Degree Name

Education Specialist (EdS)

Semester of Degree Completion

1996

Thesis Director

David E. Bartz

Abstract

In the current technological information based society there is a critical need to integrate technology with education. Although many technologies have been available for over 20 years, public educational institutions have been slow to acquire and use the technological advances in the classroom for instructional purposes. In order to help the state and the communities of Illinois develop technology plans to meet the technology needs of K-12 public school districts in rural and small town Illinois, there was a need to investigate the availability of existing technologies. This study was conducted to determine the present condition of K-12 public school classroom teachers in rural and small town central Illinois schools regarding the availability of current technologies for instructional use.

The study took place in the spring of 1996 utilizing a survey of a random sample of 400 rural and small town central Illinois public school classroom teachers. Responses to the survey were received from 252 classroom teachers.

The majority of classroom teachers did not report availability of current technologies for instructional use in their classrooms. Most teachers reported frequent use of technologies available to them in their classrooms for instructional use. When teachers had current technologies available for instructional use in their school, teachers did not report using the technologies as frequently as teachers who reported having the technologies in their classroom. Most rural and small town K-12 central Illinois public school classroom teachers do not expect unavailable technologies to become available for instructional use within the next five years.

With the assistance of the Illinois State Board of Education and state government officials, rural and small town central Illinois K-12 public school districts need to invest in current technologies for instructional use by classroom teachers in the classroom.

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