Factors Affecting Instructional Leaders Perception towards Educational Media Utilization in Classroom Teaching

The author Getnet Eshetu having a degree in Biology and master's in Educational Psychology served for the Gondar Education Media Center for the past 20 years up to the present. He spends his time in the areas of management, training and research as well as designing and implementing media projects on different social and development issues. He is the author of two researches; one is "Involving Children for Hand Washing Behavior Change: Repeated Message Delivery to Foster Action"; the other is "Stories of Change from Open Diaries: The Joint Effects of Radio Messaging and Group Discussions to Fight Child Marriage"; both have been published by Anchor Academic Publishing in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

Text Sample:
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1.1. Background:
Most people are comfortable to practice what they used to do in the past. When we exposed to something new or a system demands us to incorporate any new method mostly at first we resist. One of the reasons for this resistance could be due to perception problem. Perception problem when it comes to education process it may have adverse effect on student's achievement. Education is a dynamic process that is always in change with updated curriculum contents, incorporating new teaching-learning methods, and instructional media technologies. The present day is technology-rich environment, where school leaders are faced with difficulties on how to support the integration of technology into meaningful learning activities and how to evaluate the use of technology with their schools (Waxman, Boriack, Lee, and MacNeil, 2013 citing Yu & Durrington , 2006). Because as Markova (2014) citing Earl (2002) said the introduction of technology is transforming the learning process, and that is resulting in the introduction of completely new definitions for what a learning management environment.
The traditional approach of education is teacher-centered where teacher stand in front to lecture and dictate the lesson where as students are more passive participants in learning process. As Ambelu and Gebregzihabher (2011) stated students listen to the information, participate in limited discussion, take notes, and retrieve or recall the information for evaluation purpose (p.374). This traditional approach to instruction, as Sousa (1998) conclusion referring brain researches, will not enough to raise student achievement levels to today's public satisfaction. The present day world demands new teaching and learning approach to enrich the learning environment. Markova (2014), citing Kopcha (2012) also said there is a growing perception within society as a whole that technology should be integrated into all levels of education. In this regards, educational media technologies concentrate on creating the optimum teaching and learning environment through the use of technology (Newbery, 1999). According to Barbour (1989), many technological solutions are available today, but their success still depends on classroom teachers and how they used the technologies to solve real classroom problem. In this regard Shank (2000), suggested that technology is already fundamentally changing education, regardless of educators' readiness for change. For instance as Markova (2014), stated that the utilization of the resource of internet and the power of computing capabilities, educational technologies have the potential of fundamentally changing every aspect of the educational process.
Comparing the utilization of technologies in classroom it is obvious that developed countries are well ahead of developing counties. Confirming this point Light (2009), states that in industrialized countries understanding of how technology fits to classroom to change teaching-learning performance is a critical issue but little is known about educational technology utilization in classrooms of the developing countries (p.2). In particular as Dede (1995) and Stove (1998) indicated new learning models, such as problem-based learning and constructivism, are aided by the use of technology. But incorporation of media technology for education demands proper equipment and knowhow of utilizing them. Apple Corporation (2002), verified this idea in that with proper equipment, time for professional development and correct instructional methodology, technology can improve student's learning. Otherwise besides lack of skill, bias and perception problem as Entwistle (1998), described that matching and mismatching learning styles to instructional materials can have significant effects on learner's learning performance. In addition to this a simple inclusion of media technology doesn't create the desired positive results. Education is a comple