always fail.

Lack of Knowledge Teachers may lack knowledge in two ways: lack of skills and expertise in using technology and the lack of pedagogical knowledge in using technology appropriately. From the interviews, the math coaches admitted lacking skills to effectively integrate technology into daily classroom practices. Their teachers reported similar experiences. The instructor also observed during the course of the semester that the teachers did not have the ability to use technology to develop appropriate activities. Two-thirds of the teachers interviewed did not have the skills and expertise on using widely available applications, such as spreadsheets and PowerPoint. Teachers cited the lack of training on appropriate technology use as a key reason for their lack of knowledge in using technology. Most of the teachers said that the technology training they had so far had been generic and did not help them learn content-specic ways of technology integration. One teacher pointed out that many teachers did not know how to engage their students in learning with technology. One math coach remarked: I observed a teacher teaching proportions and watched students bogged down performing long division when they should have been allowed to use the calculator as they were already familiar with long division algorithm. The teacher should have allowed the use of calculators so the focus was not on computation but understanding of the proportions conceptperhaps the use of calculators would have helped students quickly compute the mean and median, again shifting the focus to learning rather than spending time with routine computational procedures.

Findings from Quantitative Data The teachers responded to several survey questions designed to assess their dispositions toward using technology and their beliefs about appropriate use of technology. This was in light of ndings in the literature review that suggest that teachers attitudes might be a barrier to technology integration. Teacher Dispositions to Learn Results from the survey (Table 1) show that while a signicant portion (item 20, 61% agree or strongly agree) of the teachers were unsure of their abilities to integrate technology into their teaching, they generally held positive dispositions in regards to learning how to use technology tools. A majority of them (item 1, 92% agree or strongly agree) said they enjoyed learning to use technology. They all expressed willingness to learn more on how to use technology for instructional activities (item 14, 100%) if given the opportunity and almost all expressed condence that they could learn technology skills (item 27, 92.4% agreed or strongly agreed). Appropriate Uses of Technology Teachers were generally convinced of the cognitive advantages of technology to improve students understanding of mathematics (item 9, 77% agree or strongly agree), that technology can create more learning

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22 Table 1 Teacher dispositions to learn and to use technology Frequency (Percent) Item Strongly Agree agree Disagree Strongly disagree 0 0 9. Using technologies in mathematics lessons will improve students understanding of mathematics

J Sci Educ Technol (2011) 20:1725 Table 2 Beliefs about technology use Frequency (Percents) SA Agree Disagree SD 3(23.1) 0

4(30.8) 6(46.2)

1. I enjoy learning how to use 7(53.4) technology 14. If given the opportunity, I 7(53.4) would like to learn more on how to use technology for instructional activities. 20. I am unsure of my ability 4(30.8) to integrate technology in my classes. 27. I am condent that I could 6(46.2) learn technology skills.

5(38.5) 1(7.7) 6(46.2) 0

4(30.8) 4(30.8)

1(7.7)

17. Technology can create more 6(46.2) 6(46.2) learning opportunities for students 26. Students should not be 1(7.7) allowed to use any technology until they have mastered the concept or procedure 31. Calculators will cause a decline in basic arithmetic facts 2(15.4)

1(7.7)

8(61.5) 2(15.4)

6(46.2) 1(7.7)

3(23.1) 2(15.4)

7(53.8) 1(7.7)

opportunities for students (item 17, 92.2% agree or strongly agree) and that more problems can be solved when students have access to technology such as calculators (item 36, 69.2%, agree or strongly agree). Only a small portion of the teachers felt that technology would cause a decline in basic facts (item 31, 38.5% agree or disagree) compared to 61.5% who disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement. A signicant portion of teachers (item 26, 76.9%) disagreed or strongly disagreed that students should not be allowed to use technology until they have mastered the concept or procedure. They acknowledged that technology tools are not merely for doing calculations more quickly (item 39, 84.6% disagree or strongly disagree) or should only be used to check work once the problem has been worked out on paper (item 40, 92.3% disagree or strongly disagree). Most teachers realized that that technology is motivational (item 32, 92.4%) and technology makes mathematics fun (item 33, 92.4% agree or strongly disagree). These results are provided in Table 2.

32. Technology is motivational 33. Technology makes mathematics fun

6(46.2) 6(46.2) 6(46.2) 6(46.2)

1(7.7) 1(7.7)

0 0

36. More interesting 3(23.1) 6(46.2) mathematics problems can be done when students have access to calculators 39. Technology are only tools for doing calculations more quickly 0 3(23.1)

4(30.8) 0

8(61.5) 3(23.1)

40. Technology should only be 0 used to check work once the problem has been worked out on paper

2(15.4) 10(76.9) 2(15.4)

Discussion From the interviews, classroom discussions, instructors notes and results from the survey, the major barriers that stood out with this group of urban teachers in the use and integration of technology in their classrooms included (a) unavailability and unreliability of technology, (b) lack of technology support and technology leadership (c) anxiety and lack of condence in using technology and (d) lack of knowledge. Availability, Reliability and Administrative Support While many studies and national statistics indicate that access to technology has improved National Center for

Education Statistics (2005), ndings from this study suggest that some schools are still suffering from lack of technology. The teachers in this study cited lack of adequate technology resources or access to technology in appropriate locations, such as classrooms, and poor administrative support as key barriers to their own integration. The availability of computers and interactive whiteboards for instance, was limited to a lab setting or the schools media center. Scheduling of their time in the computer labs was inadequate and thus a barrier to integrating technology into instructional activities in a meaningful way making it difcult to meet the goals of technology access for both teachers and students. Several of the teachers blamed the lack of proper leadership and a lack of support from the administration in ensuring that technology is available and reliable and that technical support is available and efcient. With no technology leadership, availability is haphazard as only those who have an interest are able to obtain needed technology through grants or some other means. The fact that a teacher who is committed to using technology has to write own

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grants for such technology, creates disparities on availability even within a school thus creating inequity in learning where some students are exposed to technology while others are not. To ensure effective integration of technologies an effective technology policy is required where the school administration has commitment to the teachers and to the students. Administrators should strive to support teachers who may be committed to integrating technology while encouraging those who may not be. Teachers should be trusted in identifying and making decisions on technology purchases in their school. In addition good leadership would ensure continuous funding to make sure resources were adequate and to replace broken and missing equipment. Technology expertise can also be achieved only when technology tools are available all the time so that teachers can have exible time to learn it, experiment with it, and plan to use it on a consistent basis for instructional activities. Appropriate Technology Use Teachers are constantly challenged to teach with technology yet the teachers themselves are new to various technology uses and may have had no personal experiences as students themselves in technology-infused classrooms (Jacobsen et al. 2002). Similar to previous ndings which have shown that teachers have a limited knowledge of appropriate ways of using technology to enhance learning (Wachira et al. 2008; Koehler and Mishra 2005), the teachers in this study cited as a barrier the lack of appropriate knowledge on how to integrate technology in their teaching. While the results from the survey indicate that the teachers were generally convinced of the cognitive and affective advantages of technology in improving students understanding of mathematics, their lack of content-specic training hindered their own abilities to develop meaningful mathematics activities that use technology. From the interviews and class discussions, it emerged that teachers did not know how to take advantage of technology as powerful tools to strengthen students understanding of mathematics. Teaching with technology is not simply adding technology to the existing teaching and content domain. True technology integration involves understanding and developing sensitivity to the dynamic, transactional relationship between the three components of knowledge: technology, pedagogy, and content as modeled in the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) framework (Koehler and Mishra 2005). Teachers in this study also lacked the expertise with technology because it was not available in their schools. Expertise with technology can only be achieved when teachers have appropriate technology and use it on a

consistent basis for instructional activities. Findings from the National Center for Education Statistics indicate that the availability of classroom technology correlates to teacher use of computers, and teachers who had adequate computers in their classes more often assigned activities in which students used technology (National Center for Education Statistics 2005). Teachers in this study still felt that technology training they were getting in this course was not of much use if there would be no opportunities to put the skills learned in practice; they were just taking the course to fulll their degree requirement. Anxiety and Condence While the teachers who participated in this study agreed that they were unsure of their abilities to integrate technology into their teaching, results from the quantitative data and from the interviews indicated that they generally held positive dispositions towards learning how to use technology in their classrooms. They stated that they were condent they can learn and given the opportunity they would like to learn how to integrate technology into their teaching. However, they acknowledged that teaching with technology requires extensive investments of time and accountability demands left them little time to invest in learning and developing meaningful activities using technology. Inadequate, unreliable technology and poor technical support only served to further discourage the teachers from using technology and heighten the anxiety for those who may want to use it. To attain condence, teachers need time to learn, time to plan, time to collaborate with other teachers and time off to engage in professional development opportunities such as attending conferences, workshops and seminars, where they can develop positive dispositions towards technology use. Teachers need time to be comfortable with technology in order to use or integrate it in their courses.

Implications and Recommendations To enhance computer use and integration in education, recommendations for effecting change over the long term include improving classroom access to hardware, software, and the Internet, bolstering technical and administrative support to teachers and strengthen professional development around content specic instructional uses of technology. There are also some immediate measures that teachers in this study for instance, can take to overcome barriers to their own integration of technology in their teaching such as forming professional learning

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communities, taking advantage of existing technology resources in their schools and in their communities. Some of the recommendations are presented below.

Technology Professional Learning Communities Teachers anxiety and lack of condence in technology use can be lessened in various ways. One strategy is to encourage teachers to form small-group professional learning communities in which they support each other as they learn how to use various technology tools. Learning communities can be critical in helping teachers to overcome their fear of the unknown and build their condence in experimenting with and using technology tools. The social context of a learning community provides mathematics teachers with opportunities for interaction where they share and discuss ideas with their peers on how to effectively integrate technology in their teaching. Teachers can bring and share examples of something cool that they have done with their students. Peer support can also supplement technical support and is especially crucial for less technologically procient teachers making the effort to integrate technology. Many teachers need someone who will support them when trying new tools and techniques. Take Advantage of Existing Resources To mitigate the effects of inadequate technology or lack of appropriate software, teachers need to be creative. Teachers can seek out and take advantage of free and easy to use technology resources. Often overlooked, for instance, is Excels math, statistics and graphing capabilities; powerful tools to develop and enhance learning of math concepts. Most computers if not all even in poor urban districts are loaded with Excel which comes as a part of the Microsoft Ofce suite. Many teachers also have personal computers at home which they can use to learn and experiment with Excel spreadsheets. Teachers can also take advantage of available community resources, such as the public library. Public libraries are often within walking distance of where students live. These libraries are open all week including Sundays with some closing as late as 9 pm. Assignments requiring the use of the Internet or spreadsheets can be done at the local libraries.

Strengthen Teacher Support Teachers generally teach the way they were taught and infusing technological tools into instruction poses unique challenges to instructors who lack the technology or dont have the knowledge and skills to teach with technology. Consequently, it is important for schools districts to seek out professional development that is content-specic. Professional development that is content-specic may provide a clear vision for appropriate technology use thus helping address teachers questions and misconceptions on whether and how technology-based activities address educational objectives. Such professional development opportunities are now available in the many universities including the one in which this study was conducted, through summer workshops or content-specic whole semester courses and principals and teachers can take advantage of these. Teachers require time during the regular school day to learn from one another. Creating time and opportunities for teachers to share ideas can accelerate their use of instructional technology tools. The administration should encourage teachers to be more professionally engaged for instance in frequent conversations and classroom observation with peers, frequently participating on technology committees, attending conferences and seminars, taking college courses, mentoring and giving workshops. Through such professional engagement teachers see the modeling of appropriate technology use in content-specic contexts. When teachers are professionally engaged they will be more likely to be active users of technology in their teaching. Since teachers are the ones at the forefront of reform in mathematics education, they should be an integral part of the process of technology integration. Administrative support therefore means that teachers should be involved in the decision-making to acquire technology for use in the classrooms. Teachers should also be given the exibility to download or install software that they would like to experiment with and perhaps adopt in their classrooms. Administrative support means encouraging and assisting those who may want to seek grants. Lack of support by the school administration implies that teachers may resist using technology as they believe that it takes time away from their actual instruction and other responsibilities. Teachers more readily adopt practices with technology that improve the quality of their work without increasing the demands on their time (Zhao and Frank 2003).

Conclusion While the teachers in this study were enthusiastic about the role technology can play in improving learning and held positive dispositions to learning using technology tools, many do not have the opportunity or are still unprepared to take advantage of such tools in the mathematics classroom. These teachers cited lack of technology, unreliability of existing technology, poor administrative and technical support and a lack of Technology and pedagogical knowledge in using technology as major barriers to

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technology implementation in their classrooms. These ndings challenge national statistics that cite remarkable improvement in the availability of technology and access to internet connectivity in most schools. If teachers are to use technology with condence in their classrooms, simultaneous innovations need to occur in provision of technology, training in appropriate pedagogy using the tools and in administrative and technical support. Technology cannot be leveraged to transform the curriculum and instructional context when it is limited, is not available or is unreliable. Also professional development or training that does not support teachers eventually in terms of providing time to learn, time to collaborate and is generic, that is, has no direct connection to the curriculum will not address the goals of technology integration in the classroom. As noted by Koehler and Mishra (2005), true technology integration involves negotiating the relationships between the three components of knowledge, technology, pedagogy and content suggested by the TPCK framework. Teachers must strive to use technology on a consistent basis for instructional activities. However, without the right technology tools to practice on as well as the appropriate training on how to appropriately use technology, they will fail in meeting the technology objectives required to effectively prepare their students for the workplace. Integrating technology into mathematics lessons is an effective means of supporting students understanding of mathematics content. Therefore, it is critical that barriers to technology integration in urban schools be addressed especially where teachers continue to provide traditional forms of pedagogy when learning with technology is likely to make a huge change as well as positive impact on student learning.

References
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