Integration Survey

Summary of results

Thirteen members of the NETS*T writing team were asked to participate in a survey to determine if they perceived a need for an instrument to assist faculty in integrating technology to meet NCATE standards. Eleven of the thirteen responded by completing the online survey. A brief summary of their responses follows along with links to charts illustrating the percentages of responses based on a four-point scale. The charts are color coded to indicate strongly disagree rankings in red, disagree in pink, agree rankings in light green, and strongly agree in dark green. Only a few respondents marked any question with "not applicable." Those responses are color-coded in white. A copy of the survey can be seen at http://education.wichita.edu/m3_online_forms/integration_survey.asp.

Chart 1 illustrates the responses to questions 1-8. Ninety-one percent of the responses disagreed that their colleagues had sufficient knowledge needed to integrate technology to meet NCATE or ISTE standards. Item 2 asked participants if they felt their colleagues needed assistance with integrating technology to meet NCATE and ISTE standards. Ninety percent agreed or strongly agreed that their colleagues need assistance in integrating technology to meet those standards. On item 3, a majority of the respondents ranked their colleagues as unfamiliar with NCATE and ISTE standards. This lack of preparedness to meet those standards paralleled a lack of knowledge about technology itself. On item 6, 64% disagreed that their colleagues had the necessary knowledge to integrate technology.

Items 4, 5, and 7 asked the participants to rate how well their teacher education program integrates technology skills. A majority of the participants responded that their teacher education program does include knowledge and performance criteria in technology for students in their program. Their responses indicate that the program acknowledges the importance of technology in a teacher education program but that the faculty themselves are not prepared to integrate the technology needed to support student standards. A majority of the respondents acknowledged that there is little accountability for integrating technology. However, 634% of the participants agreed or strongly agreed that their students were held accountable for integrating technology on item 8. This may indicate that students are being tracked and assessed through separate instructional technology courses while other teacher education courses are not held accountable for technology integration.

Item 13 (Chart 2) asked participants if their program planned to integrate the ISTE standards. Seventy-two percent responded positively. They also agreed (64%) and strongly agreed (18%) that their colleagues were receptive to professional development in technology integration (Chart 2). The responses to both questions seem to indicate that the respondents view their situations as ready for assistance in integrating technology.

In general, the results of this survey seem to indicate a growing recognition by teacher education programs that students must be better prepared to integrate technology. However, the respondents perceive their colleagues are either in a state of transition or denial and currently are neither prepared not held accountable for meeting technology standards for their students.

Items 9 though 11 asked participants to answer questions related to the type of assistance that might be most helpful and accepted by their colleagues. Item 9 (Chart 3) asked participants what kind of assistance faculty members received at their institution. In rank order from most frequent response to least frequent response, the responses indicated that institutional workshops were the most frequent type of help followed closely by manuals and individual assistance. The survey did not ask what kind of individual assistance was used. This could mean that faculty were using informal networks of colleagues for help. A help desk and online instruction were ranked the lowest among the given types of assistance.

When asked about their perception of faculty preferences for needed help in item 10 (Chart 4), participants judged the Web to be the highest preference, followed by a paper manual. CD manuals or interactive CDs were judged to be the least popular. These preferences could indicate a familiarity with both the Web and paper manuals or possibly a reflection of the lack of resources on CD for integrating technology.

When asked what kinds of tools that faculty might find helpful in item 11 (Chart 5), respondents ranked all the tools as helpful. Curriculum guides were judged to be the least helpful but still received an accumulated 72% in the agree and strongly agree columns.

In conclusion, the responses to the survey questions indicate that participants perceive a need to meet NCATE and ISTE standards and that they believe faculty need assistance in integrating technology to meet those standards.

For more information about this survey, contact Marsha Gladhart.