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Literature Review

The Impact of Technology on Learning and Teaching

Efficiencies to be Gained from the Use of Technology

Robert Hill

Douglasmuir

Abroath

17th February 2011

AbstractThis literature review on behalf of the Scottish Government covers the linked topic of

The Impact of Technology on Learning and TeachingEfficiencies to be gained from the Use of Technology.

The context of this review is set against the economic and social environments where the use of technology is becoming more and more far-reaching in work and leisure and the needs that education must meet.

Schools in Scotland have considerable technological resources and must maximise the

benefits of these to students and the society to which they belong. The main points coming from the review are:

That there is a much good practice in the use of technology both in Scotland and the rest of the first world.

Technology is widely used in educational administration in a similar fashion to the rest of the business world, to communicate, to record, to share resources, to collaborate. This brings considerable efficiencies to managers and teaching staff saving time for better preparation of materials and planning.

There is widespread use of presentational hardware and software in schools, which does motivate students and make for efficiencies in learning and teaching. However this does not encourage changes in the pedagogy.

Where suitable technology is embedded in classroom practice, it facilitates changes in pedagogy that in turn produces improved outcomes as set down by the Curriculum for Excellence and more generally referred to as 21st century skills. These include learning to learn, problem solving, collaboration and communication skills, information handling and evaluation and useful ICT skills.

Barriers to this being achieved have been identified in terms of education management, teaching skills, bottlenecks in the technological infrastructure, inappropriate curricula and assessment.

Glow (the Scottish Schools Intranet) is ahead of what is happening elsewhere in providing a national solution to what, in other countries, tends to be local or regional.

The BackgroundThe review covers some thirty research and review papers mostly produced in the last five years. Any earlier work is, except in the odd circumstance, likely to have been overtaken by changes that have occurred. There has been an enormous volume of work produced on how technology is affecting what happens in the classroom. In many cases it is taken as a given that technology in the classroom is desirable. Most countries in the OECD and many second and third world regimes have government policies encouraging and funding the acquisition of technology by primary, secondary and special schools.

It is important to put this review in some sort of context. The present Scottish system of education dates largely from the 19th century and has only recently started to change radically with the introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence. Any education system has to cater for the needs and aspirations of the society and the individual. To be effective, what happens between teacher and students must serve both these components and any technology must demonstratively enhance this.

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Economic driversThe economy requires people with more diverse skills, not solely based on knowledge acquired during formal education. Clearly, the way society and the economy functions has changed hugely since the first introduction of compulsory education.

Global considerationsWith the increasing power of technology, there has been an exponential expansion of both knowledge and information. There is cheap, rapid intercontinental communication whilst fast travel to anywhere in the world is making more demands on more people and adding to the stress of living.

The requirements of a future economy are bound to be different from those of the 19th Century. Our current education system has its roots in the needs of an industrial society where basic numeracy and literacy was provided for a workforce comprised of a large proportion of workers doing repetitive manual work. The pedagogy was predicated on the teacher providing students with knowledge, mostly through the medium of text. We are now in an age of transition to very different requirements for most of the population. Repetitive manual work and, for that matter, repetitive clerical work carried out by a large number of people is no longer available. There is a much greater need for very diverse skills in many parts of the economy. In the present trend towards globalisation Scotland will only find a prosperous niche with a suitably educated and skilled workforce. The world population and the upward pressure on living standards is such that it is imperative that our workforce is highly trained with the most up to date skills possible to keep Scotland in the forefront of technology and innovation. We therefore need an education system to provide the foundation to students so they are able and motivated to acquire those skills in post school education and training.

Social driversFor society as a whole to flourish, it is important that our future citizens should lead fulfilled and satisfying private lives in harmony with that society. Living in this fast changing world brings many pressures but also provides opportunities for enriching life. The education system must assist students to cope with the pressures and take advantage of the opportunities.

The students of today inhabit a world that is very different from that which many of their teachers experienced as children. In particular, they receive far more information in many different forms on a daily basis than even a few years ago, a trend that seems likely to increase rather than decrease. It is possible, through the internet on social networking sites, for them to make the acquaintance of many people that they may never meet. There has been an exponential rise in television and radio channels. For many children there has been a loosening of family structures and a commensurate increase in freedoms. While there is a widening of university and training provision, there are still significant numbers of young people who are not taking advantage of these opportunities.

ReferencesOur own Curriculum for Excellence has four capacities

Successful LearnersConfident IndividualsResponsible CitizensEffective Contributors

Assessing the Effects of ICT in Education - OECD 960111E - 2009

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Our increasingly technology-rich world raises new concerns for education while also expecting schools to become the vanguard of knowledge societies.... education has the role of preparing students for adult life, and therefore it must provide students with those skills necessary to join a society where technology-related competencies are becoming increasingly indispensable.... The development of these competencies, which are part of the set of the so-called ‘21st century competencies’, is increasingly becoming an integral part of the goals of compulsory education. Finally, in a knowledge economy driven by technology, people who do not master these competencies may suffer from a new form of digital divide that may affect their capacity to fully integrate the knowledge economy and society. For instance, the recommendation of the European Parliament and the Council on key competences for lifelong learning defines a framework of eight competences considered important for the knowledge society. Digital competence is highlighted as one of the eight key competences. .These key competences are all interdependent, and the emphasis in each case is on critical thinking, creativity, initiative, problem solving, risk assessment, decision taking, and constructive management of feelings.( Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 18 December 2006, on key competences for lifelong learning [Official Journal L 394 of 30.12.2006])

OECD Background Paper for OECD-KERIS Expert Meeting - Information and Communication Technologies and Educational Performance

...these specialists argue that ICT seem to be more influential in the development of what they call “21st Century Skills,” which mainly include higher- order thinking skills (i.e. problem-solving; critical thinking; information-handling or information-processing), independent learning, and team-work (McFarlane et.al.2000; McFarlane, 2001; Cox, 1997; Bonnet et.al.1999). Furthermore, they claim that these skills may have an impact on traditional learning and at the same time become a desirable outcome in the context of modern societies where an individual’s capacity to advance their knowledge and skills throughout their lives, and produce new knowledge in flexible contexts, are at the basis of economic and social development.

Horizon Report 2009There is a growing need for formal instruction in key new skills, including information literacy, visual literacy, and technological literacy.... Increasing globalization continues to affect the way we work, collaborate and communicate. Information technologies are having a significant impact on how people work, play, gain information, and collaborate. Increasingly, those who use technology in ways that expand their global connections are more likely to advance, while those who do not will find themselves on the sideline.

Microsoft Partners in Learning suggest that21st century Teaching & Learning should include

CollaborationKnowledge buildingICT UseProblem Solving and InnovationSelf regulation

Critical elements to [facilitate] change areNational and Local Administrations

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SMT of schoolsThen teachers

Pascu 2008Asian countries lead in the usage of social computing with more than 50% of Internet users across all applications, followed by the US (with about 30% of Internet users) and Europe (with about 20-25%). Creation, use and adoption of social computing applications have been growing strongly since 2003.

A Literature Review: "E-Learning and Implications for New Zealand Schools" recognises the term:-Multiliteracies[meaning]Linguistic Meaning - language in cultural contexts (sometimes linked to critical literacy)Visual Meaning - seeing and viewingAudio Meaning - hearing and soundGestural Meaning – movementSpatial Meaning - space and place.Siemens (2006) lists the thirteen skills including: (1) Anchoring: Staying focused on important tasks (2) Filtering: Managing knowledge flow and extracting important elements;... (6) Creating and Deriving Meaning; (7) Evaluation and Authentication;...(9) Critical and Creative Thinking; (10) Pattern Recognition;... ( 13) Contextualizing.According to Attwell (2007) our current educational systems – and especially secondary education – have become dysfunctional in view of societal demands, not supporting the skills and competences actually needed. Education systems have acted with at best suspicion to social networking systems and technologies,...Yet these are the very systems and tools which businesses are increasingly seeing as central to future knowledge creation and distribution. ... Schools will also need to revise the fundamental idea of individual attainment, given that knowledge development is increasingly mediated through sharing, cultural interchange and networking.Fischer & Sugimoto (2006) emphasize that industrial nations in their transition to an information age, face a profound lack of creativity and innovation.

The Horizon Report: 2009 K-12 EditionThe way we think of learning environments is changing. Traditionally, a learning environment has been a physical space, but the idea of what constitutes a learning environment is changing. The “spaces” where students learn are becoming more community-driven, interdisciplinary, and supported by technologies that engage virtual communication and collaboration. This changing concept of the learning environment has clear implications for schools, where learning is the key focus of the space.The perceived value of innovation and creativity is increasing. Innovation is valued at the highest levels of business and must be embraced in schools if students are to succeed beyond their formal education. The ways we design learning experiences must reflect the growing importance of innovation and creativity as professional skills.There is a growing need for formal instruction in key new skills, including information literacy, visual literacy, and technological literacy.

Are the New Millennium Learners Making the Grade?: Technology Use and Educational Performance in PISA 2006

One of the most striking findings of this study is that the digital divide in education goes beyond the issue of access to technology. A new second form of digital divide has been

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identified: the one existing between those who have the right competencies to benefit from computer use, and those who do not. These competencies and skills are closely linked to the economic, cultural and social capital of the student.This finding has important implications for policy and practice. Governments should make an effort to clearly convey the message that computer use matters for the education of young people and do their best to engage teachers and schools in raising the frequency of computer use to a level that becomes relevant. If schools and teachers are really committed to the development of 21st century competencies, such an increase will happen naturally.Today all students in OECD countries are familiar with computers. On the whole, less than 1% of 15-year-old students in OECD countries declared that they had never used a computer. Interestingly, neither gender nor socio-economic status is an important determinant in this respect. Frequency of use at home is not paralleled by use at school. In most OECD countries more than 80% of 15 year-olds use computers frequently at home but a majority do not use them at school, except in HungaryICT familiarity matters for educational performance. Performance differences associated with the length of time students have been using a computer remain once socio-economic background is accounted for.There is a stronger correlation between educational performance and frequency of computer use at home than at school. In a large majority of countries, the benefits of greater computer use tend to be larger at home than at school. In every country, students reporting “rare” or “no use” of computers at home score lower than their counterparts who report frequent use. With the right skills and background, more frequent computer use can lead to better performance. The analysis of PIS A data shows that for educational performance, computer use amplifies a student’s academic skills and competences.

Thriving in the 21st century: Learning Literacies for the Digital Age (LLiDA project)Key messages from the review of future learning scenarios are that educational institutions must adapt to help students deal with:

economic uncertainty high competition for employment in the global knowledge economy increased levels of alternative [employment models], contract-based and self-

employment the rise of interdiscipinarity and multi-disciplinary teams focused on specific tasks a networked society and communities multi-cultural working and living environments blurring boundaries of real and virtual, public and private, work and leisure increasingly ubiquitous and embedded digital technologies increasing ubiquity, availability and reusability of digital knowledge assets distribution of cognitive work into (human and non-human) networks of expertise rapid social and techno-social change

Learners can, under the right conditions, become more critical, evaluative, self-aware, self- confident, skilled and capable in the use of technologiesLearners can also, under the right conditions, develop a wider and more effective range of strategies for their own learning

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Skills acquired iteratively, through practice within authentic tasks and as needed are better retained than those taught one-off, in isolation, and through instruction.

This report re-enforces many of the messages contained in this part of the present review.The Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE) point out in The Fuse report state that

The ICT curriculum in schools must be radically overhauled to ensure the pipeline to Higher Education and employment is improved.The majority of technical skills being taught in schools and universities will be defunct by the time young people are ten years into their careers... and young people will need to know how to source and learn the skills and competence that they will need in the future.Schools should support the integration of creative and digital in the curriculum, and such courses should not be seen as ‘easy’ .

Becta - Impact of Technology on Educational Outcomes – July 09The context of this review is one where children and young people spend much of their time using technology in their own ways to support learning, sometimes independent from specific guidance and support from schools. The rapid changes and developments in technology are signalling an age where constant access to information resources and knowledge networks is increasingly a norm, and children and young people are increasingly bringing that expectation to their learning in school.

Redecker Review of Learning 2.0Looking at the way in which digital technologies have changed how people access and manage information, it can be seen that a new learning paradigm is emerging.The new paradigm can be summarized as follows:1. Due to information overflow, there is a need to learn how to sift, select, organise andmanage information according to its relevance.2. Learning in the digital era is fundamentally collaborative in nature; social networks arise around common (learning) interests and aims and facilitate the learning process by providing social and cognitive guidance and support.3. The learner plays a central role in the learning process – not as a passive recipient of information, but as an active author, co-creator, evaluator and critical commentator.4. As a consequence, learning processes become increasingly personalised, tailored to the individual’s needs and interests1. (LA) Learning and Achieving: Social computing tools can be used as methodological or didactic tools to directly support, facilitate, enhance and improve learning processes and outcomes. ...2. (N) Networking: Social computing can be used to support the communication among students and between students and teachers....3. (D) Embracing Diversity: Social computing can be thought of as a means of integrating learning into a wider community, reaching out virtually to people from other age-groups, backgrounds and cultures, linking to experts, researchers or practitioners in particular fields of study and thus opening up alternative channels for gaining knowledge and enhancing skills;4. (S) Opening up to Society: Finally, social computing can be conceived of as a tool for making institutional learning accessible and transparent for all members of society,

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promoting the involvement of third parties like parents, and also facilitating access by current and prospective students to information.Although Learning 2.0 empowers students to play a more active part in the learning process, the role of the teacher remains vital – or becomes even more important – for the success of the learning activities.

Quality and Equity of Schooling in Scotland, OECD (2007)‘...Scotland is building a strong platform of achievement in basic education’.

However the report also cautions that, ‘Scotland could slip through the ranks. It could be bypassed economically and become more divided socially. Its population might become less well prepared to manage the demands of a global economy...’.

Their Space: Education For A Digital Generation Hannah Green Celia Hannon Demos – 2007This shift means that we are beginning to re-evaluate the kinds of skills and competencies that people, organisations and institutions need to thrive and flourish.... In an economy driven by knowledge rather than manufacturing, employers are already valuing very different skills, such as creativity, communication, presentation skills and team-building....Schools are at the front line of this change and need to think about how they can prepare young people for the future workplace.

The Effect of Technology Research into the effects of technology in the classroom dates back into the 1990s. Included in this is work done by BECTA in England, for the OECD, for various provinces in Canada, in the USA, in New Zealand, in Australia, in the European Union and here in Scotland. All point to the difficulties of obtaining results.

In Evaluating the Use of ICT in Education, Elena C. Papanastasiou of University of Nicosia looks to determine the psychometric properties of the survey of factors affecting teachers teaching with technology. And other work also refers to the complexity of factors surrounding any research.

Early work has tended to overlook the precise nature of the technology available and so results have been variable. It is now apparent that for technology to have a beneficial effect on learning and teaching there are a number of prerequisites.

There must be a management structure and ethos to support the technology Not all types of technology produce the right result Some technologies merely replace older technologies without changing the pedagogy Teachers have to be trained to take advantage of the technology. There has to be a suitable hardware and support structure The assessment framework needs to be suitable.

It is also clear that there is a different outcome if the technology is simply made available and not consciously embedded in the everyday norms of the classroom.

 ReferencesJaye Richards at Cathkin High School, Cambuslang, carried out a Teacher / Researcher Programme study during the Session 2007/2008 entitled “ Will the Lights Stay On?”

Four parallel S3 classes were tracked, each working through the same modules forming part of standard grade Biology. Results were tested using summative instruments of assessment

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using topic- specific questions from past standard grade Biology papers, and an end of year exam. In one of these classes, after two modules taught without it, one module introduced ICT timetabled for one of three lessons each week over one school term, with a mixture of independent and collaborative learning tasks reinforcing the learning objectives for that week. These were delivered using GLOW.Comparing this class and teacher to others show that the attainment on the non-GLOW modules was very similar, and significantly less than the best of the four classes, however, on the GLOW module, it was better by 14.69% marks than the mean of the other three classes.

This was a sufficient difference to allow statistical inferences to be made.Furthermore on the end of year exam, which re-tests all 3 modules in a way comparable to the eventual standard grade exam, the class that had received GLOW based teaching in one module achieved higher average marks even though only one third of the questions were on the topic taught using ICT/GLOW, hinting that a multiplier effect may be operating.

Did the Lights Stay On?Attainment was ahead of the rest of the pupil cohort by 20.4 % over the standard grade course. (Announced at SERA 09)

Assessing the Effects of ICT in Education - OECD 960111E - 2009The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education is no longer optional. A substantial change in society and individuals has occurred thanks to development in ICT, its penetration into the structures of production, knowledge management, communication and culture, the demand for new skills and competencies and the loss of importance in others. In addition, there has been a change in ways of approaching and understanding the world and development of new industries. For all these reasons, schools, countries and regions are compelled to develop new initiatives that incorporate ICT tools in teaching and learning, so that education systems can succeed in linking the new demands of the knowledge society with the new characteristics of learners.

Implementing 1 to 1 Laptop LearningA growth in student engagement and in teachers planning of highly engaging lessons and projects for their students has been observed. The incorporation of rich online multimedia resources and the accessibility of varied software and hardware have heightened the excitement of the whole learning community

Redecker Review of Learning 2.0... throughout Europe there are currently an amazing number of small-scale experiments using social computing in E[education]&T[raining] being carried out, in different educational institutions, with diverse educational objectives, employing various strategies, methods and tools

The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book Edited By Terry Freedman (2010) is a collection of 89 just such projects covering all age groups and most subjects including many cross-curricular tasks.

Horizon K-12, the New Media Consortium – 2009Collaborative Environments - The value placed on collaboration is increasing in the workplace as professionals are expected to work across geographic and cultural boundaries more and more frequently. Many teachers recognize the importance of collaborative work and are finding that online tools to support it provide them and their students with opportunities to work creatively, develop teamwork skills, and tap into the perspectives of people around the world with a wide range of experiences and skills that differ from their own.

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Technology continues to profoundly affect the way we work, collaborate, communicate, and succeed. Information technologies impacts how people work, play, learn, socialize, and collaborate. Increasingly, technology skills are also critical to success in almost every arena, and those who are more facile with technology will advance while those without access or skills will not. The digital divide, once seen as a factor of wealth, is now seen as a factor of education: those who have the opportunity to learn technology skills are in a better position to obtain and make use of technology than those who do not. Evolving occupations, multiple careers, and an increasingly mobile workforce contribute to this trend.

The Impact 2007: Personalising Learning with Technology project (Becta) (Using 450 teacher and more than 1,300 primary and 2,000 secondary pupil questionnaire responses)

E-maturity is linked to higher school performance and also to greater investment in learning by pupils. The latter is a crucial factor in pupil school performance.E-maturity shows a clear, positive relationship to school performance in Key Stage 3 mathematics and science and GCSE level 1.

Review of Learning 2.0 Practices (Redecker) - 2009Evidence collected from a wide variety of Learning 2.0 cases from all over the world suggests six areas in which Learning 2.0 strategies seem to effectively foster pedagogical innovation:(1) Supply of and access to learning material: Social computing tools can facilitate learning processes by making study material more readily available, thus supporting different individual learning styles. In particular, teacher or course blogs can be used to distribute information, wikis support collective resource building, and podcasts assist in making learning material accessible, increasing flexibility and personalisation.(2) Personal knowledge management and resource network building: Social computing tools allow for an improved knowledge exchange, which supports the individual’s personal knowledge and resource management and contributes to the personalisation of learning processes;(3) Subject-specific methods and tools: Some social computing applications, particularly immersive environments and media-sharing services, can be used to create innovative ways for acquiring subject-specific skills, changing learning methods and procedures. As a consequence, new pedagogical and scientific methods evolve that change the way in which a particular subject is learned and taught.(4) Improving personal achievement: Social computing tools can contribute to increasing the individual’s performance and academic achievement. Not only are they suited to supporting basic skills and competences, like digital skills, writing skills and foreign language skills; but their potential to increase collaboration and personalisation can also open up new learning opportunities in all subjects.(5) Personal skills: The affective and social dimension of the learning process can be exploited to allow the learner to not only enjoy learning, but acquire skills that empower him to actively engage in the development of his personal skills and competences.(6) Higher order skills and meta-competences: Social computing tools can contribute to the development of higher order cognitive skills like reflection and meta-cognition, increasing self-directed learning skills and enabling individuals to better develop and realize their personal potential.

The Impact Of Technology: Value Add Classroom Practice Final Report September 2010

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The project proposes a broader perspective on the notion of ‘impact’ that is rather different from a number of previous studies investigating impact. In this project, the focus has been on the learning practices of the classroom and the contexts of ICT-supported learning. [Added italics]

The main emerging themes wereevolving vision and leadershipdeveloping an infrastructure to enhance out-of-school learningmultifaceted staff development and the role of students redefining learning spacesimpacts of ICT on four particular aspects of learning: differentiation, inspiration, coherence and engagementexploiting the affordances of new media in teaching and learning.Indeed, it seemed that one important emergent impact of ICT was the capacity to create forms of coherence in learning. Coherence can take three particular forms:

Co-ordination, whereby distinct activities of learning are integrated Continuity, whereby distinct episodes or sites of learning are integrated Community, whereby ICT is used to mediate the links between different people, their

interests or activities.... the examples of technology creating continuity can be seen as a practice that erodes some of the walls around the traditional classroom. This might be made explicit by the increasing use of electronic communication or by the development of a class presence on the school learning platform:It is generally agreed that ICT enhances motivation, and particularly the motivation of boys. Research has confirmed this general association

ICT can increase engagement. Students are more involved. ICT is perceived as enjoyable. ICT can increase attention. Without attention there is no learning. When ICT

increases students’ attention, this has other benefits. More teacher time is freed up for work with individuals.

ICT can increase students’ time on task for school work. This is one of the most crucial variables in measuring the impact of ICT, because of its potential payoff in increasing learning.

ICT makes possible new forms of overarching classroom practice.ICT creates the possibility of a wide variety of learning practices.

Differentiation Inspiration Coherence Engagement

Becta - Impact Of Technology On Educational Outcomes – July 09Overall there is a strong body of evidence linking the use of technology to improvements in learning and outcomes for learners. The relationship is not a simple one. Schools that take a systematic and planned approach to using technology to support learning achieve better outcomes with technology than other schools. These ‘e-mature’ schools have a well-developed vision for learning and lead and manage their use of technology in support of

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this. They develop teacher skills and curriculum support to build habits and competency in using technology effectively in independent learning.Strong patterns of impact are also found from learners’ use of technology to support learning at home.

Harnessing Technology: Schools Survey 2008 Report 1: Analysis – Becta...there was agreement generally that ICT plays a positive role in engaging pupils in learning, having an impact on attainment and in terms of personalising learning.

Improving Scottish Education The Use Of ICT In Learning And Teaching –HMIe 2007The use of ICT has a positive influence in promoting learner motivation and engagement.There is improved learning across a range of subjects through use of ICT.

But there were caveats to thisEstablishments do not consistently and comprehensively have in place all the elements necessary for learning and teaching to undergo transformation through effective use of ICT.More than a few teaching staff in secondary schools and in colleges do not value or recognise the role of ICT in enhancing a broader range of learning for life, society, culture and personal development than is typical in the formal taught curriculum.These new ways of acquiring and accessing information are also having an increasingly important impact on learning and teaching in Scotland. The potential to transform patterns and modes of learning and teaching is clear. Access to considerable quantities of up-to-date resources and materials by learners and teaching staff can be immediate and have powerful effects. Teaching staff in primary schools used ICT most effectively in the development of learners’ capacities in aspects of language, number work and environmental studies.There is a clear link between appropriate and effective use of ICT in learning and teaching and increased learner motivation and engagement.Learners’ wider achievement is improved and enhanced through use of ICT.Learners use ICT well to develop their understanding of the world in which they live.The impact of ICT on learners’ development of wider skills is evident in a number of ways.

HoweverOnly in a few centres has the use of ICT in learning and teaching brought about permanent change, with educational gain, in learning and teaching approaches. There are pockets of excellence but the general picture is one of only limited success in achieving such transformation.Community learners recognise through their community-based learning the contribution that ICT can make to the enhancement of their life chances.

Assessing The Effects Of ICT In Education - OECD 960111e - 2009Some 120 primary and secondary schools in nine regions of Norway took part in this four-year research and development project based on interventions concerning the educational use of ICT and developing a framework within whole school settings. The aim of the project was: ‘to get the participating schools to develop the pedagogical and organisational opportunities afforded by the use of ICT, and to develop and spread new knowledge on this subject’. Findings on different levels [included]Writing activities of pupils and teachers increasedImproved competence in use of ICT

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Digital portfolios altered pedagogyPositive reaction from headteachers, teachers and studentsBest results from integration of ICTPupils want a teacher who is a clear academic and pedagogical leader even though ICT is used more extensively. After the introduction of ICT, teachers experienced a positive change in their work day.

The big pICTure: The impact of ICT on Attainment, Motivation and Learning, Dept of Education and Skills - 2003While this paper is somewhat dated, it does corroborate the findings of others that

Generally something positive happens to the attainment of pupils who make (relatively) high use of ICT in their subject learningSchool standards are positively associated with the quality of school ICT resources and quality of their use in teaching and learning, regardless of socio-economic characteristicsUse of ICT in class generally motivates pupils to learnAchieving positive impact of ICT on attainment, motivation and learning depends critically on the decisions of schools, teachers and pupils on how it is deployed and used... focused on the wider context of pupils’ learning with ICT, particularly their informal learning (in the home and other out-of-school settings, and at school in relatively informal settings such as computer clubs).The authors concluded that as well as having an impact on attainment in national tests, ICT may also enable motivating and stimulating teaching "connected in a real way to a wealth of curricular issue (ImpaCT2: Perceptions (Somekh et al 2002a)Findings from the qualitative part of the study suggest that particular affordances of ICT impacted on motivation: visual, kinaesthetic and to some extent auditory capabilities; the ability to research and select from a wide range of resources; committing ideas during writing more readily and widely, and editing more extensively; capability to present work well.

Emerge Year One Final Report 2008The readiness of the jurisdictions to implement laptop learning effectively is dependent on the jurisdictions capacity to attend to each of the 7 dimensions (i.e., Metiri’s 7 Dimensions: Vision, Systems Thinking, 21C Skills, 21C Learning Environments, Educator Proficiency with 21C, Access and Infrastructure, and Accountability and Results). Because each of these Dimensions is interdependent, a systemic approach often results in a multiplier effect.

The Impact Of Digital Technology A Review Of The Evidence Of The Impact Of Digital Technologies On Formal Education - Becta November 2009

Impact on attainment at Key Stage 1 - 4.75 months’ progress for high attaining girls in maths.Impact on attainment at Key Stage 2

An average gain from ICT use was equivalent to:a term’s additional progress in English.2.5 months of progress in writing for low attaining boys.2.5 – 5 months’ progress for some groups in maths through effective use of whiteboards.7.5 months’ progress for some groups in science through effective use of whiteboards

Impact on attainment in secondary school

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The equivalent to a term’s additional progress in KS3 science.An average gain in GCSE science equivalent to 52,484 students moving from grade D to C.Improvements to the overall percentage of pupils 5+ A*-Cs at GCSE in the year after broadband introduction.

After controlling for KS3 results, the availability of a computer at home is significantly positively associated with Key Stage 4 test scores. This association amounts to around 14 GCSE points (equivalent to 2 GCSE grades).Wider outcomes

Classes with online learning, whether completely online or blended, on average produce stronger learning outcomes than learning face-to-face alone. Young people with a computer at home are less likely to play truant at ages 14 and 16 than those without computer access. For example, having access to a computer at home is associated with a 5.8% reduction in the likelihood of playing truant at age 16.

Creating digital age learners through school ICT projects:The “knowledge age” argument for ICT ... its key idea is that we need to use ICT, not only to enhance curriculum and pedagogy as we now know it (i.e., by making it more efficient, accessible, and enjoyable for teachers and students, and more appealing to digital-generation learners), but also to help develop new kinds of curriculum and pedagogy that will both respond to and shape the 21st-century world.

Hodgkinson-Williams Paper For Itforum 13-17 March 2006 Revisiting The Concept Of ICTs As 'Tools': Exploring The Epistemological And Ontological Underpinnings Of A Conceptual Framework

Similarly, McCormick and Scrimshaw (2001:38) distinguish between three levels of pedagogy, where the use of ICTs makes existing practice “more efficient or effective, where it is extended in some new way, and where it is transformed”. Bottino (2004: 555) refers in a comparable manner to three models of using ICT in classroom activities, namely the “transmission model, the learner centred model and the participative model”. Coupal describes three waves of teacher ICT professional development as “”literacy uses (a technology centred pedagogy); adaptive uses (a teacher-centred, direct instruction pedagogy); and transforming uses (a student-centred, constructivist pedagogy)” (2004:591).

Management EthosThe effect of the management ethos is made clear in a number of papers.

Without a long term commitment at all levels of education management the introduction and use of technology in classrooms is liable to be fragmented and ineffective. The management must see clearly what they are hoping to achieve and they must be able to communicate that to the teaching staff and students.

ReferencesIntegrating Digital Learning Objects in the Classroom: A Need for Educational Leadership - 2009

... sub sections of this resource describe the detailed promising practices shared by Emerge ‐Project participants in the areas of1. Visionary leadership and sustained innovation;2. Thoughtful and systematic planning and management;

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......align closely with the essential components for effectively leveraging technology for learning put forward by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) ....it is important for leaders at every level within the jurisdiction, school, classroom, home and community to collaborate toformulate a vision with input from multiple stakeholders,align that vision with local priorities,ground that vision in best practice, andpurposefully communicate that visionand sustain innovation.(Implementing One-to-One Laptop Learning in Alberta Schools)The authors focus their findings through the prism of educational leadership development, exploring how changes in teaching practice can be accelerated by illustrating what types of changes are needed in schools at the organizational level.

The Impact of Technology: value add classroom practice Final report September 2010Accordingly, we present below a model of uptake that suggests a number of key factors that are driving the move from availability to use(1) Leadership and vision:(2) Commitment to learning platform. (3) Sensitive staff development.(4) Versatile learning spaces.

Improving Scottish Education the Use Of ICT In Learning And Teaching HMIe 2007The successful implementation of policies and plans depends crucially on the clear identification of key players and their roles and responsibilities in taking forward the agenda set by policies and plans. Not all of these key players currently provide the level of leadership necessary for successful implementation of the policies and plans.One of the areas that has received least attention by managers in authorities and in centres is that of the management of learners and digital content. Effective use of ICT by learners and teaching staff demands that they can interact with ICT-based learning and teaching materials in such a way that learners’ education benefits.Very few secondary schools made explicit to learners the value of their use of ICT to ensure and improve learning. As a result, learners were generally unaware of any responsibility falling on them to enhance their own learning through independent use of ICT.In a large number of transitions between primary and secondary education, secondary school managers failed to take adequately into account the prior learning and skills that S1 learners had acquired at primary school. ... Secondary school managers underestimated significantly the demotivating effect on many S1 learners of such an approach.Centres do not have effective arrangements in place to identify the impact of ICT on learner attainment.

Becta - Impact Of Technology On Educational Outcomes – July 09Schools that take a systematic and planned approach to using technology to support learning achieve better outcomes with technology than other schools. These ‘e-mature’ schools have a well-developed vision for learning and lead and manage their use of technology in support of this. They develop teacher skills and curriculum support to build habits and competency in using technology effectively in independent learning.

Emerge One-to-One Laptop Learning Initiative: Year One ReportThe Emerge evaluation is intended to answer the following research questions:

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...4. What is the level of jurisdictional and provincial readiness for systemically advancing 21st Century Learning and effective uses of technology in learning? This initial report is focused on research question 4, the jurisdictional and provincial readiness for systemically advancing 21st Century Learning and effective uses of technology in learning. Readiness is defined as the alignment of 7 interdependent [Metiri] dimensions within the education system related to 21st Century Learning and educational technology:1. Forward Looking, Shared Vision. ...2. Systems Thinking. ...3. 21st Century Skills and Instructional Approaches. ...4. 21st Century Learning Environment....5. Educator Proficiency with 21C Learning. ... 6. Access and Infrastructure.... 7. Accountability/Results....

Implementing 1 to 1 Laptop LearningVisionary Leadership and Sustained Innovation

Emphasises the importance that all stakeholders must be committedVery meticulous planning

Importance of communication at all levels - multiple means

Significance of the Type of TechnologyIt is important that the right kind of technology is in place in the classroom as some technologies are just more advanced versions of existing teaching equipment.

The technologies deployed in classrooms have matured in recent years as it has become apparent that the right mix of ICT is important if the desired embedding of the technology into classroom pedagogy is going to take place.

It has been shown that to achieve an active learner ethos in the learning space where learners learn to learn, to collaborate, to solve problems, to communicate and to use the full range of 21st century skills there must be technology to facilitate this and not to perpetuate the presentational mode of teaching. The hardware is not necessarily that sophisticated but it must allow wide access to the internet for opportunities to acquire knowledge through the available literacies (text, visual, audio etc); there should be access to email, video conferencing and social networks.

The Technology and High School Success (THSS) initiative is a part of Alberta (Canada) Education’s ongoing research into best practices in classroom technology implementation. This was a two year project covering 2008/2009 and 2009/2010, involving the analysis of 23 different projects across a range of secondary schools in the Alberta public school system. The THSS initiative involves over 22,000 students and 420 teachers at over 70 schools. This is only the report on the first year and at the moment the final report is not yet available. (The research was carried out by a team from the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary and the Galileo Educational Network.)The research found widespread expertise amongst the teachers involved. However most were limiting the technology to the use of Interactive Whiteboards (IWB) and this did very little to alter the pedagogy in the classroom from the existing model of the imparting of knowledge by the teacher, although teachers claimed in interviews to have altered their style of teaching.

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ReferencesA literature review: "e-Learning and implications for New Zealand Schools" - a report commissioned by Ministry of Education - 2010 states...The provision of a tool isn’t enough, if people don’t know what it’s for or how to use it, but having them available can precipitate more effective learning relationships (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2005). There is a trend emerging in the literature about the importance of teachers’ active presence and roles in classrooms using e-Learning tools.e-Learning tools can motivate and engage students. These may be critical factors leading to improved educational outcomes.In this particular document e-learning is used in a more general sense than is usual as explained:This term is explained in the New Zealand Ministry of Education’s e-Learning action plan as “Learning and teaching that is facilitated by or supported through the smart use of information and communication technologies” (Ministry of Education, 2006, p. 2). These information and communication technologies (ICTs) include tools such as interactive whiteboards (IWBs), handheld devices like cell phones, digital cameras or voice recorders, or PDAs (personal digital assistants), as well as computers and specific software applications.

The report goes on:The SITES 2006 conference publication (Law, Pelgrum, & Plomp, 2008) outlined studies conducted in 22 countries. Conclusions from these studies suggested that: The impact on learners is “highly dependent” on the “pedagogical orientation” that teachers adopt vis a vis e-Learning (Law, 2008, p. 275)e-Learning and collaborative/co-constructive pedagogies go together. The dynamics of classrooms change when e-Learning is part of the regular learning environment. Using collaborative, interactive pedagogies that also foster co-operation appear to lead to effective learning and better teacher/student relationships over time. Technology in classrooms becomes an effective tool when teachers deliberately use them in relation to appropriate and targeted pedagogical practices.Similarly, if the new tools simply replace an old one (such as presentation software instead of overhead transparencies) with little else changing, then student engagement and interest will quickly revert to previous levels because nothing has essentially changed for the learners. They may suffer from the equivalent of ‘death by PowerPoint’.

Harnessing Technology: Schools Survey 2008 Report 1: Analysis – BectaInteractive whiteboards are the dominant technology in schools, and technology continues to be used primarily for presentational purposes. Display technologies are important, but there is scope for encouraging more engaged and interactive forms of teaching and learning using ICT.

Given that these prerequisites are in place, various reports suggest that technology does facilitateHigher order thinking, metacognitive skills and active learning, building knowledge for themselves all facilitated by ICT (e-Learning and implications for New Zealand Schools)

Hodgkinson-Williams Paper for ITFORUM 13-17 March 2006A number of authors have attempted to clarify what is understood by “integrating ICT into the curriculum” by describing the range of ways in which computers are used

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Bialobrzeska and Cohen (2005) claim that there are three levels of integrating ICTs into learning, namely, functional practice, integrative practice and transformational practice. The third level of integration, they maintain, is “characterised by learning which occurs as a result of activities and opportunities which do not exist in a computer-less environment”

ICT In Schools: Trends, Innovations and Issues In 2006-2007The new French ‘orientation law’ for the future of schools lays down the general guidelines for the integration and generalisation of ICT into schools. The originality of this initiative lies in the fact that this is the first time that mastering ICT becomes one of the five key competences that pupils need to have at the end of their stay in school. The decision to include ICT skills has a direct impact on the structural organisation of schools and more precisely as regards to pedagogy.

Exploring teacher mediation of subject learning with ICT: A multimedia approach T-Media Project (2005-2007) Sara Hennessy & Rosemary Deaney notes that Interactive Whiteboards have become very popular in UK schools and have become embedded in classroom methodology but encourage

superficial collaboration, motivation and participation at the expense of uptake questioning, pupil talk and reflection.

Teacher CompetenceTeachers have to be trained to take advantage of the technology. The training required by many teachers is much more than the comparatively straightforward acquisition of ICT skills, as many will already use computers and other technologies in their private lives. The pedagogy of the classroom and the everyday practice of teaching have largely been inherited from one generation of teachers to another. Every teacher has been taught and so they subconsciously perhaps emulate what they have experienced as students. Current technologies are game changers. In order to acquire the skills as opposed to the knowledge students will need in the work place teachers have to alter the classroom methods of years to enable this to take place. In much the same way as repetition of times tables reinforces numeracy students must practice 21st century skills of information gathering, sifting and handling, collaborative working, multi-literacy communication, etc., in order to become skilled in their use.

ReferencesHarnessing Technology: Schools Survey 2008 Report 1: Analysis – Becta

Substantial proportions of schools still do not have a learning platform. Furthermore, the most common uses for a learning platform are as a repository for documents for learning and teaching and, secondly, as a store for digital learning resources, both of which could be seen as ‘passive’ uses. There is also evidence that the culture of classroom technology use is still geared primarily towards display and presentational functions.

Improving Scottish Education the Use Of ICT In Learning And Teaching HMIe 2007A significant minority of teaching staff in secondary schools took very seriously their responsibility to make effective use of ICT in their teaching. They understood the potential benefits for them and their pupils of the imaginative use of ICT in the classroom and beyond. However, in too many cases, class teachers failed to understand these benefits or value the potential they offered and therefore did not make serious attempts to incorporate effective ICT resources into their teaching. Many cited lack of access to, or unreliability of resources as a barrier to their use.

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All education authorities had arrangements in place to identify the development needs of teaching staff. They provided programmes of CPD to develop and enhance the capacity of staff to exploit the benefits of ICT in learning and teaching.Very few education authorities evaluated the impact that CPD in this area had on learning and teaching.In all sectors, the confidence and competence of teaching staff in their use of ICT in their teaching varied widely. A small but increasing number of staff were making imaginative use of interactive whiteboards, materials from the Internet and commercial software to enhance their teaching and enrich the learner experience. However, the majority of teaching staff needed to progress beyond the basic use of presentation software to display the contents of the equivalent of acetate slides previously used with an overhead projector.Teaching staff use an insufficiently wide range of ICT-based teaching approaches to maintain and increase learner motivation.More than a few teaching staff in secondary schools and in colleges do not value or recognise the role of ICT in enhancing a broader range of learning for life, society, culture and personal development than is typical in the formal taught curriculum.In secondary and special schools, there was no consistent pattern of use of ICT in teaching. Subject areas with extensive use of ICT in one school would make little use of ICT in another. ICT produced real educational gain in a subject area in one school but had little impact on teaching approaches in other subjects in the same school.

The Impact of Technology: value add classroom practice Final report September 2010 - BectaAs teachers become more comfortable with the awareness that students are going to teach them, their contributions can be smoothly integrated into the fabric of the lesson:In addition to enhancing student participation during lessons, the introduction of technology and staff development transcends the mere learning of how a tool works. Teachers revealed self-development in understanding the intricacies of how the tool linked to further learning possibilities.

ICT In Schools: Trends, Innovations and Issues In 2006-200774% of Europe’s 4 475 301 teachers report that they have used ICT in class in the last year. Huge variations between countries exist, however, with for example 35% of teachers in Latvia and 36% in Greece, compared to 96% in the UK and 95% in Denmark.Teachers have had some training and an overwhelming majority of teachers in Europe (90%) use ICT to prepare their lessons. However, teachers use ICT to support existing pedagogies. ICT is used most when it fits best with traditional practices.The evidence base gives important insight into the process in which teachers adopt new technologies which is has to be taken into account with new decisions being made at policy level. The majority of teachers explore ICT as a tool following a systematic approach using it to:1. Enhance existing traditional practice;2. Progressively build it into the curriculum;3. Transform more profoundly their teaching practice.

Creating Digital Age Learners Through School ICT Projects – 2006 points out that instead of learning it for its own sake, students need to understand “old” knowledge so that they can use it to develop new knowledge. As a beginning, the current content- and assessment-

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driven focus needs to be replaced by an emphasis on learning and creating genuinely new knowledge. Secondary education, in particular, needs to move away from the Industrial-Age, one-size-fits-all, production-line model of education, to approaches that focus more on the learning needs of individuals. To do this, they need to know quite a lot about learning: how they themselves learn, how others learn, and how to help other people learn. The authors go on to emphasise that merely providing hardware in schools does not transform the education students receive. They reference Cuban 2001,[ and he has continued this theme to the present day]. Change can only happen if teachers are properly trained in the pedagogic changing use of technology.

It should be noted in a recent lecture to the RSA Sir Ken Robinson said much the same thing.

Laptops for Teachers: An evaluation of the TELA scheme in Auckland schools - Ministry of Education, New Zealand 2010This report suggests that teachers were most comfortable using their laptops for administrative purposes such as reports, absences, emails, etc., and for preparation but that there was a spill over into classroom use as they became more familiar with the technology.While the overall Ministry operational objective for the initiative did mention increased use in teaching and learning, the emphasis was apparently more on professional and administrative tasks than pedagogical. However, the findings from both the surveys and the focus groups suggested that the laptops were enabling teachers to change what happens in their classroom and to make greater use of other computers in the school for student learning.

Activ8 Interactive Whiteboard Action Research Project - United Church Schools Trust, 2007There is a difference between learning to use a piece of software and knowing how it can be applied to different situations. Indeed, the learning process can seem irrelevant and dull if the user cannot see what relevance it will have in their work.This particularly applies to technology which the teacher is expected to use to interact with students.

British Journal of Educational Technology (2006) Curricula and the use of ICT in education: Two worlds apart? - Jo Tondeur, Johan van Braak and Martin Valcke

In Flanders, the education government has identified and defined a framework of ICT competencies for expected outcomes … whether teachers are using ICT in accordance with the competencies proposed by the Flemish government. In order to answer this question, a survey was conducted ...Results show that teachers mainly focus on the development of technical ICT skills, whereas the ICT curriculum centres on the integrated use of ICT within the learning and teaching process.

Their Space Education For A Digital Generation Hannah Green Celia Hannon Demos – 2007Over the last ten years schools have also seen a massive investment in hardware, but we have not seen the same level of investment in teacher training to ensure that the hardware is being used to its full potential, or in support for schools to really re-imagine the way that learning is organised.

It is also important that CPD keeps teachers up to date with Internet safety. Their Space Education For A Digital Generation’s research amongst young people found a considerable degree of knowledge of how to be safe on the world Wide Web but also a number of myths and

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misapprehensions on the part of teaching staff and parents. Blanket insensitive restrictions can make matters worse and mean that some educational opportunities are missed.

Suitable Hardware and Support StructureIt is clear from the research that there are certain levels of hardware, software, infrastructure and technical support required for technology to be useful in the classroom. This is not just about the number of computers but also about their location. Suites of computers in primary schools do fulfill a purpose but they mostly facilitate the acquisition of technical skills rather than the softer skills which integrated technology enhances in the classroom. It has been pointed out by HMIe that in secondary schools, there is often too much of a concentration of hardware in just a few departments and school managements are failing to grasp this nettle. This is an historical leftover especially in need of correction in departments where the final certificate assessments do not test computer skills. There is some controversy over the notion of one laptop per child, i.e. full time access but there is no doubt that there should be access as and when required. Some reports highlight the fact that school access to technology for learning is considerably inferior to that which students enjoy in their homes.

It is also important that the whole system from hardware and software, the network and the access to the internet should be properly planned and without bottlenecks. Here bandwidth can be a particular issue as video streaming and video conferencing become more ubiquitous.

Improving Scottish Education the Use Of ICT In Learning And Teaching HMIe 2007Few of these computer suites [in Primaries] were supported by adequate bandwidth to allow effective access to the Internet by all members of the class simultaneously.In recent years, improvements in ICT infrastructure and resources to support learning and teaching have increased the potential availability of ICT for learning and teaching. However, there remains much room for improvement in effective access to ICT for learning and no consistent pattern of use is emerging.In one school, classrooms were clustered round common areas where computers were deployed, allowing learners and teaching staff access to ICT for learning in a flexible and easily managed way.The pattern of locating ICT equipment was an important factor in determining how effectively it was used by learners and teaching staff.All secondary schools deployed the bulk of their ICT resources to meet the needs of a small number of teaching departments: computing studies; business education; and technical education. This resulted in the location of large numbers of computers in dedicated suites with timetabling of these suites prioritised for these departments. Typically, this deployment of ICT equipment accounted for about half of the computers available for learning and teaching. Other departments booked these resources when they were not timetabled for computing studies, business education or technical education classes. School managers had rarely determined whether such deployment of resources reflected accurately the learning and teaching requirements across the school.

Harnessing Technology Review 2008 (Becta): The role of technology and its impact on educationThe use of learning platforms, and their integration with management information systems, has increased during the last year. However, this use is still at an early stage of development

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in schools and most schools’ infrastructure does not support mobile and remote access to the network. The development and wider adoption of these technologies is a significant factor in achieving further progress, and represents a sound basis for the development of practice with technology more generally.Achieving fair access to technology for parents, young people and adult learners is likely to be a continuing challenge.There are also issues for schools and colleges around access to digital learning resources, and to high-quality resources in particular. This suggests that many learners and practitioners are receiving a technology service that is still lacking in reliability and professionalism. This is particularly the case in primary schools, where lack of on-site technical capacity is likely to prove a barrier to school-led progress.Despite progress in relation to many aspects of infrastructure, schools’ capability to support mobile and personal access for learners is still limited. For example, only 8 per cent of primary schools and 17 per cent of secondary schools reported that they offer access to mobile and handheld devices. Only 6 per cent of schools have wireless internet access everywhere on the campus. Some 14 per cent of secondary schools allow use of students’ own devices in lessons, but only 4 per cent give full permissions for students on their network (Smith et al., 2008).When considered alongside indications that there are issues for schools and colleges in relation to access to, and quality of, learning resources, this suggests that learners and practitioners are generally receiving a technology service that is lacking in professionalism.While it is important to note that there has been much progress in the development of institutional infrastructures over recent years, this is unfortunately likely to be failing to keep up with either external developments or the expectations and behaviours of users.Having dedicated on-site technician support in a school appears to have a positive effect: a statistically significant association was found between reported teacher enthusiasm in using ICT to deliver the curriculum and the level of technical support available in a school.

The Horizon Report: 2009 K-12 EditionPolicy decisions designed to protect students from encountering potentially harmful content also limit access to valuable educational content. Inadequate infrastructure and equipment also restrict access; in classrooms where there is a single computer, or in schools where students can only use computers in libraries or labs, there is little opportunity for students to curate or maintain evolving collections of online material.

e-Learning and implications for New Zealand schoolsPreventing access in schools to mobile technologies or firewalling some sites does not teach effective and critical uses of these technologies that students have ready access to outside of school. Virtual worlds and gaming have potential in compulsory education. They are already used widely in medicine and aviation and other tertiary learning environments, and are increasingly being used in business as part of research and development, as well as employee induction.

Their Space Education For A Digital Generation Hannah Green Celia Hannon Demos – 2007Finally this shift in understanding [of the available technology] is important at a time when mobile digital devices are becoming far more sophisticated and more widely available.

British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 34 No 2 2003 151–167 ICT—the hopes and the reality

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OfSTED has summarised the characteristics of good secondary school ICT provision,(OfSTED, 2002). They are:• availability of different groupings of resources to match the needs of departments,for example computer rooms, clusters of machines and individual workstations around the site• computers networked and well maintained with good Internet access from all workstations• well-lit, comfortable computer rooms with sufficient space for pupils to work away from computers and for teachers to circulate and talk to individual pupils• effective communication with the whole class using digital projectors or the capacity to control all the computers• an efficient and equitable booking system for computer rooms.

Implementing Web 2.0 in Secondary Schools: Impacts, Barriers and Issues Becta 2008Although Web 2.0 can be very resource-light, widespread use may require a certain level of infrastructure. One co-ordinator expressed concerns about the available bandwidth should VLE [Virtual Learning Environment]use really take off, and a network manager noted that his school would soon need to move from 8MB to 16MB broadband to accommodate the additional traffic going ‘up’ to the VLE, the great majority of which will be student-generated.

The Assessment FrameworkReports from various countries point out that current summative assessments measure the knowledge gained and retained. The Curriculum for Excellence and the acquisition of 21st Century skills will require assessment of skills rather than knowledge. In secondary schools subject based assessment will need to be supplemented by assessment of generic skills such as information gathering and evaluating and new knowledge creation.

Creating Digital Age Learners through School ICT Projects: 2006As a beginning, the current content- and assessment-driven focus needs to be replaced by an emphasis on learning and creating genuinely new knowledge.

Web 2.0 Benefits and Barriers Becta 2008Many teachers felt that curriculum and assessment pressures reduced their opportunities to introduce Web 2.0 approachesThere was a perceived tension between requirements for assessment and adoption of Web 2.0 tools. Little mention was made of the formal assessment of work from Web 2.0 sources or where computer-supported collaboration has been involved.Many innovating teachers feel that current curriculum and assessment structures inhibit and de-incentivise the creative use of Web 2.0 technologiesNot all teachers interviewed saw collaboration as desirable, and some mention was made of the influence of the assessment system, which emphasises individual attainment, and translates in some cases into anxieties about plagiarism and guidance to avoid collaborationA headteacher makes this observation about the examination system:“What examinations test is… a recall of knowledge, the ability to apply algorithms to find solutions without necessarily understanding what you’re doing, and working independently… Real life tests the ability to collaborate, the ability to work with uncertainty, the ability to find out knowledge from a great sea of resources, not your own personal mind, not your memory. So exams are about as different from reality as it’s possible to be, and yet we use

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examinations as the gateway to further education, as a gateway to employment, and as the meter by which we measure how well a school performs.” Web 2.0 has the potential to allow deepening of the curriculum and responsive, tailored assessment, yet curriculum and assessment are currently challenges for some schools rather than impetuses for change. Web 2.0 approaches to learning and teaching can have a transformational impact on learning, assessment and personalisation.

The Impact Of Technology: Value Add Classroom Practice Final Report September 2010This includes using the technology as part of assessment, out-of-school learning and personalisation. ICT provides tools to traffic in assessment interactions – potentially making them more prompt, representationally rich and interactive.Self-assessment is encouraged, but greater emphasis on online assessment packages may strengthen and support this initiative.

Their Space Education for a digital generation Hannah Green Celia Hannon Demos – 2007While plagiarism is a real problem, it should not be conflated with the impact of new ways of accessing information. The significance of this cultural shift – also easily identifiable in the workplace – indicates that rather than focusing on the answers, teachers should be thinking more about the questions. We need to push children to think more critically about where they find their information, and how they interpret and present it for assessment.... the additional benefit of developing collaborative skills which are often under-emphasised in the current assessment system.

The Horizon Report: 2009 K-12 EditionAssessment has also not kept pace with new modes of working, and must change along with teaching methods, tools, and materials. Assessment and filtering greatly impact the degree to which some technologies can be adopted in schools...Assessment continues to present a challenge to educators at all levels, particularly in the context of new media and collaborative work; evaluating student work that includes blogs, podcasts, and videos, or establishing how much an individual student contributed to or learned from a collaborative project, is difficult.

Transforming teaching and learning: embedding ICT into everyday classroom practices Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 20, pp413–425 2004

Within the project, we recognised from the outset that learning events in school are situated within a set of overlapping cultures, which relate to both top-down and bottom-up influences. Top-down influences tend to be formalised and normative and include the school culture, subject culture, the National Curriculum and the national assessment structure

ICT In Schools: Trends, Innovations And Issues In 2006-2007System-level barriers: In some countries it is the educational system itself and its rigid assessment structures that impede the integration of ICT into everyday learning activities.Norway also strives towards major progress in e assessment using digital portfolios.The UK’s [England] e-Strategy for education ... outlines that by 2008 every school learner in England should have “access to a personalised online learning space with the potential to support e portfolios” and by 2010 all schools will have integrated learning and management systems.

The Impact of Technology: Value Add Classroom Practice Final Report September 2010

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The more singular view relates learning too closely to memory (and, perhaps, memory too closely to recitation). Measures of its success are thereby rather back-facing, in the sense that they dwell on tests to establish that the material learned has actually been remembered. However, the alternative is to see learning in terms of a variety of practices. There is no single ‘best way’. So, the present more diversified model of learning (as multiple practices) is more firmly forward-facing. The learner’s achievement does not now simply comprise a store of remembered content. The successful student graduates with a repertoire: that is, a set of procedures-for-learning. The learner’s achievement must include confidence with a whole range of approaches for interrogating the world – approaches that allow them to learn from it. The learner’s achievement thereby comprises a set of exploratory and information-systematising strategies: resources that can be mobilised in future situations of inquiry or problem solving. We believe that access to ICT-intensive activities is making substantial contributions to cultivating this dimension of successful educational practice.

Other BarriersIn particular the following report noted concerns in 2007 some of which have been addressed but by no means all.Improving Scottish Education the Use Of ICT In Learning And Teaching –HMIe 2007

While the inspectors noted many positive aspects of technology in schools they did have these points to be addressedPolicy and planning for the use of ICT needs to be better related to more general policies and plans for learning and teaching.Managers need to improve the level of monitoring and review of the quality of the learner experience of ICT in education.Most centres miss opportunities to develop learners’ ICT skills through the wider curriculum, for example, through the subject disciplines. Most ICT skills development is not related effectively enough to the wider context within which the learner is studying.Many staff at all levels do not understand fully enough their own role in the effective promotion and use of ICT for learning and teaching. More than a few do not fully appreciate the benefits to be gained from the use of ICT in their teaching.In most schools and in a minority of colleges, some equipment is outdated and does not support the use of modern software for learning and teaching.Short-term funding in youth and community work prevents sustainability of a number ofICT projects.Very few centres provide a full range of structured ICT services and resources to learners and teaching staff.In many cases, staff development opportunities are general in scope and do not sufficiently address the specific curriculum-based ICT development needs of staff.Technical support arrangements are varied. They include externally managed services, corporate arrangements, in-house provision and peripatetic support. Not all arrangements meet the needs of learners and teaching staff. Managers need to evaluate effectively the quality of technical support and implement improvements to address weaknesses.

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Efficiencies to be gained from the Use of Technology

Administration of Education - Technology is being used as a matter of course in more and more of the administrative tasks in education. From simple word processing of policy documents through email systems and networked storage to Management Information Systems (MSI) for pupil records including academic tracking. Most administrators and teaching staff take theses systems for granted.However that does not mean that there is not room for improvements. This is particularly true of fragmentation of provision. It is important that the systems cover a sufficiently large administrative area so that data can be readily exchanged as necessary. One of the prime criteria of any data system is to minimise the number of times the same data needs to be entered and this should be ideally only once. Individual technology solutions at school level often prove a barrier to collaboration in the larger education system.

ReferencesHarnessing Technology Review 2008(Becta): The role of technology and its impact on education

Laptops for Teachers: An evaluation of the TELA scheme in Auckland schools - Ministry of Education, New Zealand 2010

Teachers having laptops resulted in more administration being done with the technology, increasing the efficiency and reducing the cost.

Implementing One-to-One Laptop learning in Alberta SchoolsUse a variety of tools and processes to monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of technical support - Emerge Project participants offered the following specific advice: Manually or automatically track and record incident reports, requests, resolutions and response times. One school used an automated service request system where technical service requests were sent to a central repository for triage and response. A chain of command was then used for issue resolution.

The impact of ICT in schools - Becta 2007Feedback on the Laptops for Teachers initiative ....The impact on administrative tasks was significant – contributing to more efficient time management, more professionally produced work (particularly with the use of presentation software) and effective recording of assessment data.Other anticipated outcomes included increased efficiency in teachers’ planning and preparation tasks and improved home–school linksSome of the evidence discussed here supports this: intranets and laptops have become efficient tools for administration, management, planning and preparation, while VLEs and the Internet have become repositories of resources which can be downloaded and used with little or no modification.

The impact of digital technology A review of the evidence of the impact of digital technologies on formal education Becta 2009

At the school level, strategies may include the efficiencies in monitoring of behaviour to reduce persistent absenteeism, a factor in academic underachievement, or more subtle

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profiling of underachieving pupils to produce a personalised programme of work, and so increase the school’s percentage of pupils attaining the national target of five GCSEs

Creating digital age learners through school ICT projects: ICT allows school data ... to be collected and managed electronically, thereby streamlining teachers’ administrative work. ICT can help teachers collaborate and share teaching resources more effectively—for example, through shared online teaching and assessment resource banks or, as in several New Zealand videoconferencing initiatives, through the ability to share “expert” teachers among schools separated by distance and lacking capacity in particular curriculum areas. Within schools, shared electronic communication (such as a school email system or school intranet) improves communication and information

Harnessing Technology Review 2008: The role of technology and its impact on education BectaTechnology is perceived as a major support mechanism for organisational change. This is expressed as a desire to become more efficient in data management and its use to monitor, review and plan provision.

School Management Information Systems and Value for Money - Becta 2010The lack of a mandated interoperability standard can also add costs in a variety of ways: It can lead to inefficient business processes, data duplication, re-entering of data in multiple systems, reduction in data quality and increased reporting costsSchool leaders are increasingly looking to the role of ICT to support improvements in student learning, to reduce administrative overheads and to facilitate improvements in the effectiveness and efficiency of their schools. Such transformation in working practices, efficiency savings and creative developments have been, and continue to, take place in the private sector through the application of emerging technologies. Educators can and should continue to build on those achievements.

Improving Scottish Education The Use Of ICT In Learning And Teaching –HMIe 2007 points outThe benefits of online assessment, including immediate feedback to candidates, improved flexibility of access to assessment and savings in valuable teaching staff time had the potential to contribute to the flexibility of the curriculum advocated in Curriculum for Excellence.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD)Traditional methods of delivering training are expensive and time consuming and are often inappropriate to the participants, by virtue of the "one size fits all effect".Technology offers many solutions. It can be as straightforward as providing material online that is accessible when needed. This can take the form of word processed guides and manuals, audio files, video tutorials or full interactive e-learning packages. These can be flexible and suited to all levels of competence; they are available as needed 24/7 and address the requirements of the learner at that time and place.Video conferencing provides an alternative to face to face tuition, saving on time and travelling expenses. It can also reduce the need for staff to cover for the absent attendee.Recently social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have become in the jargon Personal Learning Networks (PLN) and many teachers are finding them a useful source of advice and support. A number of very useful resources both for classroom and CPD use have come out of collaborations on these networks which attract members not just from the home country but from all parts of the world. Active individuals who are contributing massively to their PLNs may have several thousand likeminded individuals in their groups.

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Online CPD materials can be quality assured and feedback from users can be readily collected making it an efficient development model.

ReferencesTeaching Scotland’s Future Report Of A Review Of Teacher Education In Scotland Graham Donaldson December 2010

Efficient use of time, better access and the opportunity to maximise quality mean that online learning and engagement must be an increasingly important part of a blended approach to CPD for all teachers.

Efficiencies in the ClassroomTeachers if they have access to suitable technology in their classrooms generally make use of it to do administrative tasks and many schools in Europe and the rest of the first world follow a similar pattern of use. Administrative tasks alone have been found to save about two hours a week at least which are then available for teaching preparation.There are also efficiencies and savings to be gained through direct use of the internet for students to access knowledge and experts in their subjects in a variety of different ways. Collaborative teaching becomes an actuality, even the possibility of one teacher presenting to two classes where sizes are small, rather than bussing students between schools. There is evidence that teachers prefer internet resources to textbooks.The beneficial effects of technology in the classroom also bring efficiencies in terms of more student time on task and less time spent by the teaching staff on behaviour and other problems and more time available to support individuals. Technology can also bring efficiencies in terms of online assessments and computer assisted marking in Virtual learning Environments (VLE)Scottish Education managers have embraced the model of all hardware and software being publicly owned. There is evidence that students who are allowed to use their own hardware in schools thereby increase the hardware available to the class as a whole. There is a growing tendency in business to use internet based applications and storage (so called cloud computing) which is either free or very much less costly than ownership. Islay High School, a School of Ambition, has made considerable savings in photocopying and paper costs by the integration of technology throughout the school. In a similar effort Sawtry Community College hope to save 20% of the school’s budget over the next year.Ref The Impact of Technology: value add classroom practice Final report September 2010 ICT can increase students’ time on task for school work already quoted above

ReferencesHarnessing Technology Review 2008(Becta): The role of technology and its impact on education

The strongest general impact of technology across education relates to improvements in efficiency, notably the impact on the use of teachers’ and practitioners’ time. Studies have demonstrated that practitioners generally re-invest time they save into core,... thus giving rise to benefits in quality.A considerable proportion of those who say they save time report on average saving more than two hours per week (Smith et al., 2008).

Laptops for Teachers: An evaluation of the TELA scheme in Auckland schools - Ministry of Education, New Zealand 2010

Certainly, teachers expected the laptops to have an impact in this area [the creation of, and access to, quality curriculum and assessment resources] and in November 2005 they reported a relatively large impact

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ALT Reply to Mike Russell...encouraging stronger partnerships between SQA and Scottish Higher Education in both exemplifying best practice in on-line assessment and in tackling digital literacy across society.

Blog post, 20/09/, 2007, http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2007/09/and-walls-came-down.html.In her blog, Vicky Davis reports on a collaborative project, in which more than 40 educators, making 500 entries, jointly authored and edited a presentation on the educational use of “Google docs”, using the Google docs’ presentation tool. In this collaborative presentation, it is argued that the advantages of using online office tools, apart from supporting group collaboration on presentations from home or at school without any costs for software, lie in the potential of distance collaboration, across the room or across the globe. Since teachers can see who has been making revisions, individual assessment is possible.

The presentation is at http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=ah4zsdj46b66_578cv4x7.

Creating digital age learners through school ICT projects:ICT can help teachers collaborate and share teaching resources more effectively—for example, through shared online teaching and assessment resource banks or, as in several New Zealand videoconferencing initiatives, through the ability to share “expert” teachers among schools separated by distance and lacking capacity in particular curriculum areas....The “knowledge age” argument for ICT ... its key idea is that we need to use ICT, not only to enhance curriculum and pedagogy as we now know it (i.e., by making it more efficient, accessible, and enjoyable for teachers and students, and more appealing to digital-generation learners), but also to help develop new kinds of curriculum and pedagogy that will both respond to and shape the 21st-century world.

British Journal Of Educational Technology (2010) Student Attitudes Towards And Use Of ICT In Course Study, Work And Social Activity

Furthermore, the survey results reveal the importance of performance and efficiency as perceived benefits of ICT usage and motivators for their use in general.

Redecker Review of Learning 2.0Furthermore, as Warlick (2006) illustrates, social computing applications can be very powerful tools for diversifying and simplifying teaching in secondary school, in particular by interconnecting teachers, learners and parents. Also Efficiencies

Thriving in the 21st century: Learning Literacies for the Digital Age (LLiDA project) makes the point that there are often silos of learning within schools. A lot of efficiency in learning can be achieved by departments recognising what literacy skills they are using in a generic sense and which are therefore of more general relevance across the entire institution.

GlowScotland is very fortunate to have such a flexible national system as Glow (the Scottish Schools Digital Network. It immediately answers many of the problems associated with more localised networks. It has also proved itself capable of great flexibility and easy upgrading. Because it is essentially a private gateway and portal system, with infrastructure already in place it is capable of expansion to fit many different needs including many of the administrative tasks of education.

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Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are seen as important components for embedding into classroom practice. Glow already provides a VLE so this is available to every school in Scotland automatically. Importantly the audience of students and teaching staff is of sufficient critical mass to make for very efficient CPD and peer support about the VLE and the ability to share resources for teaching purposes over the whole country. This contrasts with England where there is a requirement for schools to have a VLE but where many schools are ploughing a lonely furrow with their own solutions, requiring above the usual CPD time spent by staff and technical support in setting up and running the system.

Glow has shown that it is capable of integrating smoothly with Open Source applications. This will be important in future as more and more computing power shifts to those sort of applications and internet based (Cloud) computing. This has the potential to make quite considerable savings to hardware and software infrastructure.

In the roll-out of Glow inefficiencies have arisen at local authority level with inadequate or inappropriate infrastructure. This strengthens the case for economies of scale in uniform provision of hardware and software infrastructures over as wide an area as possible.

ReferencesAssessing the Effects of ICT in Education - OECD 960111E – 2009

A Networks of Learning project in Norway involved about 600 different schools from 2004 until June 2009. An important aim of the programme has been diffusion of innovations to a large number of schools, through small funds and incentives. In the different reports during the last four years, teachers and school leaders report that the economic funds have not been the most important incentives for participating. Rather it is the possibility of working with others in building capacities that make both each school but also the collective efforts in each network stronger

Implementing Web 2.0 in Secondary Schools: Impacts, Barriers and Issues Becta 2008How large is a ‘walled garden’? Nearly all the Web 2.0 schools did have some form of VLE, whether developed in-house or externally. For most schools, hosting Web 2.0 activity implied a walled garden approach with password-protected content, but a minority of Web 2.0-innovating schools enabled some or all of their Web 2.0 activities to be visible on the open internet – podcasts, in particular, benefited from wider publication. Nationally, some RBCs aim to replace the concept of a school-level walled garden with a much bolder and more extensive concept that will connect up to a million users (teachers, pupils and other stakeholders, including parents) in large-scale, protected learning communities while maintaining duty of care.

The impact of ICT in schools - Becta 2007However, the evaluation[of VLEs] also found that, while individual schools were moving in this direction, there was little evidence that they were working together to build a wider, regional network and sharing their experiences.

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