Teaching in High-Tech Environments: Classroom Management Revisited

Abstract

The addition of computers to classrooms influences not only instruction but also classroom management, producing both unexpected problems and benefits. This article summarizes the experiences of thirty-two elementary and secondary teachers as they adapted to teaching in high-access-to-technology classrooms.

Using a three-stage model, this article presents the teachers' classroom management concerns, their strategies for solving problems, and their abilities to utilize the technology to their advantage. Teachers moved from frustration to success in coping with changes brought about by the introduction of technology to their classrooms.

This article highlights three main issues relevant to practice and research. First, classroom management is not a skill that is mastered once and for all. Second, this article provides further support to the belief that educational change takes time. Finally, it illustrates that teacher change is not unidirectional. Teachers progress through stages of concern in an idiosyncratic manner.

If I had my druthers, I don't think I would ever look at a computer again. One of my students got into the Corvus network and lost lots of information because he doesn't know what he is doing. It's a typical situation, and it's caused a major problem because now the computers are down. There are so many variables like this that we deal with on a day to day basis that I didn't anticipate being part of this program. I'm anxious for the weekend so I don't have to do anything with computers (AT, November 16, 1988).¹