Stumbling Blocks and Barriers to the Use of ICT in Schools: A Case Study of a Hungarian Town

Most countries attempt to catch up with technological progress and digitise their educational environment, but still there are few teachers that integrate ICT in education adequately. Several factors may hinder this process, whose exploration is important because only after learning about these barriers can efficient counteractions be taken. One of the goals of our surveys in 2009, 2013 and 2016 realised through own-produced, online questionnaires was to disclose the disadvantages of using ICT in school from the perspective of teachers and what these teachers needed to ensure progress, that is, a more frequent and more efficient use of ICT. According to the altogether 1260 respondents, besides a basic lack of devices, Debrecen teachers’ use of the new technologies is increasingly hindered by their fear of an attention gap exhibited by students and the related problems. This acts as a kind of cognitive barrier to using the technologies, even though teachers regard these new solutions with less and less animosity.