Attitudes of Teachers in South Korea Toward Technology Use for Their Classrooms During the COVID-19 Pandemic

https://aaron.kr/content/portfolio/how-do-korean-public-school-teachers-feel-about-technology-in-classrooms-during-covid-19/

This poster presentation was given at the Korean Institute for Practical Engineering Education (KIPEE) 2021 fall conference in Cheonan, South Korea.

Motivations:
I'm a Google Certified Trainer, and actively teach workshops and classes specifically targeted toward helping school teachers better utilize technology in their classrooms, both for themselves and for their students.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I noticed many of my colleagues at Jeonju University (where I'm also an English teacher) struggled with the shift to fully online classes. Many of them complained of a quadrupling (or at least a doubling) of their normal workload. For myself, my workload was greatly reduced, almost halved, because I'm comfortable with technology and found it quite easy and intuitive to put together online classes (and even more enjoyable than face-to-face classes).

At that time, I was also invited back to participate in a Teacher Training program for Korean elementary, middle, and high school teachers. They wanted me to help train public school teachers about how to use technology for their classrooms. When I joined the program, I found the majority of the teachers were overwhelmed by new expectations brought on by the pandemic, and didn't have a good idea about the kinds of tech tools they could use for their classrooms, nor even how to implement their ideas with tech tools even if they knew some.

I began gathering a collection of surveys from my trainees to assess how comfortable they were with tech in school, how much their currently used (before and at the beginning of the pandemic), and the kinds of tools they used. This research is a reflection of that.

For the most part, as found in this research, public school teachers in Korea are the most comfortable with creating documents (Hangul, Word), using the Internet for research, showing videos in class (but not creating videos), using PowerPoint, and gradually, they became adjusted to online video conferencing programs like Zoom (but this was not the case before the pandemic).

In fact, there are MANY more tools that are available to educators than just these, but the majority of teachers either don't know about them, or don't know how to use them (nor even how they CAN be used). Therefore, continuing education classes and workshops (like the kind I provide) are essential to helping teachers get up to date with the new educational paradigm (blended learning with tech tools) brought on by the pandemic. Additionally, life-long education FOR educators is imperative.

It's a mistake to assume teachers should not at least understand the technologies their own students are using. Teachers themselves stand in an excellent position to become role models for ethical and humane tech use, and they should at least understand enough about tech issues to provide input about privacy, ethical, and addictive issues that may arise in the technology and apps that students frequently use.

Transcript

1. Attitudes of Teachers
   in South Korea
   Toward Technology Use
   for Their Classrooms
   During the COVID-19
   Pandemic
   Aaron Daniel Snowberger
   Hanbat National University
   Choong Ho Lee
   Hanbat National University
   

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2. The COVID-19 pandemic led to widespread school closures throughout the world and
   necessitated the rapid adoption of a new paradigm in education. This study reviews some of the
   impacts of COVID-19 on education worldwide and focuses on the attitudes of teachers in South
   Korea toward technology use for their classrooms. While South Korea has been well-equipped to
   adapt to the necessary changes in distance learning and online education prompted by
   nationwide school closures due to its large-scale digital infrastructure and widespread
   adoption of high speed Internet and mobile technologies, a digital divide exists
   between teachers, their students, and technological expectations.
   At the start of the pandemic, many teachers unaccustomed to using
   digital tools for education found themselves overwhelmed with the
   need to learn and adapt so quickly. Constant and rapid advancements
   in technology in the future may further widen the digital divide
   between teachers, students, and educational expectations, and
   therefore demands a strategic approach to ongoing teacher
   technological education.
   Introduction
   

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3. COVID-19’s Impact Rich nations
   Poor nations
   1
   School Closures
   1.5 billion
   students
   188
   countries
   90%
   all learners
   2
   Closure Length
   Average
   closures
   149
   countries
   ¼
   school year
   3
   Distance Edu
   90%
   online
   87%
   Television
   85%
   take-home packs
   61%
   radio
   4
   “Very effective”
   36%
   online
   28%
   Television
   23%
   take-home packs
   20%
   radio
   

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4. South Korea
   KERIS e-Learning site
   ×7
   in 2 weeks
   470,000 ➜ 3 million
   users
   EBS online classroom
   ×300
   in 4 weeks
   10,000 ➜ 3 million
   users
   But only the expansion of technological services only is not enough.
   Skill Gap
   “Digital natives” (young)
   vs.
   “Digital Immigrants” (old)
   Opportunity Gap
   Income level
   &
   Race
   Location Gap
   Urban
   vs.
   Rural
   

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5. 73 IETTP Trainees 74 Teachers
   What: Intensive English
   Teacher Training Programme
   What: Online survey
   Who: Korean elementary,
   middle, high school teachers
   Who: University teachers,
   public, private, hagwons, etc.
   Sponsor: Jeollabuk-do
   Office of Education
   Nation: Korean & Foreign
   Residence: Jeollabuk-do Residence: All over Korea
   Data Sets Analyzed
   

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6. Comfort Level & Current Use of ICT
   Comfort Level with Tech in school
   Current Use of Tech in school
   Elementary
   Middle/
   High
   Elementary
   What is interesting to note about these two
   graphs is that middle and high school teachers
   (lower portion) indicate lower levels of both
   comfort and use of ICT in class than
   elementary school teachers.
   The next surveys collected answers based
   on a self-reported 5-point Likert scale.
   It’s interesting to note that 81% of
   respondents indicated that the COVID-19
   pandemic caused them to learn more
   about ICT for education. However, Figure 4
   shows that the majority of digital tools
   used in classrooms in Korea continues to
   be primarily Word Processing (84%), the
   Internet (81%), videos (81%), PPTs (78%), &
   real-time chat programs (Zoom) (62%).
   Middle/
   High
   

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7. Digital Competence & Digital Tools Use
   Attitudes Toward Lifelong Learning Professional Attitude
   Professional Digital Competence Professional Application of Tools
   Top 5
   84%
   81%
   81%
   78%
   62%
   

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8. Although teachers in Korea have learned more about ICT tools for education, the tools
   utilized remain the de facto ICT tools such as PPTs, videos, Word Processing for reports,
   and the Internet. And although Korea greatly increased its capacity for online classes,
   the teachers surveyed have not dramatically adjusted their methods beyond their
   original classroom capabilities. Many Korean public school teachers still feel
   overwhelmed by the new educational paradigm presented by the COVID-19 pandemic
   and the necessity (or opportunity?) presented by distance learning and online classes.
   This is unfortunate because Korea has a highly developed ICT
   infrastructure, and there are plenty of options for more creative and
   collaborative uses for ICT in classrooms. But the teachers who are
   in a position to provide such opportunities to students are either
   unaware of them, or untrained in their use.
   Therefore, there is a great need for ongoing teacher technology
   education, particularly for public school teachers, particularly in
   non-STEM disciplines.
   Conclusion
   Top 5
   84%
   81%
   81%
   78%
   62%
   

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9. References
   [1] OECD (2021), The State of School Education: One Year into the COVID Pandemic, OECD Publishing, Paris,
   https://doi.org/10.1787/201dde84-en
   [2] UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank (2020). What have we learnt? Overview of findings from a survey of ministries of
   education on national responses to COVID-19. Paris, New York, Washington D.C.: UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank.
   [3] UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Bank (2020). Survey on National Education Responses to COVID-19 School Closures,
   round 2. Paris, New York, Washington D.C.: UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank. (Key findings
   https://infogram.com/da3bcab3-ff85-4f6a-8d9a-e6040c7fd83d)
   [4] Jeong-hun Lee, S. Korea now ranks world’s 10th biggest economy, Hankyoreh, Apr.22,2021. Available online:
   https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_business/992192.html
   [5] Ministry of Education, Responding to Covid-19: Online Classes in Korea (June 2020), KOSIS.kr, Available online:
   https://kosis.kr/files/covid/Responding_to_COVID-19_ONLINE_CLASSES_IN_KOREA.pdf
   [6] McNaught, C. Lam, P., & Ho, A. (2009). The digital divide between university students and teachers in Hong Kong. In
   Same places, different spaces. Proceedings ascilite Auckland 2009.
   http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/auckland09/procs/mcnaught.pdf
   [7] Emily Tate, The Digital Divide Has Narrowed, But 12 Million Students Are Still Disconnected. (Jan 27, 2021), Edsurge,
   Available online:
   https://edsurge.com/news/2021-01-27-the-digital-divide-has-narrowed-but-12-million-students-are-still-disconnected
   [8] Pei-Yu Wang. Examining the Digital Divide between Rural and Urban Schools: Technology Availability, Teachers'
   Integration Level and Students' Perception, (Nov 12, 2013), Journal of Curriculum and Teaching. pp. 127-139.
   [9] Grigg, A. T. (2016). Evaluating the effect of the digital divide between teachers and students on the meaningful use of
   information and communication technology in the classroom, https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1807.
   [10] Steinar Thorvaldsen and Siri Sollied Madsen (March 8th 2021). Decoding the Digital Gap in Teacher Education: Three
   Perspectives across the Globe, Teacher Education in the 21st Century - Emerging Skills for a Changing World, Maria Jose
   Hernandez-Serrano, IntechOpen, DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.96206. Available from
   https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/75224
   

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