Ease of Use & Technology

The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) came to my attention about five years ago. At that time, I was in the middle of my dissertation research and I identified it as one of the important ideas that had contributed to the expanded and extended use of technology in fields other than K-12 education. The idea is simple: technology that is perceived to be easy to use, useful, and used by others is more likely to be used. I found some evidence that some K-12 educators I interviewed had (apparently independently) identified those factors, and I have found evidence that the instruments used to measure TAM in non-education settings can be modified for use in schools.

As I have returned to K-12 as a manager of technology and advisor to administrators making decisions, I have been reminded of the importance of perceived ease of use in two ways:

 1) Teachers who ask my advice of technology solutions have said they appreciate the fact that I identify ease of use as an essential character of the systems I design. If a teacher tells me "that's a lot of steps," then I know my job as a technology coordinator is unfinished.

 2) I purchased a new Macintosh. Without being an advertisement for the product, I have a computer that is far more elegant in design (hardware, software, and even packaging!) that any computer I have used and that is designed for me to create on all of my devices.

While it is not reasonable to purchase Macintosh laptops for all of our students, it is reasonable for school and technology leaders to keep the three factors of TAM in mind when they make technology decisions and to use those when assessing technology solutions.

If teachers find IT difficult to use, change the system until they find it easy.

If they find it not useful, work with them to find (easy to use) tools that meet their curriculum and instruction goals.

If there is not an expectation that teachers use technology, then set the expectation and support multiple points of entry for educators to begin to meet expectation and then move towards internalizing the value of technology in today's schools.