The role of teachers to the technological addictions. ¿Protective or risk factor?

Abstract

Without claiming to deny the advantages of the use of technology, problems related to the abusive or pathologic use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has been recognized in recent years. In need of preventing this obstacle, this study evaluated the abilities of elementary school teachers in the city of Cordoba-Argentina to act as preventative agents of the abusive or pathological uses of ICT and, in this way, reinforce the protective factors against technology addition within the school environment. For this purpose a descriptive, non-experimental transversal study was conducted. Two scales were administered: one of problematic uses of technology and the other of technophobia together with a quasi-structured survey about the recognition of the indicators of the problematic uses of ICT in children. Among the 61 teachers that participated in the study, all considered ICT to be a risk factor of unproductive behaviors. While technophobia wasn’t found among teachers, they had negative opinions and assessments of technology, anxiety, high aversion and low self-efficacy toward ICT. A total of 6.6% exhibited signs of techno-dependency. The perceptions and uses of ICT by teachers will act a barrier in their role as protective agents.

Keywords

teachers; prevention; technologies; addictions