Pre-Service Teachers and Technology Integration

Abstract

The current generation of young teachers entering the profession is often presumed to have an easy comfort with and seemingly innate understanding of technology. Prensky (2001) has gone so far as to name them “digital natives” and has claimed that members of the millennial generation “think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors” (p. 1). However, recent studies in several English-speaking western nations call the millennial generation's innately skillful use of technology into question, and some studies of millennial teachers indicate that they are, in fact, no better at integrating technology into their teaching than their colleagues from other generations. Rogers' (2003) diffusion of innovations theory provides an alternative to the digital native/digital immigrant approach for explaining teachers' technology integration habits. Based on this approach, suggestions for teacher educators are recommended for training millennial teachers to integrate technology and pedagogy.