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EDU 711:

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY :

Theories and Practices

Term Paper

NAME:

CATHY NELSON ANAK SIGAN

MAT. NO:

2013824914

GROUP:

MS / MARA COHORT

LECTURER:

DR. IZAHAM SHAH ISMAIL

Classroom Management Strategies Using Instructional Technology for Digital Natives:

Issues and Possibilities in Malaysia

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Abstract

With the notion of having short attention span in the classroom, the digital natives are born

knowing the technology and they cannot be separated from technology. Proper use of

technology and technological devices could motivate the digital natives in the classroom. The

purpose of this paper is to look at the past and current research on the digital natives, the 21 st

century classrooms, classroom management using technology, issues in using ICT in

classroom and consequently apply all the findings in Malaysian classrooms. There are many

issues that could arise when using technology for classroom management. However, these

issues have the advantage of being possibilities if teachers are well trained, more time for

each class, sufficient financial support from the MOE and standardised ICT Policy in

classroom issued. Thorough research throughout all schools in Malaysia should be done to

investigate how far ICT is used in classroom to manage the digital natives.

Keywords: Digital Natives, ICT, Instructional technology, Classroom Management,

Technology in Classroom

1.0 Introduction

The emergence of digital natives who are well known with attention deficit in the

classroom requires teachers to be creative in managing them during class. Being

preventive in nature, classroom management is needed to control students’ behaviour,

student-teacher and student-student relationships, to manage the lessons and instructional

settings that are done with students (Stewart, 2008). In regard to students’ behaviour in

classroom, behaviourists believe that students learning attitude reflects the environment

they are in (Sammons, n.d) and this theory should not be ignored as the digital natives

reaction in classroom might be the result of the lack of ICT usage in classroom.

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Arends (2007) claimed that a good classroom management is often teamed up

with good instructions, stimulating lessons, appropriate planning and effective teaching.

Schools in Malaysia are now slowly adopting technology as mode of instruction but with

little.

1.1 Background and significance problem

In 2013, the Malaysian Educational Blueprint 2013-2035 for both primary and

secondary education revealed that although the government had spent RM6 billion to

develop Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education (including

Smart Schools), teachers do not fully utilise the facilities provided. In hope to

advance our education system using ICT, the Ministry of Education urge the teachers

and students to be equipped with necessary skills to utilise technology in teaching and

learning. In 2013, MARA Junior Science College (MRSM) Taiping was chosen to be

Smart School with fast connecting WIFI, equipped them with iPads to be used by the

students and each class is fully equipped with LCD projector. Furthermore, in 2015,

MARA Junior Science College Gemencheh had become the first MRSM to be

adopting Smart Edu in the classroom. Smart Education classroom is a form of

blended learning that integrates teaching and learning with Smart Education Online

website. All teachers and students are given a Smart Edu account to allow teachers

and students interact online.

Being born in the 21st century, digital natives cannot be separated from

technological devices. In a study done by Hahn and Puybaraud (2012) also revealed

that 55.1% of the digital natives in Germany, UK, US and China strongly agreed that

they cannot cope up with life without technologies and this should be worrying

especially for conservative teachers that still prefers the chalk and board method of

teaching. Consequently, with the help of the provided instructional technology in the

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classroom, the teachers should be equipped with excellent classroom management to

manage the digital natives. To sum up, teachers’ incompetency in utilising technology

in classroom contributes to the ‘digital natives’’ poor attention span in classroom.

1.2 Statement of problem

Keeping up with the pace of the digital natives is a major concern and

technology should be utilised to manage them in the classroom as the digital natives

are born connected or in other words, this generation was born when technology was

generally introduced (Hahn and Puybaraud, 2012). The emergence of Smart School

and Smart Edu MRSMs have caused the teachers to face challenges in grabbing the

students’ attention in classroom. This problem is exclusively faced by teachers who

lack technology literacy and teachers who lack motivation in using them in

classrooms due to. Additionally, the integration of ICT in the classroom has often

been studied worldwide with little focus on how it can help teachers manage the

Malaysian 21st century classroom and how teachers can grab the digital natives’

attention using ICT to produce excellent teaching and learning. Therefore this paper

will be beneficial for Malaysian teachers who are facing problems to control the

students in classroom especially classrooms that are equipped with technologies.

1.3 Purpose of this paper:

1) To identify the issues of utilising technology for classroom management.

2) To identify the possibilities of utilising technology for classroom management.

2.0 Literature reviews

2.1 Digital Natives

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Digital Natives’ daily lives revolves around communication and networked

media with constant connectivity to the cyber world. Internet has become an

important part of their lives and to become comfortable with technology is not

necessary for them (Doll, 2012). In a research done by Windisch and Medman (2008)

a 21-year-old girl from Stockholm, throughout her 21 years of living she was

connected to the internet 24/7 and in average “sent and received 250,000 e-mails,

instant messages and SMS (short message service), used mobile phones for 10,000

hours, played video games for 5,000 hours and spent 3,500 hours social networking

online”. This can be generalized to all 21 years old digital natives as they were born

knowing the technology.

Multitasking ability is a common traits of the digital natives (Ugras and

Gulsecen (2013). However, Ugras and Gulsecen (2013) added that this trait leads to

losing attention easily in classroom. This claim agrees with the discovery that the first

generation of digital natives are called knowledge workers with independent and

task-oriented behaviour (Mason, Barzilai-Nalon and Lou, 2008)

Digital natives’ active participation can be easily gained with the integration

of IT in classroom. The use of audio-clip and visual images could easily attract them

and help them understand poetry easily (Yang, Tseng & Liang, 2013). In Yang et.al,

(2013) a prototype was created to help students study poetry in situated learning. In

the study, the teachers acknowledged that the system made teaching and learning

poetry easier and students could understand the poems better. This finding further

agrees with Bebb (2008) that claims that sustained attention will result to improving

result and this could be the reason the experimental group scored better in their post-

test. Integrating technology in poetry teaching and learning enhances language skills

because it develops strong engagement in classroom (Xerri, 2012)

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2.2 Classroom Management Using Technology

Productive teaching and learning includes successful classroom management

and integrating technology in classroom will definitely assist teachers and students to

achieve this. Blended learning is proven to be a productive approach in teaching and

it requires teachers to teach online to engage the digital natives in learning (Bailey,

Ellis, Schneider & Ark, 2013). Bailey et. al (2013) explained that online learning is

partially used to deliver content and instructions. The benefit of using blended

learning is students will have control over their learning and teachers get to monitor

their students because blended learning requires teacher to integrate online with

traditional chalkboard teaching method.

An issue emerged with classroom management in technological classroom

where teachers failed to control the classroom due to their failure to involve all the

students in the classroom and at the same time giving them freedom to fully utilise

technological devices in the class. Kurdziolek (2011) explained that the teachers

involved grouped the students in big group and eventually it was hard for them to

control the class. Stewart (2008) suggested that teachers should possess good conduct

management by setting a set of rules and explain the rules to students on the first day

of class. Stewart (2008) added that teachers must be able to manage the content of

their lessons well especially when using technology. Good management content will

result to appealing content that may reinforce learning.

Erdogan, Kursun, Sisman, Slatan, Gok and Yildiz (2010) suggested that

teachers should be competent pedagogically and must have content knowledge of

their subjects. They also added that activities used in IT classroom should facilitate

students’’ motivation, IT courses in the school should be reframed to be made more

interesting, school administrators should provide software that can avoid students

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from using computer wrongly, establish rules, punish the students that were not

cooperative with the integration of IT in classroom and do collaborative teaching with

other teachers. In a research done on a student with anxiety disorder, Klopfer,

Osterweil, Groff and Haas (2009) found that she could overcome her disorder and

also gained confidence and became actively involved in class by involving herself in

online discussion.

Teachers’ voice is very crucial in giving instruction and this practice can be

applied when using technology in classroom. Yang et.al (2013) revealed that the

experimental group, who used the UPLS system to learn Chinese poetry, could focus

well in the class using the audio-clips and eventually led to above average results in

the post-test. Grinager (2006) also revealed that a 3-year study about a resource room

that was called Mainstream Amplification Resource Room Study (MARRS Project)

was done in the U.S. back in 1977. The result of this study yielded that the rooms with

enhanced sound successfully helped students to achieve above average in their study.

Grinager (2006) further clarified that technology must be properly implemented in

order to yield students’ academic achievement. In conclusion, sound plays an

important role when integrating ICT in classroom.

2.3 21st Century Classroom: Issues

The 21st century classroom requires teacher to be more than a facilitator. They

are required to engage in students’ learning by providing positive learning

environment in class. Other than that, they should make the students become

independent learners, creative and able to think critically. In a research done by

Edorgan et.al. (2010) school administrators, teachers and parents, teachers failed to

manage IT classroom due to lack motivation, students who constantly break rules and

routines, failure to manage time, demotivating classroom environment and less

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interaction in classroom. Edorgan et.al (2010) further explained that students’

behavioural problem in IT classes is the reflection of the bad classroom environment,

students’ attitude towards toward learning, teachers’ failure to manage classroom, lack

software, overcrowded classroom.

Digital natives’ short attention span has led to a discovery of using

intervention between lessons and this research was done while children are watching

Sesame Street (Prensky, 2001). Prensky (2001) added that although schools are fully

equipped with technology and teachers can use online games in classroom, badly

designed games or courseware may lead to failure to produce learning.

Teachers or instructors are responsible to utilise the technological facilities

provided and must be creative in utilising them. Callister and Dunne (1992) agreed

that instructors who failed to fully utilise technology in classroom are considered to

fail in their pedagogical practice.

Another issue when integrating technology in classroom is time constraint.

Muir-Herzig (2004) responded that without enough time, teachers will not be able to

explore IT, develop their competency as well as training themselves to be competent.

Instructors or teachers’ fears also contribute to challenges in ICT classrooms,

Stewart (2008) clarified that technophobia is a form of roadblock to an effective

usage of technology in classroom. Teachers that fear machine should change their

mentality and start using technology to gain the digital natives’ attention.

3.0 Discussion

3.1 Classroom Management using technology: Issues in Malaysia

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Integration of ICT in Malaysia dated as early as the year 2000 and to date,

implementation of Smart Schools demands teachers to be IT competent. In a research

done on Smart Schools in Malaysia by Wan Zah Wan Ali and Hajar Mohd Nor (2010),

teacher who did not undergo proper IT training found it hard to integrate IT in their

classroom. Their IT literacy were found to be low and this lead to demotivation in

teaching that eventually affected their inability to manage the classroom well using

technology. Quoting Archer (1998) in Muiz-Herzig, Archer believed that teachers can

be made competent if they were given proper pedagogical training and support.

The importance of time can be seen in Wan Zah Wan Ali and Hajar Mohd Nor

(2010) study of teachers that were given few years to explore and us IT in their smart

schools. As a result, the teachers were able to use advance their IT skills in the third

year. Other than that, teachers incompetence to connect all the IT equipment might

contribute to poor classroom management especially time management. This can be

concluded, time is very important in determining the success of integration of IT in

classroom management.

Another significant research done on how ICT is utilised among teachers and

principals in Malaysian schools by Kazi Enamul Hoque, Ahmad Zabidi Abdul Razak

and Mosa Fatema Zohora (2012) revealed that ICT is seldom utilised for classroom

management but often used for administrative purpose. This is the result of the

absence of policy on ICT usage by the Ministry of Education. Consequently, teachers

did not have the chance to explore IT in the classroom and led to lack confidence

using it for teaching.

Adding to the literature is another study done by Tunku Badariah Tunku

Ahmad (2013) on the integration of ICT in classroom by 151 Science teachers from

schools around Malaysia. The study revealed that science teachers only utilised

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PowerPoint to deliver their lessons and they were not familiar with other software.

Some of teachers had negative attitude towards ICT usage in classroom. Lack of

confidence is another major issues with the science teachers when using technology in

classroom. To sum up, these scenarios could bore the digital natives as they are more

competent that teachers.

3.2 Classroom Management using technology: Possibilities in Malaysia

Lack of proper training could result to teachers being pedagogically

incompetent. Therefore, they should be sent for proper training for their IT skills

development. The issue of teachers using only PowerPoint slides in classroom Tunku

Badariah Tunku Ahmad (2013) should not be present especially in this century.

Digital natives are already aware of the existence of Prezi, BlendSpace and other

software and websites for teaching and learning. Therefore teachers should be alert

and explore all the existing authoring tools and software to make classroom

management easy.

The Ministry of Education should financially invest in sending teachers for

this purpose as suggested by Kazi Enamul Hoque, Ahmad Zabidi Abdul Razak and

Mosa Fatema Zohora (2012) stating that financial support should be present to send

teachers for IT skills development. Proper training will allow the teachers to gain

confidence and will automatically turn them into a facilitator to help students engage

in teaching and learning as mentioned by Endorgan et.al. (2010). An additional

possible result of competent teachers is the ability to design suitable courseware for

teaching learning. As a result, the digital natives will be motivated to learn knowing

that their teachers are more competent than them.

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Time management in class will not be an issue if the schools implement longer

time for each class. Blended learning as suggested by Bailer et.al (2013) should also

be practised as it can help teachers save time when teaching. Blended learning can be

done outside classroom. Therefore, teachers can give further instructions to students

outside the classroom.

Teachers might also find it time consuming to monitor students’ performance

in classroom, therefore students should be grouped in smaller groups to easily monitor

their work progress and control them while using technological devices in classroom

(Kurdziolek, 2011).

The failure to utilise ICT for educational purpose is a portrayal of failure in

pedagogical practice (Callister and Dunne, 1992). A proper ICT policy should be

issued by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to urge all educators to integrate ICT in

classroom and the MOE should issue standardized rules of utilisation of technology in

classroom to help teachers to manage the classroom easily (Stewart, 2008)

4.0 Conclusion

All in all, there are possible drawbacks in employing technology to manage

the 21st century students. However, teachers should be pedagogically competent and

should not fear technology because we are educating the digital natives. Classroom

management is solely depending on the instructor therefore, to disregard ICT in the

21st century classroom is not an option for 21st century teachers.

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