Obstacles in IT Educational Practices

Information Technology is a very influential way of learning may it be in the field of business and especially to education. In Education, Information Technology has yet to find its place, despite the unceasing attempts to "fit" it into the existing educational system. The widespread use of computers and telecommunications has caused fundamental changes in the modern societies. The only important field that computers failed to change significantly is Education. Despite the huge expenditure, wide experimentation and research, and discursive enthusiasm, educational technology has failed to show substantial benefits to the field (Gentry and Csete, 1995; Bennet, 1999; Salomon, 2002). It created an educational crisis and generated a wide controversy among educators and scholars concerning the place of modern technology in education and the feasibility of the various attempts to fit it into the educational system ( Stoll, 2002;Clark, 1994; Salomon, 2002). It has been said that the crisis of educational technology have centered mainly on the material obstacles to the implementation of educational technology in schools: lack of planning, paucity of funds, shortage of hardware, absence of standards, inadequacy of teacher preparation, need of software updates, lack of computer expertise, lack of knowledge on how to apply technology in the classroom, insufficiency of access to computers, polarity of research, computer misuse, commercialize web content, digital divide, gender bias of technology, health issues,exposure to improper materials and etc.( Stoll, 2000; Alliance for Childhood, 2001; Becker, 1998; Pelgrum, 2001; Earle,2002).
http://www.ifets.info/journals/10_1/20.pdf
Technology when introduced to the class may be very intimidating because it requires expertise and a new learning. The integration of technology into the curriculum will not succeed without giving teachers ample time to practice, explore, conceptualize, and collaborate" (Gahala, 2001). http://www.nelliemuller.com/obstacles_to_technology_implementation.htm
In my own point of view, lack of computers in schools is a very big factor why obstacles in IT Educational Practices is fast- arising. Learners should learn in actual or in hands- on demonstration on what and how to use the computers with its different parts. They should learn individually because for some, it takes time to master on how to operate the computer. Another obstacle is the lack of discipline in using IT especially to learners is an obstacle in Educational Practices because instead of doing research and surfing the net to answer the assignments and research projects, learners with too much exposure to technology will be addicted to computer games, pornographic websites and other malicious things to be seen in the computer. For me, the ways that can help this obstacles to be overcome is to support educational system with all its necessities in implementing IT to the educational curriculum, provide enough and appropriate knowledge and information on how to use computers in a good and helpful way to communicate and provide teachers with seminars and training to upgrade their expertise on teaching IT or new instructional medias to the learners. Learning is expensive and we should use these new learning in a good and responsible way .