Obstacles and Solutions for Integrating Technology in Language Arts

The definition of literacy is changing in the educational world. Instead of focusing on onlu reading and writing, a new form of digital literacy is taking place in the language arts content area (Robyler & Hughes, 2019) One of the possible obstacles that you would face when integrating technology into language arts (or really any content area) is the red-tape of your school district. I ran into this issue earlier in the school year as I tried to integrate student blogs into my sixth-grade classroom. Over the summer I took a course on blogging and it really lit a fire for me to get my students working online with their writing. Before I could implement the blogging into my curriculum, I had a number of hoops to jump through to avoid complications or issues later on. There was paperwork, a meeting, a discussion with the district technology coordinator and administration. I had to make parents aware and offer an opt-out for families not interested in having their students participate. I chose a private blog host and created a rationale before I even began the process but it still took almost a month to get everything lined up. While some districts adopt technology across the district, it can be difficult for an individual classroom instructor to integrate technology because of red tape. The best thing to do is to make sure you get approval and make the administration aware of your plans to avoid having issues later on. After a couple of weeks blogging with my students it's been amazing to see the increased interest in writing because of the blogs we use.

A second obstacle that I have faced is the difficulty in choosing what technology to use in your classroom and how it is used. There are so many technology tools available for a language arts classroom and I expect that this number will grow in the future. As an instructor, you are constantly having to choose between products that provide similar services to your students. As an example, there are currently two free grammar/spelling check tools that can be used - Gradeproof and Grammarly. Each one offers certain advantages and each one has its own set of issues as well. I've seen instructors use Google Classroom, Moodle, Blackboard, DropBox, Turnitin, and more as virtual classroom tools. As I dug into this problem, I came across a study done in 2005 by Britten and Cassady. In the study, the researchers focused on how the technology could be integrated into classrooms and used ISTE standards as a basis to create a set of rules and guidelines called the Technology Integration Assessment Instrument (TIAI). The TIAI rubric gives a consistent framework for an instructor (or other stakeholders) to evaluate how technology tools are used and how that technology is tied to critical pedagogical features such as assessment, student needs, and educational standards (Britten & Cassady, 2005).

References

Britten, J. S., & Cassady, J. C. (2005). The Technology Integration Assessment Instrument. Computers in the Schools, 22(3-4), 49-61. doi:10.1300/j025v22n03_05

Roblyer, M. D., & Hughes, J. E. (2019). Integrating educational technology into teaching: Transforming learning across disciplines. New York: Pearson Education.