Individual and organizational factors influencing Korean teachers' use of technology

This study investigates teacher-related factors that influence teachers' use of ICT in Korean schools. The study used a mixed methods approach, with quantitative techniques employed to analyze survey data and qualitative data used to inform the quantitative results. The sample consisted of 661 Korean teachers from 31 elementary schools. To identify the factors influencing Korean teachers' use of technology in practice a survey was developed which included three groups of factors: (1) individual background (gender, years of teaching experience, and the amount of time spent in computer skills professional development and technology integration professional development), (2) attitudinal background (attitude toward computers in education, technology competence, and innovativeness), and (3) socio-organizational factors (school culture, pressure to use technology, administrators' support, and school support). Additionally, five open-ended questions were used to add information and context to the quantitative analyses. The quantitative results show that years of teaching experience, technology integration professional development, technology competence, and administrator's support were the most influential of the factors. In addition, the results suggest that school level factors have a significant impact on teachers' use of technology in practice when multi-level perspectives were taken into account, indicating that it is important that school factors be considered as a separate level in the statistical analysis. The answers from the open-ended questions help explain the specific educational context in Korea, including teachers' thoughts and opinions about technology-integrated instruction. The use of third party websites by teachers emerges as a substantial issue in the area of teachers' technology integration. Korea has a centralized educational system which mandates that teachers use technology in the classroom, which appears to increase teachers' use of third-party websites, particularly experienced teachers. The results indicate that teachers' use of technology in practice is affected by multi-dimensional characteristics of schools, including teachers' individual background, attitudinal factors, and socio-organizational factors. In addition, this study recommends that mandated changes included in ICT policy may result in superficial classroom modifications. For substantial teaching changes, on-going professional development and support from schools and educational offices are required to improve the quality of technology integration