Some Inexplicable Reasons for Desisting from Technology Integration, Part - 1

Its really sad to hear some real lame excuses (if i may call it so) from some stakeholders in education for not trying enough to integrate technology in education. What they quote at times are more like excuses rather than reasons for not taking up the Technology Integration seriously. I am just jotting few of these and trying to find logic/ reasoning behind the reasons. So, here are some of them :1. Teachers don't have time : Everybody in this world is as busy as anybody else. To say that teachers don't have time for technology integration is totally unjustifies and uncalled for. My reasoning is that why should we burden teachers with so much of non-academic work which in no way would help the actual task expected of the teachers i.e. teaching-learning process. Secondly, for learning anything new a person has to stretch - take that extra step or go that extra mile. Technology, for sure, is an aid for teachers and is bound to improve their efficiency and make teaching-learning more effective but the onus totally lies on the teachers to treat technology as a friend and not as a foe. Its rightly said that "technology is a very good slave but a very bad master" and that is where we, as teachers falters by letting technology dictate us the terms. As teachers, we are all experts in our domains and know our subjects well. So, why not mould the available technologies to our advantage and benefit. Here, i would like to say that the school management has a very crucial role to play in how technology integration is portrayed to the teachers. There are times, when the integration process is taken up half-heartedly becuase there is some pressure for that. Unless and until the management is convinced about the role of technology in education, nothing would happen, in actual. The actual integration happens only when it is made a part of the teaching-learning process and not as a separate process in itself.2. Teachers are Novice: Its not only the teachers but all of us who fall in the category of novice when we set about to learn something new or different. Any new learning happens through "knowledge and skills" way. By K&S way I mean that firstly the knowledge needs to be imparted to the teacher or gained by the teachers and then comes the task of getting comfortable with the technology component by getting skilled at it through constant practice. The initial glitches would only lead to getting rid of the hitches, so don't be afraid of committing mistakes. The point i am putting across is that how long would you get away with the excuse that teachers are novice. Unless you make it mandatory for them to take up technology for some of their academic or non-academic tasks and also give them ample of time to work on the machines and make mistakes, they will ever remain novices and the integration of technology will never happen.3. When teachers find it difficult to learn computers, how can they encourage children for the same : It is very aptly said that "Child is the father of man" and the learning that a child can deliver to adults no adult can manage to impart it to children. Rather than worrying about, how can i teach children to use technology or computers, we should be concerned about how best i can put my ideas and thoughts across to children using a particular component. Anyway, subject teachers are not expected to impart technology education to children. Children have their own unique way of learning things, technology much much faster than adults. Rather the teachers should not hesitate to take a tip or two from the students to improve themselves.