Lesson 6 Assignment
Karin Porter

Galowich, Pamela. (1999). Learning Styles, Technology Attitude and Usage: What Are the Connections for Teachers and Technology in the Classroom? (Eric Document No. ED 432 312).

This article starts by stating that we should not be asking if students learn better with technology, but instead how do we integrate technology into the classroom to enhance student learning. The author of this article realizes that we must encourage teachers to utilize the technology available effectively in the classroom. Therefore, the research looked to see if the following criteria to see if there was a connection of technology use:

... Teachers' technology attitudes
... Teachers' technology uses
... Teachers' learning styles

It was interesting to find that throughout each age range studied, more teachers use technology to teach than those who do not. The only exception was the age range of 30 - 39. At this age range, more teachers did not use technology to teach than those who did. Ethnicity was also looked at in relation to using technology to teach. The trend of this sample was that more Hispanic American/Latino/Chicano teachers in each age range use technology to teach, while the European American/White Teachers tend to not use technology to teach. Other ethnicity groups were not participants of this study.

When looking at the learning style of the teachers, there was no significant difference as to whether or not a teacher used technology to teach.

Finally, the researcher looked at the relationship between technology usage outside of work and technology usage to teach. The relationship was moderate. Another relationship studied was between the teachers' attitude toward technology and the use of technology to teach. There was no significant correlation between these two.

The data from this research does not provide us with any definite information that will help us to help the utilization of educational technology in the classroom, although it does provide us with information. I found that it was interesting that most of the age ranges there were more teachers that utilize technology to teach. You will hear many people say that we need to get younger teachers because they utilize technology. From this study, that statement is discounted. Although, there was no age range that all of the teachers were utilizing technology to teach. We must find a way to ensure that all teachers are utilizing technology effectively! In addition, the research showed that the type of learning style a teacher has does not dictate if they use technology to teach or not. This is good to know in that we know that all teachers can use technology in their classroom. We must just find ways to make this happen in all classrooms with all teachers!