How will K12 teachers use eLearning technologies after COVID?

In writing this post, I drew from the article “Understanding the Factors that Influence Secondary School Teachers’ Intention to Use e-Learning Technologies for Teaching After the COVID-19 Pandemic” by Babic, Sucic, and Sinkovic. I am sure there are plenty, and will be plenty more, of articles that are focusing on teachers’ use of technology as a result of COVID.

The study focused on 138 secondary teachers in Croatia. The researchers used a questionnaire to understand participants’ use of technology before the pandemic and their intention to use it after the pandemic. According to responses to the questionnaire, 52% of participants used eLearning technologies in their teaching before the pandemic. Overall, the researchers found that 60% intend to make frequent use of eLearning technologies post-COVID. Delving into more detail, this intention is predicated on the following: how easy to use the eLearning technology in question is, participants’ attitude toward using eLearning technologies in their teaching, the educational value of the eLearning technology, participants’ computer anxiety, and participants’ view of their own self efficacy. For example, participants who have a high computer anxiety are much less likely to continue frequent use of technology in the classroom post pandemic.

There are a few interesting takeaways here. First, it is a little concerning that so many teachers have been thrust into a situation where the majority of their teaching is done online, and yet, they haven’t used eLearning technologies in the past. More work needs to be done on the part of schools in terms of professional development to mitigate against this. Secondly, while more teachers intend to use eLearning technologies in the post-COVID world (which in itself is noteworthy), the fact that it still hovers around 60% is a bit deflating; one would hope it would be higher than that. An issue that I had with this article, however, is the tone that is used regarding using technology. Often, researchers in the field of eLearning and instructional design seem to indicate that this is a black and white issue: using more technology is good, and using less is bad. Anyone who has been a teacher knows that this just isn’t the case. In the questionnaire one of the responses indicating the level of technology the participant intends to use in the future is “educational value of application of e-learning”. Why should anyone who replies that they don’t intend to use technology when there isn’t an educational value to it be docked as someone who is hesitant to use technology? As a former teacher, I can think of plenty of times where I wanted to use some form of technology, but it just didn’t make sense to do so. I think this bias on the researchers’ part is best exemplified by the fact that only 40% of participants had a strong preference to continue to create online tests after the pandemic. The researchers interpreted this as “secondary school teachers believe online tests are not easy to create and/or use in teaching.” Perhaps, but I would also offer the interpretation that maybe an online format for some/many tests is just not the best way to do it.

Overall, I think this article offers a lot of noteworthy clues for what a post-COVID educational environment may look like. Also, it is helpful if we look at teachers’ preparation and conceptions that might contribute to how much technology they intend to use in the future. But, and I say this as someone who is very much an advocate for copious amounts of eLearning in the classroom, it’s also helpful that we continue to examine the biases we have regarding technology’s place in the classroom.