A Framework for Leading School Change in using ICT:Measuring Change Sue Trinidad, Curtin University of Technology, Perth Western Australia; Paul Newhouse & Barney Clarkson, Edith Cowan University, Perth Western Australia Abstract: Over the last three decades many models explain the processes involved in theadoption and use of ICT in education. Based on this literature, a three-tiered framework andassociated instruments were developed to use with Western Australian teachers to measureand support change in using ICT. This framework can be used to support, describe andpromote good practice in the use of ICT in learning and teaching in schools and is multi-faceted and flexible enough to be used by individuals, groups, schools or educational organizations. The aims and purposes of the framework were to describe quality pedagogyin the use of ICT to effectively support student learning in schools; to assist teachers inplanning to integrate ICT into learning environments; to describe progress by teachers asthey move towards the integration of ICT in quality pedagogy; to assist teachers in the development of their own practice in the use of ICT to support student learning; and toprovide a tool for teacher dialogue for ICT integration with good pedagogy and providetopics or questions that describe concerns teachers may have. This framework was based on a review of the literature on the progression of teachers in their integration of ICT inlearning and teaching processes. It was positioned within a broader framework for theimplementation of ICT in schools to connect with students, learning environments, school and system organisations. This paper describes the process and results from this researchundertaken to develop the framework for schools and teachers. Background and Purpose When making decisions about the use of ICT in schools, particularly budgetary decisions, there is atendency to start with a consideration of the hardware, then the software and perhaps consider the users and learning last and least. While policy documents mandate the use of ICT in education decisions should be prefaced with a consideration of learning theory and the learning environment, for indeed, educational technologies are only a mediator in learning processes, and only one of many.

The authors undertook to develop a framework that would support, describe and promote good practice in the use of ICT in learning and teaching in schools. The ICT framework produced needed to be multi-faceted and flexible enough to be used by individuals, groups, schools or educational organizations. The aim was to describe the characteristics of effective learning and quality pedagogy as they relate to ICT integration; and the stages of progress by teachers as they movetowards ICT integration in quality pedagogy. The aims and purposes of the ICT framework were to: 1) Describe quality pedagogy in the use of ICT to effectively support student learning in schools. 2) Assist teachers in planning to integrate ICT into learning environments. 3) Describe progress by teachers as they move towards the integration of ICT in quality pedagogy. 4) Assist teachers in the development of their own practice in the use of ICT to support student learning. 5) Provide a tool for teacher dialogue for ICT integration with good pedagogy and providetopics or questions that describe concerns teachers may have. Literature ReviewThe framework was constructed after reviewing previous models of ICT adoption. It seemed useful to classify these models on two characteristics, namely the scope of the target group they address, and the relevance of an individual’s learning. Four classifications, namely the Population

Page 2TRI05123Models, System/School Models, ICT–Orientated Micro Models and the Learning Micro Models

evolved and are given in Table 1. Classification Example Models of ICT Adoption Learning Micro Models•CBAM-Levels of Use (LoU) -Stages of Concern (SoC) -Innovation Configuration •ADL model of ICT Uptake ICT-Oriented Micro Models•Instructional Transformation Model •ACOT model •LoT implementation System/School Models•Milken’s 7 Dimensions for Gauging Progress •NETS •Technology Maturity Model (TMM) Population Models•Diffusion of Innovation model (DoI)

Table 1: Four Classifications of the Models of ICT Adoption These four classifications and examples are discussed here as part of the literature reviewed to develop the framework. The Learning Micro Models In the 1990s, several major research efforts (e.g. Cicchelli & Baecher, 1990; Collis, 1994; Marcinkiewicz, 1994; Rieber & Welliver,1989; Sandholtz et al., 1992) began to develop and apply models for investigating the implementation of computers in classrooms in various parts of theworld. Many of these are based on teachers' concerns about innovations, and are often called concerns-based models (CBAM). The application of CBAM, or models based upon CBAM, to research concerned with the use of computers in classrooms, has gained interest throughout theworld. Most interest appears to be with the Levels of Use (LoU) and Stages of Concern (SoC)

dimensions (i.e. user focus) (Marsh, 1988). Recently there has been more interest in including an Innovation Configuration (i.e. innovation focus). This is the basis of many of the frameworks being developed. Two of the few researchers to apply all three dimensions to a study were Carbines (1986) and Hope (1995), who considered the use of computers in primary school classes. A numberof smaller studies have also been reported (Cicchelli & Baecher, 1990; Overbaugh & Reed, 1995)while some of the researchers in Europe (e.g. Vernooy-Gerritsen, 1994) and USA (e.g. Marcinkiewicz & Welliver, 1993) have worked at modifying the SoC and LoU to describe the use of computers in classrooms by teachers. Some (e.g. Moersch, 1997) have attempted to construct instruments to measure the LoU of ICT by a teacher or class. Typically the models and instruments have developed around large projects to place computersin schools. A number of models are in their early stages of development but these appear to have difficulty in capturing the breadth of innovation involved in bringing computers into the classroom. In many cases these models have substantially modified the original dimensions and instruments, which is not condoned by the originators of the CBAM model. Hall and Hord (1987) explain that such modification would require further validation in line with the original development and could not rely on the validation of the original CBAM instruments.Another example of a learning micro model is the ADL model of ICT Uptake (Clarkson & Oliver, 2002). The principle aim of the research giving rise to the ADL model (which stands for Autonomy, Dependence and Learning) was to develop a framework by which teachers’ pedagogies

and capabilities with ICT could be mapped onto some multi-stepped scale as part of assessing theirICT uptake. A four-stage typology of ICT uptake was developed. The typology was derived from aseries of models of learning described by Brundage & McKerracher (1980) and Boud (1988) and with considerable input from studies of teachers and their teaching practices with ICT. In this sense it was grounded in the teachers’ data as well as being reliant on previous research. The model describes four stages: Dependence, Counter-Dependence, Independence and Interdependence.

Page 3TRI05123These stages reflect typical phases through which all learners pass when they achieve mastery on any new topic they are learning. ICT is simply another topic for learners to master, in this less technocentric conception of ICT uptake as a learning issue. It was named the ADL uptake model inan attempt to capture the role of Autonomy, Dependence and Learning in the ICT uptake process. An extended version of the stages approach was developed and validated by Clarkson & Oliver (2002), which utilises a 4 x 3 table with four stages of teacher development and three characteristics at each stage, namely intellectual, attitudinal and performance. To improve triangulation and to ensure consistency of reaction from teachers, descriptions for the typology were further developed to provide a more sensitive means to identify teachers’ positions. Three domains were developed for each of the stages to enable different aspects of teachers’ experiences and predispositions to inform their placement. These three domains are described as: feelings, understandings and

behaviours. The domains were chosen to match the domains of human activity proposed by Bloom in the 1950s and remain a useful distinction (Krathwohl, Anderson, & Bloom, 2001). The stagesdescribe teachers’ affective states, their cognitive states and the ways these are manifest in theiractual teaching. If these stages were truly distinct and credible, then it was expected in developing the typology that teachers would be located at one stage, with their ratings for feelings, understandings and behaviours falling roughly into the same stage. Following this line of reasoning, the typology seemed to promise a means by which, in theory, ICT uptake could be measured by progress along the four stages and within the three domains simultaneously. The typology was presented as a 4x3 matrix (Figure 1) with cells defining the basic layout. Each cell had descriptors and indicators of feelings, understandings and behaviourswhich teachers were able to fill in. The increased level of sophistication of models such as this reflects the need to accommodate more than teachers in isolation. Figure 1: Four stages of ICT uptake as proposed in the ADL uptake model.

The ICT – Oriented Micro Models Reiber and Welliver (1989) and later Marcinkiewicz (1994) developed the Instructional Transformation model, which has been used by a number of researchers (e.g. Knee, 1996) to help schools design their restructuring plans using technology. Their model developed from a study of adoption behaviour drawing on the CBAM model and the work of Rogers (1983). They saw much value to educators in the model, particularly in ‘recommending staff development, remediation, or differential staffing’ (Marcinkiewicz & Welliver, 1993, p. 5). The Instructional Transformation

Model proposes a hierarchy for the successful application of technology to education using a LoU type of approach. This hierarchy involves the following five steps (a) familiarization, (b) utilization, (c) integration, (d) reorientation, and (e) evolution (Rieber & Welliver, 1989, p. 21) which gives a six level model with the inclusion of the Non Use level prior to the first step. These steps are described in Table 2 and compared with equivalent steps developed for the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT, 1995) project. These stage that an educator must progress through correspond to the ACOT stages where there is a period of familiarisation (Entry) representing baseline exposure to technology; utilisation(Adoption) occurring when teachers try the technology; integration (Adaption) beginning theappropriate use of ICT; reorientation (Appropriation) where ICT becomes a part of the learning context and evolution or revolution (Invention) where there is a change in methods and media to facilitate learning. These stages are confirmed in long-term projects like the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT, 1995) studies which show that teachers must travel through a number of stagesto integrate ICT fully into their classrooms and their teaching programs (see Table 2) and teachers

Page 4TRI05123must progress through all five phases, otherwise, the technology will likely be misused or discarded (Rieber & Welliver, 1989; Marcinkiewicz, 1994). Welliver Instructional Transformation Model ACOT ModelFamiliarisation Is when the teacher becomes aware of technology and its importance EntryLearn the basics of using the new technologyUtilisation

Is when teachers use technology, but minor problems will cause teachers to discontinue use AdoptionUse new technology to support traditional instruction Integration Is when technology becomes essential for the educational goals of the classroom with the use of technology.AdaptionIntegrates new technology into traditional classroom practice. Here they often focus on increased student productivity and engagement by using word processors, spreadsheets and graphics tools Reorientation Is when teachers begin to rethink the educational goals of the class with the use of technology.AppropriationFocus on cooperative, project-based and interdisciplinary work incorporating the technology as needed as one of the manytools RevolutionIs the evolving classroom that becomes completely integrated with technology in all subject areas. Technology becomes an invisible tool that is seamlessly woven into the teaching and learning process. Invention Discover new uses for technology tools, for example, developingspreadsheet micros for teaching algebra or designing projects that combine multiple technologies. Source: Rieber & Welliver (1989) and Report on 10 Years of ACOT Research (ACOT, 1995, p. 16)

Table 2: Stages of development in the use of ICT Moersch (1997) has reported his development of a Levels of Technology Implementation (LoTi) framework, which defines seven levels of the implementation of computers in a school. The levels are based on the original CBAM levels and are called: Non-use, Awareness, Exploration, Infusion, Integration (mechanical), Integration (routine), Expansion, and Refinement. From this framework he has developed an instrument to calculate what he refers to as the computer efficiency at a schoolsite. Computer efficiency is defined as the ‘degree to which computers are being used to support concept-based or process-based instruction, consequential learning, and higher order thinking skills’ (p. 52). The instrument accumulates the products of the LoTi level, proportion of computer use,proportion of student use and number of computers to produce an index for comparison between schools. Clearly the originators of the CBAM model would not approve of such an instrument since

it uses a questionnaire rather than observation and interview and uses numerical calculations to arrive at levels (Hall & Hord, 1987). The System/School Models In 1998 the Milken Exchange on Educational Technology published a report titled, Technology in American Schools: Seven Dimensions for Gauging Progress (Lemke & Coughlin, 1998). Then, in 1999, a companion publication was released titled: Professional competency continuum: Professional skills for the digital age classroom (Coughlin & Lemke, 1999). This included discrepancy analysis tools (questionnaires) for use by policymakers and school planners. Since then a further publication leading from these has been released called: Transforming learning through technology. The intention was to create a framework to support educators in ‘charting their coursetoward the effective use of technology in learning and show evidence of progress along that path’ (Coughlin & Lemke, 1999, p. 3). The framework is intended to provide indicators for policymakers to assess the status of schools in terms of their use of ICT to support learning. The focus is very much on public return on investment in ICT in education. However, they also consider that it will focus vision, provide a research agenda and be a planning tool. The framework is presented as a set of seven interdependent dimensions: Learners, Learning Environments, Professional Competency, System Capacity, Community Connections, Technology Capacity, and Accountability. They claim that changes in society today (global economy, knowledge workers, new family structures, changing demographics, and crime rate/violence) along with pressures on schools to

change (industrial model, inequities, new brain research, learning theory, and new workforce skills)will require educational technology to be used to transform schools to prepare students to ‘live,

Page 5TRI05123learn and work successfully in a digital communication age’. They believe that this requires: highacademic standards, technological fluency, communication skills, interpersonal skills, information literacy, independence in learning, critical thinking abilities, and economic viability all within the ‘context of a digital communication age’. They provide a continuum of progress for each dimension, based on the ‘stages of instructional evolution’ from the ACOT program, using three levels: Entry, Adaptation, and Transformation. For each dimension a number of key areas are identified and also described in terms of the three levels. For example, for the first dimension, Learners, the key areas are: Fluency (proficient in the use of ICT), Strengthening the basics (learning the ‘basics with more depth and understanding’), developing higher level skills (‘thinking, understanding, constructing knowledge and communicating’), increasing relevancy (‘real-life applications’ and emulating the workforce), motivation to learn (intrinsic), recognition of tradeoffs(making choices about using technology in society). One of the seven interdependent dimensions is Professional Competency. They have developed a Professional Competency Continuum comprising five key areas mapped over the three levels. There appears to be an assumption that using ICT to support learning requires change for all teachers whereas clearly some teachers (the authors

included) have been creating appropriate learning environments for years without using ICT. However, these teachers tend to use ICT because they readily perceive that in doing so they will provide even better environments (Becker , Ravitz & Wong, 1999).The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) NETS for Teachers Project, was developed with a grant from the US Department of Education, as part of its Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology initiative. ISTE facilitated a series of activities and events resulting in a national consensus on what teachers should know about and be able to do with ICT. At the same time they worked on a NETS for Students Project. It should be noted that Intel, Apple Computers and the Milken Exchange on Educational Technology all provided substantial contributions to the projects. The project aimed to provide models to use in incorporating ICT in the teacher preparation process and disseminate these promising practices for preparing tomorrow's teachers to use ICT effectively for improving learning. The project describes standards, assessments, and conditions that facilitate the use of technology to support student learning. Assessment systems are designed to assist teacher preparation programs in evaluating the success of their programs in preparing their candidates and graduates in the use of technology to supportstudent learning. NETS for Teachers provides a set of standards and performance indicators that ‘all classroom teachers should be prepared to meet’ (International Society for Technology in Education, 2000, p. 9) that can be accessed from their website (http://www.iste.org/). These are grouped under six general classifications: I. Technology operations and concepts.

II. Planning and designing learning environments and experiences. III. Teaching, learning, and the curriculum. IV. Assessment and evaluation. V. Productivity and professional practice. VI. Social, ethical, legal and human issues.Another system model, the Technology Maturity Model (abbreviated as the TMM), addresses what the authors (Sibley & Kimball, 1998) call the challenges of ‘the use of technology’ (referring to ICT in schools). The challenges include the need to approach ICT implementation in a cyclic manner, over an extended time frame, since single attempts and first efforts are often aimed well enough, but rarely persist long enough (McLaughlin, 1990; Tester, 1991). To reinforce this approach they call the TMM a ‘planning model’. Two key components of this model are its ability to address both processes and products and encourage best practice approaches to both. These two facets are addressed in the model’s Benchmarks section. For example each of their benchmarks has Behavioural and Resource Infrastructure criteria. The model has significant complexity and breadth of scope, in that it is intended to help monitor the ICT development of a school or school district over a substantial period, and provide direction for their planning and implementation with

Page 6TRI05123ICT. There are three basic characteristics that underpin the TMM. These are the Improvement Cycle, the Maturity Indicators and the TMM tools (many of which are now available online). The Improvement Cycle of spiral development covers four phases, namely Organizational, Assessment, Formulation and Implementation Phases. The complete model is composed of nine steps and

processes, which are intended to help translate plans into action. These are: 1) An Improvement Cycle; 2) Planning Phases; 3) Spiral Refinement; 4) Concurrent planning and Improvement; 5)Comprehensive Planning; 6) Maturity Indicators; 7) Assessment Instruments; 8) Benchmarks; and 9) A Plan Analysis Rubric to allow Districts to compare themselves. The Maturity Indicators are of particular interest. The Indicators of a school or a teacher’s progress are gauged by what are called benchmark stages. There are four stages are the Emergent Stage; the Islands Stage; the Integrated Stage; and the Exemplary Stage. These stages are measured in multiple areas, using different indicators tailored to each area. The stages of the TMM model address from a technological perspective the issues of both teacher uptake as well as school development. Its online version is sponsored by Compaqcomputers across the US. Although sophisticated as a tool, its technological rather than learning focus could be counted against it. But its completeness in approach is in its favour. The Population Model Nearly 100 years ago American farmers started using a new hybrid strain of corn. The way thistechnology diffused through the farming community followed a predictable pattern, according to researcher and writer Rogers (1983). From the explosive uptake of the Walkman to the slow buteventually thorough adoption of the fax machine, Rogers’ theory has become known as part of theDiffusion of Innovations – DoI – theory and has been applied widely (eg. Geroski, 2000; Holloway, 1996; Lawson & Loudon, 1996; Mahajan & Peterson, 1985). The DoI model argues that there are

predictable patterns of communications among community members as a new technological innovation, such as computers in schools, diffuses. The stages that the innovation passes through are, according to this theory: • knowledge (exposure to its existence, and understanding of its functions); • persuasion (the forming of a favourable attitude to it); • decision (commitment to its adoption); • implementation (putting it to use); and • confirmation (reinforcement based on positive outcomes from it). Of course the innovation itself is unchanged, but the community reacts to it in different ways. The early ‘knowers’, for example, are regarded as having a higher social standing and being better educated. These people are also more aware and likely to use both mass communications channelsand also interpersonal ones. Later at the persuasion stage, interpersonal communications channels are regarded in the DoI as more important. A well-known part of Rogers (1983) work addressed five types of adopters, namely innovators (described as venturesome); early adopters (respectable); early majority (deliberate); late majority (sceptical); and laggards (traditional). Although it may be useful to describe a community or apopulation using these descriptors, it could also be seen as divisive due to its nomenclature. It seemsless likely that the DoI model will suggest how to help a person looking to make better use of sometechnological innovation. Further, as a community engages with some innovation, does the model regroup those likely to take the innovation up as the new innovators, or is there no distinction between the remaining groups? Such weaknesses restrict the DoI approach to a descriptive role,

which is does well, but it is less strong in its explanatory power, and less useful still in predicting outcomes; and providing guidance as to how to accelerate the rate of adoption. Rogers (1999) alsoargues that this approach may be embedded in the culture in which it was derived (viz. North America in the 1950s and 1960s), and hence less relevant, for example, in African or Asian countries, and its utility may diminish as time goes on.

Page 7TRI05123Conclusions from the models No one model is going to describe perfectly the circumstances for any particular teacher so thereis no point in choosing or disregarding these models (all listed in Table 1) based on a singleclassification alone. Nevertheless classifying these models can draw attention to critical facets of each model and will allow more considered selections to be made about their relevance and use. The population model like Roger’s DoI approach is useful for large groups but not for individuals. The systems-based models like the TMM model and the Instructional Transformation model take an individualistic approach but place a technological cast upon the task, as does the ACOT hierarchy. The CBAM and even the Typology of ICT Uptake model could be described as examples of modelsfocusing largely on the individual rather than any ICT component. Many of the models have scales of development, and so the Learning Micro Models (CBAM, TIU and SoC) are the three models that seem, after this review, to have the better orientation towards learning and therefore may have a more ‘appropriate’ orientation for teacher development and school change with ICT.

The process to develop the framework From the literature review of the models the authors and a group of education experts (teachers and systems people) met and gave critical feedback on the proposed framework developed from this process. The framework was then trialled and adjusted based on the feedback gained. The framework developed focuses on teachers but sits within a context of schools and schoolsystems. In terms of the use of ICT this context could be described in terms of a range of dimensions that would include a Teacher Professional ICT Attributes dimension. It is this dimension that is mainly addressed here. This Teacher Professional ICT Attributes dimension may be described by one outcome that may be taken from a set of teacher professional attributesoutcomes. The framework is structured around this single Teacher Professional ICT Attributesoutcome using the following set of concepts as illustrated below: • layers to describe the outcome in increasing detail; • stages of progression in the demonstration of this outcome; • instruments to collect data on the demonstration of, and progress within, this outcome; and •processes within which to apply the instruments and address the connection between theframework and context. OutcomeThe teacher exploits the characteristics of ICT to support the learning of students by, effectively integratingthe use of ICT, wherever appropriate, into constructivist learning environments, and contributing to relevant learning communities. LayersThis outcome is described in three layers. 1 Overall outcome.2 Components – Vision & Contribution, Integration & Use, Capabilities & Feelings. 3 Elements – each component has a number of elements. StagesProgression in the outcome is described in five stages: Inaction, Investigation, Application, Integration, and Transformation.Instruments There is an instrument for each layer and connected with the levels of demonstration. Each instrument may

have a number of forms depending on the purpose of its use. Layer 1 Type of Response Layer 2 Typology of ICT Uptake Layer 3 Stages of Dialogue Processes There are sets of processes associated with the use of the instruments and addressing the context of theframework. The sets most directly connected to the Teacher Professional ICT Attributes dimension arethe ‘School Planning for ICT to support learning and teaching’ and the ‘Supporting Teacher’s Decision-Making’ sequences.

Table 3: Teacher professional ICT attributes outcome applying concepts The ICT framework There are three instruments, one developed for each layer. The outcome is described for each of the layers while progression in the outcome is described in stages. First, here are the three majorlayers (see Table 4).

Page 8TRI05123Description and Components LAYER ONE Overall Outcome The teacher exploits the characteristics of ICT to support the learning of students by, effectively integrating the use of ICT wherever appropriate into constructivist learning environments, and contributing to relevant learning communities.Note: It is envisaged that this would be one outcome taken from a set of outcomes for General Teacher Attributes. LAYER TWO Components of OutcomeVision & Contribution [V & C] Integration & Use [I & U] Capabilities & Feelings [C & F] LAYER THREE Elements of ComponentsEach element describes more specifically aspects of a component of the outcome as it may relate to the teacher and his/her skills, work practices and beliefs. [V & C] – Purpose, Focus, Rationale, View of ICT, Contribution to Communities [I & U] – Frequency of Use, Implementation Strategies, Type of Activities & Pedagogy, Tasks for Applications, Assessing, Relevance, Connection with Curriculum Framework Outcomes. [C & F] – Potential, Roles, Source of Direction, ICT Skills, Affective Response, Concerns.

Table 4: The three major layers of the model that form the ICT instruments developed In Layer One, progression is described in the five stages just in terms of the overall outcome withno reference to the detail of components or elements (see Table 5).

Description of Key Difference(s) Inaction At this stage there is a general lack of action and/or interest. Investigation At this stage the teacher has developed an interest in using ICT withstudents and is beginning to act on this interest. Application At this stage the teacher is regularly using ICT with students and knows how to do so competently and confidently. Critical Use Border Integration At this stage the use of ICT becomes critical to the support of the learning environment and the opportunity for students to achieve learningoutcomes through the learning experiences provided.Transformation At this stage the teacher is able to take on leadership roles (formal orinformal) in the use of ICT and be knowledgably reflective on its integration by themselves and others. Table 5: The stages of teacher development as an overall outcome The literature review indicated that Layer One in Table 4 is reminiscent of many of the earlyattempts at indicating the stages of teacher development in relatively simplistic form. In Layer Two, progression is described for each component but only for four of the five stages, as it was evident that the Inaction stage needed no further description. For example, progression for the Vision & Contribution component of the outcome is described as the following four stages of where a teacher might be as investigation; application; integration and transformation as further elaborated in Table 6. InvestigationRegards ICT as an object and rather incomprehensible. Accepts that it has some uses buthas reservations. Considers student ICT literacy needs. Little contribution to school ICT planning. Largely unaware of how or whether their teaching will change. ApplicationTreats ICT as an instrument. Agrees they have a place in teaching and learning. Considers student productivity and engagement in use of ICT.

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Some contribution to school planning mainly to request items. Has undifferentiated and even confused but changing views on their changing teachingrole. IntegrationUses ICT as a tool to address multiple learning outcomes. Considers opportunities for students to use ICT to demonstrate learning outcomes. Consistently contributes to school communities and planning both in terms of engagement and policy. Expects their learning approaches to develop as ICT integration grows. TransformationEnvisages and uses ICT as catalyst to appropriately support all learners in a collaborative way.Considers the two-way relationship between learning and ICT use. Is a leading contributor to school communities and planning in the use of ICT.Envisages and can discuss multiple learning roles all of which are changed by ICT integration.

Table 6: The four stages of teacher development for Layer Two. The instrument for the outcome at Layer Three, referred to as Stages of Dialogue, is based around interviews with teachers. For example, the section related to the Vision & Contribution component is illustrated in Table 7. Dialogue Questions Stage Response Steps to Progress Purpose What are the main purposes you want to use ICT for with your students? FocusWhat are you focusing on at the moment in the use of ICT? Rationale What is the value in having your students use a computer? View of ICT How does ICT fit into your teaching overall? Contributionto Communities How do you contribute to school ICT planning? What would you like to contribute? What involvement do you have with learning communities that use ICT?

Table 7: The Stages of Dialogue tool for the Layer Three outcome Finally, the framework and three instruments need to be used within the context of sets of processes conducted by schools and/or systems. Broadly there are six sets of processes a school may take to support progress in the use of ICT:

• school planning for ICT to support learning and teaching;• the development of student ICT literacy; • the use of learning and information management systems; • the development of school ICT policy and planning; • the development of staff ICT capabilities; • the development of policy and planning for system support and direction; and • teacher’s decision-making about using ICT. For example, within the first set of processes, school planning for ICT to support learning and teaching, may include the following processes within which to utilise the framework and instruments.1) Targets School community determines targets. Any of the layers may be used depending on the level of investment available. 2) Teacher Maps Each teacher maps his/her use of ICT to support learning with students. This may be in consultation with peers and/or

Page 10TRI05123leaders (e.g. coordinator). Uses a version of one of the instruments.3) Compare Compare teacher maps with the targets set in step 1. 4) Support In collaboration with knowledgeable others (e.g. coordinator) determine what challenges are inhibiting each teacher’s progress and what support they require to progress. Use a version of one of the instruments. 5) School Profile Aggregate maps of all teachers in school to create a school profile. 6) School Resources Aggregate challenges and support requirements and compare with school and system resources.

7) School Plan Create a school plan for progress that will include the development of: curriculum, teachers, ICT infrastructure, ICT and other policy and practice. 8) Teacher Plans Develop individual teacher plans for progress that may include professional development, professional support, ICT resource allocation, etc. This holistic, structured approach to the development of teachers’ professional ICT capability through a consideration of their attributes is arguably more likely to provide the structure that will lead to the changes in pedagogy and school reform that many have argued that the use of ICT should be coupled with. It takes account of the complexity for teachers in progressing their understanding and practice in integrating the use of ICT to support learning and the context within which this occurs. Further, it provides a structure for formative feedback where the aim is continuing progress rather than mere classification. While the framework is designed to support teacher professional development in the integration of ICT use the focus is through research. At thetime of writing the original instruments were available in a PDF document at the URL http://www.eddept.wa.edu.au/cmis/eval/downloads/pd/framework.pdf These instruments were developed in consultation with a reference committee of teachers and departmental people and have been used to gather pertinent data in Western Australian schools. Since their initial development these instruments have been used and although they are being fine-tuned it is interesting to observe how little they have changed as they are proving to be stable and effective instruments.Conclusion

This paper describes the process undertaken to develop a framework based on previous research to support, describe and promote good practice in the use of ICT in learning and teaching in schools in Western Australia. It was developed on the premise that teachers always aim to look for better ways of doing things and therefore their use of ICT should support this as using ICT does not makea teacher better. It has attempted to encapsulate the complexity of issues involved in teachercompetencies in ICT usage and uptake. It considers teacher competence, the system environmentand the ICT capacity of the setting in which they find themselves in this endeavour, and encourages a multifaceted approach to its investigation. The literature suggested the five dimensions that became the context of this framework; that is, Students, Learning Environments, Teacher Professional ICT Attributes, ICT Capacity, and School & System Environment. This framework has been developed with a strong theoretical framework behind it. The layers allow various levels of investment in the processes. Its complexity mirrors the real world, where it is multi-faceted and flexible enough to be used by individuals, groups, schools or educational organizations, and to accommodate the range of investments in time and energy that they might wish to devote.Furthermore, because of its breadth and multifaceted nature previous efforts can provide helpful staging points for subsequent investigations using the model in greater depth.

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Acknowledgements

This paper has been developed from the chapter by Newhouse, P., Clarkson, B. & Trinidad, S. (2004). A framework for leading school change in using ICT. In S. Trinidad & J. Pearson (Eds.), Using ICT ineducation: Effective leadership, change and models of best practice (pp. 148-164). Singapore: Pearson Education Asia and two reports prepared for the Department of Education and Training in Western Australia Newhouse, P., Trinidad, S. & Clarkson, B. (2002). Framework for implementation of ICT in Schools –Outcomes, guidelines, equipment and processes. Perth: Specialist Educational Services; and Newhouse, P.,Trinidad, S. & Clarkson, B. (2002). Quality teaching and learning practice with Information and Communications Technology (ICT): A review of literature. Perth: Specialist Educational Services.

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Towards sustainable systemic ICT use

In recent years, researchers concerned that innovative uses of ICT have not been achieving meaningful scale or long-term integration into teacher and school everyday practices have focused their attention on the wider educational context for change. Added to this, it seems that the processes of initiating, transferring and sustaining innovative ICT practices within and across different school systems involved very different challenges and issues (Kankaanranta, 2005, p. 114). Fishman, Marx, Blumenfeld, Krajcik and Soloway (2004) noted that sustainable systemic technological reform required the participation and understanding of personnel across and at all levels of the educational system (See also Hennessy et al.). It also required attention to systemic issues such as policy change, professional development planning, and resource production and distribution. Voogt and Pelgrum (2005) pointed out that in Finland, ICT was used as a scaffold to build connectedness for innovation, and in Hong Kong it was used as a tool to support innovation, with this difference likely to be due to broad cultural and policy differences. Kozma (2005) in her analysis of the successful integration of ICT in Singapore and Finland noted that in these two countries policies and programs target all the components of the system in a coordinated and coherent way so that any reform-based changes mutually reinforced and contributed to continuous improvement. School change was coordinated within the community and larger system and this internal consistency was then complemented by vertical consistency between the different levels of the system (Pal, 2001). Further still, the vertical consistency was complemented across different policy areas, integrating educational, economic and other social goals. Hence, the wider context of educational policy and practice is of interest in this study on laptops.

The research described so far, has concentrated on teacher use of school computers, and the extent to which teachers integrate ICT into their professional lives. Access to a personal portable computer, or laptop, can afford different opportunities for teacher use of ICT due to the portability, opportunity for teacher exclusive use, and the generally higher specifications that laptops have compared to existing school computers. At the inception of this study, research was only just beginning to explicate the impact of laptops on schools, teachers and students. Indications were that laptops could support increased communication between teachers, students and parents and greater sharing of information between teachers (Cunningham, Kerr, McEune, Smith, & Harris, 2003). Teachers have reported increases in ICT confidence and competence with perceived positive impacts in the classroom. Teachers who had formerly shared desktop computers with other teachers or students, now had a sense of ownership of the technology they were using (Sockwell & Zhang, 2003). They acknowledged the advantages of having everything in one place and liked the continual everyday availability of laptop. Teachers felt they were gaining maximum impact from their laptops

when used in conjunction with peripherals. This study explicates the impacts on New Zealand secondary teachers of their access to a TELA laptop computer.

To sum up, there are a number of factors identified in the literature that are impacting upon teachers’ use of ICT. Assess to ICT on its own, will not necessarily result in changes for teachers or schools (Kerr, 1991). To bring about changes a number of factors must be considered that are related to school-wide opportunities and incentives for ICT use, department factors and classroom factors. Provision of professional development as needed, must take into account the reality of the considerable teacher variance in confidence and expertise and the time taken to learn new knowledge and practices in ICT. Much more needs to be known about how these identified factors impact on New Zealand schools when teachers are working to integrate technology into their professional lives.

1. Introduction    3. Laptops for Teachers (TELA) Evaluation   

.3.3      Innovation DiffusionThis study focuses on the introduction of ICT into school education. It is therefore related to the general area of innovation diffusion which has an extensive literature (Surry & Farquhar, 1997; Clarke, 2001; Pellicone, 2001, p. 33-53). From rural sociology origins in 1943, the research literature now ranges from the introduction of new linguistic patterns and cultural behaviours, to areas more clearly aligned to the adoption of new technologies in a variety of social situations. There appear to be three important foci for relevant innovation diffusion research: field dependence of the critical factors for diffusion; types of factors and their relative importance; and the particular context of ICT in education. The literature on critical factors for innovation adoption shows that these are dependent upon the field of application. Parker and Sarvary (1994, Table 8) found ‘relative advantage’ was the main driver in domestic information technology innovation diffusion, suggesting it will be the nature of the ICT itself which will determine the degree of adoption. Surry (1997) raised the issue of whether a technology involved in an innovation is more important than the developer or its exponents. He concluded that the adopter has final control and that theories of developer based IT diffusion were deficient in that they overstated the role of technological superiority in the diffusion process. This implies that teachers will have the most significant role in determining the extent of ICT adoption in classrooms. These polarised findings illustrate the debate about some of the fundamental determinants of technological innovation. Since the opposing views come from different fields, there is reason to investigate each new instance of technological innovation separately.  In the specific field of ICT in education, Owen and Liles (1998) classified the factors which facilitated or slowed the adoption of the Internet by teachers such as accessibility of the equipment, training etc. The relative costs of equipment were important, as well as teacher attitudes, home Internet connections, transportation distances and difficulty (Tella & Kynäslahti, 1997). Somekh (1998, p. 11) identified suitable transition time, perceived relative advantage, professional development and accessible infrastructure as the critical success factors for ICT diffusion in higher education. The results were congruent with those of Fullan (1991) in school education and can therefore be applied to both fields. The literature thus reveals a variety of important factors, not all of which can be controlled in the adoption process of a technological innovation.

 One factor which is perceived as being under systemic control is professional development (Krasnicki, 2003). It appears that an understanding of the content of professional development and its delivery is important to maximising efficacy of its role in the innovation adoption process. Somekh argues this factor is vital to managing the process of change, but has been “startlingly neglected” (1998, p. 20). Fullan agrees with the importance of the factor, but adds “good professional development by itself is not very effective” (1999, p.10). Therefore this controllable factor cannot by itself determine whether a technological innovation will be adopted. The other factors eg. perceived relative advantage, accessible quality infrastructure, suitable transition time etc., are also needed for progression through the stages of adoption leading to institutionalisation and permanent integration of an innovation. The process of innovation institutionalisation can depend upon the different adoption patterns of various types of staff using technology in teaching (Jacobsen, 1998). General recommendations from his study such as such as training, investing in IT infrastructure, and instigating a rewards system could be universal for all groups of computer users, such as the early adopters, the late developers etc. The merits of standardisation may not be equally applicable to all these groups.  The literature has therefore identified many of the critical success factors for innovation institutionalisation (Nutley, Davies & Walter, 2002, p. 18). Much of the literature (such as the categories of implementers of Jacobsen) derives from the work of Rogers over the period 1962 to 1995, giving evidence of a well developed field of investigation upon which this study could build.  

2.3.4      Issues from the literature about implementation and practiceSome large scale/long term studies of ICT effectiveness using nationally benchmarked outcomes have found it is associated with cost-effective learning improvements. However, ICT effectiveness as measured by meta-analyses is similar to that of other innovations, thus situating the pedagogical rationale for ICT between one-on-one tutoring and no intervention. Criticism has helped to identify the conditions within which the untapped potential of ICT might be reasonable found when usage levels are raised above the current low classroom levels. The basis for the economic rationale has been examined, and the home rather than the school has been identified as the more significant source of ICT skills for students. Previous research has provided little evidence to justify the economic or pedagogical rationales, and some indications of a transformation in schooling. The innovation diffusion literature, particularly that concerning the study topic area, illustrates a range of factors including the perceived relative advantage of ICT and associated professional development. 

2.4         Teacher professional development (RQ3)Teachers have been identified as critical to the adoption of ICT into school education in the previous sections of the review. To clarify their position and reaction to this innovation the review examines the general literature on innovation diffusion to identify the characteristics and skills teachers need if the potential of ICT is to be developed in education to a similar degree to that found in other areas of society. The review examines aspects of teacher culture which make them hesitant to adopt this innovation, and professional development approaches that have been used. One view is that “technologies have trajectories” (Bijker & Law, 1992). However, there is a considerable literature of innovation diffusion processes that goes beyond this deterministic view. Rogers (1995) defined the process of innovation diffusion in terms of four elements.  These four elements occur when an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time amongst the members of a social system.  He also described five essential characteristics of innovations:      Relative advantage (the innovation appears to be better than what was previously

available)

      Compatibility (it matches what people already know)

      Complexity (people can understand it)

      Trialability (something people can try in a limited way)

      Observability (potential adopters are able to see the results).

This understanding of innovation diffusion has been widely accepted as a basis for further studies. A key element in Rogers’ model of innovation diffusion is the change agent, who is frequently more technically competent than his/her peers, but can still communicate the essence of the innovation to them effectively (Rogers, 1995, p. 19). Rogers describes the change agent as “a marginal figure with one foot in each of two worlds,” a situation which often leads to role conflicts and problems in communication. This conflict is generally due to their technical competence and their need to relate to potential adopters who have different socio-economic status, beliefs and attitudes. Clayton (1993) extended Rogers’ description of the innovation adoption process by identifying a sixth element of ‘ownership’, exemplified by the apparent emergence of the innovation from a source internal to the organisation. Kazlauskas (1995) concurred, and described the importance of accommodation cycles for innovation diffusion. Parker and Sarvary (1994) tested the diffusion model using a multi-national survey methodology in relation to a set of home-office consumer electronics innovations. They extended Rogers’ theory by identifying alternative pathways for the spread of an innovation within a social system. They concluded that the perceptual product factor of ‘relative advantage’ was the most significant direct factor influencing diffusion, confirming Rogers’ model in regard to this factor. The demographic factors of ‘parent ownership’ and the psychographic factor of ‘venturesomeness’ were the next most significant, along with other perceptual product factors such as ‘complexity’. 

Alternatives to the Rogers’ model have been proposed by Valente (1995), Hord, Hall, Loucks-Horsely & Huling (1987) and Rebentisch (1995). Valente (1995) posits a social network background for the majority of innovations, which attributes most of the diffusion process to communication links between individuals. Valente also examines the role of thresholds and develops the idea of a ‘critical mass’ of the population who must become adopters before the innovation will become more generally adopted. Hord et al., (1987) proposed the Concerns-Based Adoption Model as a diagnostic tool for effective staff development. Rebentisch (1995) proposed a technology-transfer model and found that more complex technologies required relatively more effort to complete their transfers than did simpler technologies. Despite these alternatives, it is clear from the literature that innovation diffusion depends upon the communication of observable relative advantage and ownership. Setting these findings from the innovation diffusion literature into the domain for ICT integration in school education, it can be seen that teachers need to have exposure to authentic exemplars before they can assess the ‘relative advantage’ of this new way of working. It is also clear that ‘ownership’ either of the equipment itself, or control over its disposition, is also another important factor which will influence adoption. Evidence of these findings was confirmed empirically by a group of teachers working in a primary school selected to be a ‘lighthouse’ for ICT (Ramus, Elliott, Green, Dickinson, Parsons, DiIorio, Huygen, deWacht & Frank, 1998). Over an eighteen month period the staff became “convinced that the provision of notebooks for all teachers was a most effective use of technology” (p. 6). The school quadrupled its professional development spending; and the teachers used ICT for administration, teaching and material preparation within a collegial context. They indicated areas where this approach was successful with students as including: acceleration through curriculum levels, the intrinsic and instant rewards of success with the software, development of independent skills, co-operative group work and peer tutoring, as well as broadening/enhancement of personal achievements across levels (Ramus et al., 1998, p. 43). The ‘ownership’ factor for innovation diffusion has been used in far larger teacher professional development programs, with laptops for teachers projects operating on a regional basis across the UK (Becta, 2003), Western Australia (Department of Education, Western Australia, 2002) and in Victoria (State of Victoria (Department of Education & Training), 2002).  The application of the innovation diffusion literature to the special case of teacher professional development can also be extended to the area of cultural conflict. Teachers operate in a social and socialising context, where their evaluation of an innovation is in terms of its benefit or deleterious effects. The viewpoint of the evaluator is critical to this judgement, as Rogers acknowledges, describing the definition of “good”, as a value judgement, which depends very much upon cultural perspective (Rogers, 1995, p. 343). It could be argued that beneficial consequences can, in fact, be maximised and undesirable consequences, at least in the short-term, minimised or negated. But Rogers denies this in his generalisation 11-1, saying that “the effects of an innovation cannot be managed to separate the desirable from undesirable consequences”. This distinction is particularly important when considering the social consequences of an innovation such as increased social stratification, and consequent internal inequalities.  Agreement of benefit between

both internal and external evaluator viewpoints would seem to be a necessary condition for such a judgement. Therefore the viewpoints of both teaching staff and other elements of the school community need to be considered when assessing the value of information technology in schools. Teachers have internal cultural values, with equity being a strong concern for most teaching staff. The school can be seen as a social instrument to support equal justice for all in society at large. What might therefore be of particular concern to teachers is the suggestion that a relatively high cost innovation can lead to increased inequality. In such a case the perceptual factor of relative advantage of the innovation will be in opposition to the local culture of equity. Thus the perceived consequences of the innovation are likely to have a significant impact upon its rate of diffusion. Teachers are particularly worried by such social impacts of computers, as was shown in Fluck (1995, p. 69) where they expressed fears about social isolation. This attitude appeared to change in the Tasmanian context by 1998 where teachers:

… noted that "computers are the focus of some friendship

groups", and that these groups "cross social boundaries"

indicating that membership was socio-economically

heterogeneous. When prompted as to their reaction about

computers promoting social isolation, these teachers saw

computer-using students forming groups (called 'geek gangs'

in one school) similar to those formed by students interested

in sport, surfing, dressing in fashion, riding horses or doing

academic studies.                                                           

           (Fluck, 2001, p. 50)

We now focus inwards on the role of the teacher as a change agent. Moving from general theories of innovation, we need to see where teachers (particularly those in Australia) are in terms of accommodating to ICT, and what professional development is being provided for them. The studies reviewed below show the diverse nature of such professional development, and the relationship between its extent and classroom consequences. The review also brings out the concomitant factors necessary for professional development to be fully effective.  An informal professional development process was used in the Common Knowledge: Pittsburgh project, as described by Schofield and Davidson (2000). The project sought to “stimulate teachers in a large urban school system to use the Internet in their work”. It provided the necessary equipment in teachers’ classrooms, and appropriate technical support. While not all teachers who applied and were accepted into this five-year scheme were in agreement, the following findings were reported by the authors as common to a substantial proportion of the group:

      work-related communication with others increased

      interactions within and beyond the school increased

      opportunities for professional development increased

      they learned more about computing and the Internet

      they invested in home computing equipment

      some became school-based network administrators

      they had increased professional pride and enthusiasm.

 In the view of their principals, the Internet access project "gets them [teachers] out of the same old rut", and refocused teacher conversation from constant complaints about "kids driving me crazy" to lively discussions of what they were accomplishing (Schofield & Davidson, 2000).  This example of indirect professional development through equipment provision was paralleled by the ‘laptops for teachers’ scheme in Victoria (Australia) where 67 percent of teachers reported gaining intermediate or advanced IT skills (Department of Education, Employment and Training (Victoria), 2000, p. 32).  The Tasmanian Graduate Certificate of Education (Computing for Teaching and Learning) was another example of indirect professional development, structured through a vocationally-based outcomes specification (Department of Education, Tasmania, 2000). Another syllabus that has been considered for a variety of professions is the International Computer Driving Licence (Australian Computer Society, 2002b). Courses following this syllabus have been supplied to teachers in the Australian Capital Territory and by the Catholic Education Office in Parramatta (see http://activated.decs.act.gov.au/prof_learn/online_learn_icdl.htm and http://www.ceo.parra.catholic.edu.au/pdf/bits/March01.pdf). The diversity of these professional development approaches indicates the lack of common agreement about the best way to prepare teachers for the general use of ICT, and/or the diversity of expectations. Other aspects of teacher ICT professional development were considered by Elizabeth Byrom (1997) who reviewed the literature on the integration of technology into education programs. Her review concurred with the ACOT stages of teacher progression and inferred this process generally took three to five years. A RAND study in her review indicated that 30 percent of a school technology budget should be allocated to staff development, and this should take place on-site and ‘just in time’. Unless the equipment was available to staff immediately after a workshop, so they could practice and use it for operational reasons within a short time of being trained, the training effort would be wasted. In a related paper Byrom (1998) identified the factors influencing the effective use of technology in teaching and learning identified through a project working intensively with 12 schools in the south east of the USA. There was a significant positive correlation between the amount and level of equipment and technical assistance provided and subsequent movement along the continuum of technology integration.

 The relationship between professional development and technology access/capacity appears to be a significant factor in the development process for ICT in education, as was found by Schofield and Davidson (2000) when teachers involved in their project became more technology-centred. This also suggests that schools that get improved learning results from ICT will have addressed this issue, either directly or indirectly. This is not a surprising result, and basically argues that development will be faster where better resources are available. An extensive review of teacher professional development with respect to ICT was carried out by Downes, Fluck, Gibbons, Leonard, Matthews, Oliver, Vickers, & Williams (2002).  In this review the authors identified four distinct approaches to ICT in education by asking:

‘What educational outcomes do schools and systems hope to

achieve by increasing the extent to which ICTs are integrated

into classroom practice?’ From the information gathered in

response to this question it is evident that, in Australia as well

as overseas, educators are promoting ICT use in classrooms

for several distinct reasons. These include:

• Type A: encouraging the acquisition of ICT skills as an end

themselves;

• Type B: using ICTs to enhance students’ abilities within the

existing curriculum;

• Type C: introducing ICTs as an integral component of

broader curricular reforms that are changing not only how

learning occurs but what is learned;

• Type D: introducing ICTs as an integral component of the

reforms that alter the organisation and structure of schooling

itself.                      (Downes et al., 2002, p. 23)

It is evident that the nature and type of professional development needs to be aligned with which of these approaches the school is taking to ICT. The review found that school reforms have been increasingly linked to an embedded use of ICT which enables students to undertake authentic multi-disciplinary tasks. Further, these reforms are spreading beyond the school gate as ICT links students to and from external agencies. Therefore it

becomes more important to look at ways of conducting teacher professional development at both pre-service and in-service levels that encompass this type of learning experience. 

2.4.1      Issues from the literature about professional developmentIt is clear from the literature that the ICT professional development of teachers is crucial to their role as change agents or adopters of this innovation. Teachers may not feel that they have the background or duty to prepare students for careers or working life that strongly depends upon ICT. Yet there are economic forces at work which suggest this is precisely what they should be doing. Moreover, children are coming to school with increasingly diverse yet increasingly common experiences of ICT at home. How then should teachers react? The social rationale for ICT argues they should ensure all children have the opportunity to develop familiarity with computers. However, teachers have expressed concerns about the social isolation they have observed amongst students who are intensive computer users (Fluck, 1995, pp.        47-48).  The third rationale, pedagogy, is a disputed territory, with no clear 2 sigma advantage for ICT (Kraver, 1997), and only an improvement of the 0.3-0.4 effect size is evident in the literature, which is comparable with other innovations. Within these boundaries there are some indicators of the conditions required for ICT to demonstrate a pedagogical improvement. According to  Byrom (1997) and Smerdon et al. (2000) ICT budgets should allocate a minimum of 30 percent for on-site and ‘just in time’ training and to provide at least 9 hours training per teacher per year. The training should be aligned to school expectations, depending upon the level of response expected in the Downes et al. (2002) list of reason types. Also, ownership is a vital ingredient to change management processes, and this has been taken into account in many professional development programs through laptop schemes for teachers (Clayton, 1993; Ramus et al., 1998). 

2.5         Frameworks for the developmental stages of ICT in schools (RQ4)

The literature review proceeds with an examination of recent and significant studies of frameworks for ICT development in schools. There were no documents in ERIC (Educational Resources Information Centre) for the query (stages of development AND ICT AND education) AND (1994< Publication_Date <2003) and therefore the search was widened to include general internet sites, other search engines and printed references. Five works were selected from these sources, and are summarised in  Table 5:

Table 5: Selected studies of ICT development stages in schools

Author Stages of progression Strengths WeaknessesHeppell, 1993

1. Computer as topic2. Computer supports learning with task specific programs3. Computers support learning with generic, content free programs4. Computers support specific needs

Has a radical phase change as final step

Includes stages that might be considered redundant

through component software5. Pedagogy radically changes to reflect computers’ potential

Dwyer, Ringstaff & Sandholtz, 1991; Dwyer, 1994

Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT)1. Entry2. Adoption3. Adaptation4. Appropriation5. Invention

Transfers well to new situations and has been extensively validated

Only describes the general stages of development for a single teacher in a classroom

Kraver, 1997

Arizona Learning Technology Partnership (ALTP)Wave 1: early adoptionWave 2: ICT integrated into curriculumWave 3: research-based learning technologies are released and transform education.

Aligns well with ICT-based innovations in other fields.

Assumes a new technology will become available

Caldwell & Spinks, 1998

Schools for the Knowledge Society Track 3 vision gestalt:

Aligns with emerging national policies to plan for knowledge-based economies

Little evidence for the rhetoric

Valdez, McNabb, Foertsch, Anderson, Hawkes & Raack, 2000

North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL)Phase I = print automationPhase II = expansion of learning opportunitiesPhase III = data driven virtual learning.

Emphasises emergence of learner-centred instruction based upon automated monitoring of student progress

Assumes education is school-based and teacher-led

 Each of these five models attempts to describe the developmental stages of ICT in education in a different way. The authors have different perspectives which have framed their views. Their audiences, the strengths and the weaknesses of each model, and what they imply for future models are examined below. 

Each model is a conceptual one (Webb, 1993) which exists only in the minds of humans rather than having some external manifestation. They are also ‘expedient’ models (Clement, 1989) which offer explication rather than explanation. Such models can be evaluated by comparing them with the phenomenon under investigation, and are useful for stimulating discussion, making relationships between objects clearer and ultimately becoming the basis for decisions about future actions (Penner, 2001). The focus of each model ranges from the teacher in a school to the system level of school governance.  Heppell wrote at a time when the Internet was beginning to be seen as having potential in the business world, and ‘killer-apps’ were entering the software marketplace for office automation on a regular basis. His description of the developing role of computers suggested that climbing sales of software which have transformed the world of work will be mirrored in education. He argued that although there had “been neither a strong mechanistic nor a strong causal link between technological and pedagogical change”, it was “not an unreasonable contention that this link will need to be tighter rather than looser in the next five to ten years” (Heppell, 1993, p.101). He established Ultralab, the learning technology research laboratory at Anglia Polytechnic University's Chelmsford campus, to trial the application of new technologies in educational settings (Revell, 2002). The Heppell model concentrates on the earlier stages of development, specifying the alternating use of topic specific and generic software. This alternation is not explained within the model, and it is therefore reasonable to be sceptical about its validity. The final stage of the Heppell model suggests pedagogy will change to accommodate the potential of ICT. This is a bold proposition, and requires further investigation to determine its applicability. The Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) model was presented in support of a project sponsored by a computer manufacturer (Dwyer, Ringstaff & Sandholtz, 1991; Dwyer, 1994). This sponsorship may have affected the conclusions, a caution reinforced by the fact that one of the authors (Dr. David Dwyer) was the Apple director of Education Technology at the time of writing (Apple Computer, 2002, 2002a). The ACOT project was based around the question: “If technology was pervasive throughout education, then what?”  Starting in 1985, the Apple Computer company agreed to place a large amount of computer equipment and software in seven classrooms that represented a cross-section of America’s elementary and secondary schools. This included providing a computer for the classroom and home of every teacher and student in each class. The project grew, and with school agreement the classrooms were researched for over a decade. General conclusions about teacher stages of development were drawn from the research, from an ‘Entry’ stage where teachers had doubts, through an integration stage (‘Adaptation’) to a student-centred ‘Invention’ stage.  The ACOT model described ICT development from the point of view of teachers, who might reasonably be expected to be the majority of the audience. Reaching this audience was important to the commercially-sponsored study, for teachers were seen as critical to the acceptance of the technology and hence to sales. In the case of the ACOT model, there is evidence of its appropriation for the formation of teacher ICT accreditation schemes (Office of Technology & Information Services, 2001). The specific levels of the

ACOT model make it difficult to apply to school or system level planning, although it could have a use as a component of such plans. Because it relates to teachers, they can use tools based upon the model to diagnose their personal needs for ICT-related professional development, to categorise their current teaching style and to assist in decision-making when choosing new classroom software. Kraver (1997) developed the ALTP model as part of a case put to bureaucrats and commercial sponsors. His report is therefore framed in language suitable for such an audience.  He suggested that radical change of the order of one or two sigmas (standard deviations) in student outcomes should result from the application of ICT in education. He argued that this was not an impossible dream since in other technology applications “the airline industry doubled speed and range by replacing the piston engine with the jet engine. The food industry has decreased farm labour from 65 percent of the population to two percent using biological and mechanical technology”. One-to-one tutoring had been shown to improve educational outcomes by two sigmas (Bloom, 1984) showing this kind of improvement was not impossible and the capacity of ICT systems to achieve at similar levels was shown through a meta-study review (Kulik & Kulik, 1991). The USA defence department had adopted a similar vision of using digital resources to support individualized, collaborative, authentic and interactive learning in their schools for defence force children anywhere and anytime worldwide, and expected at least a one sigma improvement or a 30 percent teaching time reduction with existing equipment (Fletcher, 2003).  Kraver’s preparatory review of ICT used the STaR categorisation to show that only four percent of schools had ‘target tech’ multimedia computers at a density of one for every 5 students (CEO Forum, 1997). The review refers to a collection of 500 meta-studies indicating ICT improved learning outcomes but did not identify these, casting doubt upon this aspect of the study. The ALTP model showed progression through three ‘waves’, corresponding to increased levels of teacher training, software complexity and ICT funding rising from US$110 to US$300 per student per year. In the development of the ALTP model, Kraver makes a good argument for the expected quantum of educational improvement, but fails to enter into the debate about the appropriate metric for validating this. The ALTP model also ties the stages of progression very closely to funding (as was appropriate for the audience) and equipment levels. This is a restricting view, and does not help planners to cope with situations where equipment has been provided but recipients fail to use it. Finally, the ALTP model assumes the emergence of a new kind of research-based learning technology without which the model lacks justification.  Caldwell and Spinks wrote for an audience established by the publication of their first book on self-managing schools at the same time as the Education Reform Act of 1988 in the UK (Caldwell, 1998). Their devolutionary view corresponds strongly with the expectation that multiple solutions can be found locally to similar problems. This view of self-managing schools has been adopted widely in Australia and the United Kingdom. Their description of self-managing schools was extended into a future vision in Beyond the self managing school (Caldwell & Spinks, 1998) which examined future trends and argued that there were three possible tracks along which schools could move. ICT was a

vital ingredient to each track, facilitating administrative change on track 1, enhancing communication between teachers as professionals on track 2, and transforming schools as learning places in the knowledge society on track 3. Developments on track 3 were illustrated by reference to lecture theatre design at the Goulburn Ovens Institute where students had alternate seating positions for computing and viewing (Caldwell & Spinks, 1998, p. 177). Among their summary of strategic intentions, they suggested:

Virtual schooling will be a reality at every stage of schooling,

but there will still be a place called school, with approaches to

virtual schooling including neighbourhood educational

houses, especially for the very young.                                

(Caldwell & Spinks, 1998)

The model developed by Caldwell and Spinks has some basis in evidence derived from school architecture, and aligns with policy directions adopted by governments in the ‘knowledge society’ or ‘knowledge economy’ fields. However, they do not present compelling evidence from either source that confirms schools or systems are moving along track 3. The evidence within the development of the model is contradictory, at one point establishing the capacity of ICT to remove traditional barriers of time and distance from the educational process, yet also affirming the centrality of a designated ‘place’ of schooling.  The NCREL model was constructed for “legislators and state board members” and emerged from the development work with which the authors’ organisation was concerned (Valdez et al., 2000). They noted that computer-based technology had been instrumental for increased work productivity and economic success, but debate continued about its value and cost-effectiveness in education. For example, equity concerns had largely eliminated experimental control groups in a three year study of fifty-five New York school districts where increased technology levels accounted for an increase in college entrance examination pass rates of 3.2 percent for mathematics and a one percent increase for English (Mann and Schaffer, 1997). Despite this debate, the NCREL model abstracted elements from successful projects to define stages of progression defined by the curriculum software used by students. The software stages started with drill and practice materials in Phase I, then moved to group-based learner tools in Phase II before culminating with information systems which integrated student progress tracking with virtual learning in Phase III. Valdez et al. (2000) concluded discussion of the NCREL model with a possible Phase IV, ‘Successful Integration and Use of Educational Technology’.  A major difficulty with Phase III of the NCREL model is the implicit assumption that computer systems will generate progress data about learning outcomes for each student. This difficulty is made clearer by examining the work of Means and Olsen to which Valdez et al. link the NCREL model. Means and Olsen described four uses of ICT in school education: tutorial, exploratory, tool, and communication (1995, pp.  15-17). Only the tutorial use can be expected to generate data about student progress against learning

outcomes. The generic office productivity software increasingly used by students in the other three modes does not report such details. Therefore little information about student achievements will be available for ‘data-driven virtual learning’ in Phase III of the NCREL model. Another difficulty with the NCREL model is the embedding of the industrial approach to learning, with the implicit reliance upon face-to-face direct teaching. The authors appeared to operate in a context where there was institutional support for a vision of the teacher as essential to the learning process, making the profession central to the final phase. This embedded position of the teacher was more in consideration of their audience than from a specific requirement of the technological maturation expected in Phase III.  

2.5.1      Issues from the literature about stages of development for ICT in education

The existing frameworks for ICT development stages in schools reveal a number of deficiencies and suggestions for improvement. The first of the difficulties common to several of the models described is that of making ill-founded assumptions. The ALTP model assumes the emergence of a new kind of technology, both the ALTP and NCREL models assume education will mirror ICT impacts in the business world, and the latter also assumes student software will generate progress data. The Heppell model suggests pedagogy will change to accommodate ICT. The implication for any new model is that it should be thoroughly grounded in the literature and based upon evidence drawn from the field. The only assumptions that can be made are those drawn from existing practice or existing technology. Another difficulty with the current models is that of internal inconsistencies. The Heppell model inconsistently alternates between a trend to more generic software and the use of topic specific materials. The Caldwell and Spinks model is ambiguous about the capacity of ICT to erode previous thinking about time and place. Any future model should therefore maintain consistency between stages of development by demonstrating the increasing effect of axial principles. To reduce the possibility of inconsistency, there should be a minimum number of stages.  Most of the existing models were crafted for a particular audience. This restricted the generalisability of the models, either for commercial reasons (ACOT) or because of institutional expectations (NCREL). The lesson for a new model is that it should be phrased in very general terms to maintain the widest possible application. This will make it suitable for classroom use or policy consideration, as a basis for professional development or linkage to other levels of national policy.  This generalisability must not cause the model to lose attention to specific requirements for progression between stages. The ALTP model highlighted particular equipment densities and funding levels for each stage, and this was helpful. However, to put such detail in the top level description of a model can limit its audience. Therefore a new

model might have a second level of description with this particular detail, having attention to the requirements above about assumptions, consistency and audience. A final guideline for the construction of a new model through this thesis concerns the difficulties of using conventional tests of educational achievement when students are using ICT in a meaningful way. For example, spelling tests of the traditional model would be inappropriate in the context of children using wordprocessors (such as Microsoft Word XP) in which spell checkers and voice recognition are embedded.  The new model should be developed with a view to the possibility that the aims of teaching may change. By looking at the past and present use of computers (as in the ALTP model), it should be possible to derive a conceptual understanding of how possible futures can link to current practice and previous experience. The conclusion from this part of the review is that some existing models are limited by ill-founded assumptions, internal inconsistencies, or are restricted to particular sectors of the educational community, industrial conceptions of the schooling process or particular software. Helpful aspects of existing models have related specific levels of training or resourcing to particular stages, and they have been linked to observed practice in schools.  

2.6         Other factors influencing the use of ICT in schoolsOne of the most significant factors about student use of ICT has been the rapid growth of student access to computers and the internet at home. Another has been the aging of the teaching workforce, associated with lower social status and remuneration, leading to a difficulty of recruitment and a search for alternative ways to provide adequate education.  This, combined with the desire from both administrators and students to make learning more cost efficient, has met with research evidence that computer-mediated learning can be at least as effective as face to face group instruction.  

2.6.1.1  Predictions of home computer accessIn Australia children’s home access to computers and the Internet has grown rapidly, and is much higher than that for the general population at 74 percent and 48 percent respectively (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1999b, 1999c, 2000, 2000d). Older children have greater access to computers at home (Meredyth, Russell, Blackwood, Thomas & Wise, 1999b, p.160), with much of their use being for games and educational activities (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2000c). Similar findings have been reported internationally, with 53 percent to 60 percent of secondary students estimated to use a computer at home in the USA, Germany and the Netherlands (Anderson & Lundmark, 1996, p. 29; Department of Commerce, 2000) while one author suggested ICT be utilised to overcome violence in schools (Fielder, 2000). Eighty percent of adult Australians undertaking study used the Internet (Pattinson & Di Gregorio, 1998). Therefore it is important to gauge the degree to which national, local and school policies attend to this growing proportion of students that are highly exposed to ICT in their homes. 

2.6.1.2  Aging teachersFrom 1976 to 1996 the median age of teachers in the USA increased from 33 to 44 years (National Center for Education Statistics, 2000, Table 70). Similar patterns were reported in Estonia, the UK and other countries surveyed. This pattern of an aging teacher population was significant because of the cultural gulf between them and their “Nintendo generation” pupils (Richards, 1997; Abbott-Chapman, 1999, pp. 15-19), and also because of the implications for teacher supply in coming years. Recruitment in the UK has been addressed by a series of ‘golden hellos’  with graduates who elect to go into teacher training receiving £150 per week during the training period, and further large sums when they start teaching in shortage areas such as Foreign Languages, Mathematics, Science or Technology (Charter, 2000). This did not prevent the number of teaching vacancies rising to 4980 by January 2001 (Owen, 2001). Similar difficulties have been reported in Australia (Box, 2000, p. 4) and Estonia where recently retired members of the profession were re-recruited. This re-entry cohort was therefore in a strong position to negotiate for good conditions and wages, and able to resist forces for change in teaching practice.  

2.6.1.3  Making learning cost efficient.Colleges in England for 16-18 year old students were effectively forced into using automation to maximise efficiency to cope with a 25 percent increase in student numbers at a time when the government had begun a program of devolving budgets and management (Kenny, 1994). Examples include the transformation of a ‘low quality traditional lecture based delivery’ engineering course to a “high quality tutorial environment, a flexible, self paced, self guided delivery with computer material available 24 hours a day” (Cartwright, 1994) which achieved the same learning outcomes within a fifty percent reduction in staffing and a twenty percent reduction in formal student contact time. Leftwich reported similar changes in a politics course (1994).  In the USA on-line accredited college courses were about half the cost to students compared to those that required attendance on-campus (Jurgensen, 1999, p. 16A). Student engagement and motivation were enhanced in a Nebraska study by the inclusion of personal investment content in the course interactions (Lehman, Kaufman, White, Horn & Bruning, 2000). In the school sector, a comparison was made by a UK Minister of Education, Professor Michael Barber:

It has been estimated that the cost of one teacher hour is £50

in the UK (c. US $80), rightly rising as we insist on much

improved pay for demonstrably good teachers.  But the cost

of one school ICT hour is about 75 pence (c. US $1) and

falling at about 20 per cent per annum, while computers

double their capacity every 18 months.  This provides an

opportunity not to replace teachers wholesale, but to find new

combinations of well-trained teachers, paraprofessionals and

technology focused on the learning needs and aspirations of

each individual.                                                                       

                (Barber, 2000)

 This comparison indicates some of the cost pressures which make ICT attractive to educational decision makers. The result has been a proliferation of experimental projects applying ICT in a broad range of educational contexts. Some projects have trialled the use of web-based courses and other multimedia applications with school refusers and at-risk students (EdNA, 2000).   

2.7         Chapter summaryThe review has identified the ubiquity of national policies for ICT in school education. These policies are often based upon economic, social and/or pedagogical rationales, which require further substantiation. The policies in many countries are becoming subsumed under national policies for ‘the knowledge economy’, and this appears to be shaping their form towards the economic rationale. Despite technological pressures, the extant international studies indicate the thrust of policy is on integrating ICT into current classroom practice, and students use computers much less in school than outside it. It remains to be seen if student learning autonomy is increased when ICT is used more often.  The literature distinguishes between ICT integration and ICT effectiveness, and several measures are available for each factor. Studies of effectiveness can be classified as experimental or descriptive. Experimental studies typified by meta-studies indicate ICT has so far proven only as effective as other innovations. Descriptive studies have found ICT has potential for improving learning outcomes, providing it is safely applied in appropriate areas, and teachers are adequately trained. Teacher professional development was examined in the context of innovation diffusion theory. This identified ownership (exemplified through laptops for teachers programs) and the identification of relative advantage as key factors for adoption.  However, the literature indicated that professional development needs to be aligned with strategic purposes for ICT. Four such types of school approach have been recognised. Existing frameworks for the developmental stages of ICT in schools were reviewed in the context of their authors’ intentions and specific audience targets. Through an analysis of each framework, it was established that future models would need to be applicable to a wide range of educational audiences, not presume the emergence of new educational technology and not make assumptions about the operational characteristics of software.  

Additional factors having some bearing upon the use of ICT in school education were predictions of rapidly increasing home access to computers and the internet, the aging population of teachers and financial imperatives to make learning more cost efficient. The next chapter will show how the study methodology was developed.

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Planning for teachers

! 53 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2000 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org

South Africa:Teacher Training in the SkyClaire Brown, Violet Sithole & Robert HofmeyrShoma Education Foundation, South AfricaEducation in South AfricaThe schooling system in South Africa is undergoing massivetransformation to improve quality of education. Outcomesbasededucation and the new curriculum have been introducedto South African schools and present educators in thiscountry with their biggest opportunity and challenge ever. Itis common cause that educators are pivotal to the success ofthis change. Therefore, the challenge is to build the capacityof our educators to become change agents, thereby enablingthem to lend impetus to this transformation.I believe that the limited resources available and the vastnessof our country, lends itself ideally to the use of technology,not as a luxury, but as a basic resource. The model presentedin this article begins to illustrate that technology can be extremelyeffective in supporting the development of educatorsin the development of Outcomes Based EducationDigital Satellite Technologies forTeacher DevelopmentThe Model: The Shoma Education FoundationThe MIH Group, the holding company for MultiChoice, MNetand M-Web, has developed a unique model of deliveringeducational and training programs for the professional developmentof South African educators. The unique deliverymodel uses the power of technology to leverage the deliveryof appropriate educational programs prepared in conjunctionwith the national and provincial education departments. Theprograms are relayed from the M-Group’s Broadcast Centerin Randburg, via satellite, to a video server linked to a televisionset, and to a network server, which in turn serves 24workstations.The model is innovative and significant in the following respects:It is exceptional in its ability to reach and penetrate thedistant rural and urban areas often grossly neglected bydonors and cut off from investment initiatives.Through the use of interactive computer applications,the project initiates rural- and township-based teachersto appropriate and creative use of technology, therebysupporting and bolstering the National Education Department’sTechnology Enhanced Learning Initiatives.The framework for this model was developed collaborativelywith the national and provincial education departments, academics,educators and teacher organizations. Based on researchdone, a nine-week pilot was conducted at three centerslocated in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.

The South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE)evaluated the pilot project, after which the project was successfullyimplemented in a further seven sites. Ten centerssituated in all nine provinces are currently fully functional.The program reaches out to thousands of educators in historicallydisadvantaged areas to provide them with a richresource base that is unaffected by distance or terrestrialnetworks. Also, these teachers are being constantly exposedto cutting edge technology.Attributes of the Training Program1. The Program uses digital satellite technology as aconduit for quality Outcomes Based Education materialacross geographical barriers. Training programs are relayedfrom the M-Group’s Broadcast Center in Randburg, via theconduit of satellite to a television set, and an Intranet.2. The Program applies a specific, three tiered processof learning that continuously reinforces specific themeson Outcomes Based Education. The training facilities used atthe training centers consist of a minimum of three rooms inan education department or other suitable buildings.Broadcast RoomThis room is equipped with a television monitor, a videoserver and satellite dish. Here, a visual presentation of thespecific learning theme on Outcomes Based Education isprovided. Teachers watch broadcast clips reflecting differentSouth African situations and experiences on Outcomes BasedEducation concepts, which run for approximately 10 minutes.The broadcast ends with a thought-provoking questionthat prompts the group into discussion. With this question,the aim is to actively engage the recipients and negate passivityamongst them. Curriculum developers of the ProvincialEducation Department mediate the group discussions.Computer RoomThe second room is furnished with a Windows NT serverand 24 Pentium workstations. Content is downloaded, viasatellite, to the servers using a Siyanda satellite receiver card.The computer material provides digitized video and audio

! 54 ! TechKnowLogia, May/June, 2000 © Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. www.TechKnowLogia.org

clips, which have been compressed, using MPEG technology.This convergence of computer and television technologyconfers greater flexibility to the learning process.It was observed during the pilot period that educators tendedto ‘hop’ between Internet lessons. Some completed the sessionin a short period suggesting they had not taken the timeto read and reflect on the issues. Thus, a controlled measurethat compels users to follow a particular learning path hasbeen introduced.Although the computer-based learning content reflects theNational Education Department’s interpretation of the curriculum,the Department is provided with an additional opportunityto express its viewpoint. There is also an opportunityfor each Provincial Department to add its input. We haveembarked on a project to add a message board and an electronicmail facility to make this learning experience evenmore dynamic and interactive.

The Lesson Development RoomThis is the most important room in the process. It is here thatteachers have the opportunity to practice the theory learnedin the broadcast and computer rooms. In this room, teacherswork together to develop their own lesson plans for the followingweek, based on what they learned during the broadcastand computer based learning.3. The program is a mediated, facilitated learningprocess. Integral to the Shoma training methodology is theuse of facilitators to mediate the learning process in all threetiers. This approach is informed by the notion that the use oftechnology as a training tool necessitates that training shouldbe conducted by facilitators or other teachers who can provide:experience in classroom teaching;an understanding of the use of technologies and its languageusage;mediated learning without succumbing to the temptationto take over the keyboard; andfollow-up support to the teacher in the classroom.In view of these specific qualities, our facilitators are drawnfrom the ranks of curriculum developers whose responsibilityit is to provide support to educators on curriculum issues.An evaluation of the pilot project by South African Institutefor Distance Education identified the need for facilitationskills training program for these departmental officials.Shoma has developed a training program on facilitation tobuild the capacity of facilitators in the mediation of adultlearning, as well as to develop a basic understanding of thetechnology used in the program.Experiences in Applying the ModelOn the positive side the value of technology in teacher developmentcan be summarized as follows:It ensures access to quality education material and resources,irrespective of geographical location and terrestrialnetworks.It bridges the digital divide between those who haveaccess to technology and those who don’t.It is a fast, cost-effective way of providing the trainingmaterial to remote training centers all over the country.It provides an interactive platform, which stimulates thelearning process of educators.It permits and supports individually paced learning processes.The drawbacks of technology in teacher development havebeen:The initial capital outlay to acquire and install the technologicalinfrastructure is costly.Enormous problems are experienced as a result of thesensitive nature of technology in relation to the lowleveltechnological development and skills of the enduser.The eagerness to gain access to technology skills sometimesovershadows the educational value of the substantiveelements of the training program.In the area of partnership, the program has created a platformfor private sector companies to work alongside governmentin the development of education. It has enabled corporate

companies to be part of an established, high potential, highimpact and relevant corporate social investment project.In the final analysis, the impact of any teacher developmentprogram should be evaluated in terms of its effect on teacherpractice and not just on the correct methodology nor its useof technology. Therefore, we have embarked on a researchstudy to look at, among other things:The correlation between the change of attitude towardthe use of technology and teacher practice.The extent to which educators have fully understood thebenefits and implications of the use of broadcast andcomputer learning as a learning and teaching tool.ConclusionAs the range and complexity of technology available to supporteducation and training rapidly expands, the reality thattechnologically driven educational solutions do not work hasbecome increasingly apparent. We need to recognize, however,that technology is increasingly being harnessed to benefitour education system through various innovative projects.Slowly but surely, technology enhanced learning is becomingmore and more effective. The South Africa experienceprovides a model for harnessing the latest technologicallydriven interventions for the benefit of our educators and for

the enhancement of education as a whole.

THE UTILIZATION OF INFORMATIONAND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGYFOR EDUCATION IN AFRICA.Dr. Govinda ShresthaAddis Ababa 2000UNESCO:International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa(IICBA)

iid^ ntematlonal Institute for

Capacity Building In Africa

ContentsIntroduction-Utilization of Electronic and CommunicationsTechnologyBarriers-Implications for U N E S C O International Institute •for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA)-Strategies for the Utilization of Electronic andCommunications Technology-Strategy for Utilization of Technologyin Teacher Education-Strategy for Utilization of Technologyin Curriculum Development

-Strategy for the Utilization of Technologyin Distance Education 30-Strategy for Utilization of Technologyin Education Policy, Planning and Management 31Conclusion 34Reference 35

PREFACEThis monograph was undertaken by Dr. Govinda Shrestha, aresearch fellow at Harvard University, during a one-monthconsultancy with the U N E S C O International Institute for CapacityBuilding in Africa C1ICBA), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in October, 1999.The purpose of the consultancy was to explore ways in which the newinformation and communication technologies CICT3 can be utilized inAfrica, given the situation where the majority of educationalinstitutions at primary and secondary school levels do not haveaccess to electricity, let alone to computers and internet. Even attertiary level many institutions do not have access to internet,although a considerable number may have access to computers.Internet may be inaccessible either due to low access at country levelor high cost.Despite the serious challenges posed by the lack of electricity, lackof connectivity to the internet, and the present low financialresources available to education in Africa, in particular most ofSub-Saharan Africa, Africa nevertheless has to face up to theessential need to be at the cutting edge of technological innovation.Unless Africa accepts this challenge, its position in worlddevelopment is likely to deteriorate even further in the next twodecades.Education can play a cardinal role in ensuring that Africaninstitutions; teachers and teacher educators have the opportunity toutilize information and communication technologies. A high level ofusage of ICT can impact positively on economic and other forms ofdevelopment.However at this stage of Africa's development, cost-effective andpractical ways have to be devised to enable African universities andschools to access ICT. This monograph is a contribution to thedialogue on how ICT can be used in Africa today to improve botheducational access and quality.Fay ChungDirector, U N E S C O International Institute for Capacity Building inAfrica CIICBA)Addis Ababa, EthiopiaMarch,2000Introduction

UTILIZATION OF INFORMATION ANDCOMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGYFOR EDUCATION IN AFRICAGovinda Shrestha

IntroductionThe world educational crisis and the world crisis in educationscenario painted by Coombs C1968, 1985), still holds substantiallyvalid in Africa. In 1968, Coombs [1] observed:Since 1945, all countries have undergone fantastically swiftenvironmental changes, brought about by a number of concurrentworldwide revolutions in science and technology, in economic andpolitical affairs, in demographic and social structures.Educational systems have also grown and changed more rapidlythan ever before. But they have adapted all too slowly in relationto the faster pace of events on the move all around them. Theconsequent disparity—taking many forms—between educationalsystems and their environments is the essence of the worldwidecrisis in education.The growing obsolescence of the old, outmoded curriculum content

in relation to the advancing state of knowledge and the realisticlearning needs of students, the misfit between education and thedevelopment needs of societies, the growing imbalances andmaladjustments between education and employment, as well as

1Utilization of Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Education in Africaserious educational inequalities between various social groups, andthe gap growing between the rising costs of education and the fundscountries would be able and willing to invest in it are some of theglaring disparities, according to Coombs. The causes of disparityare, in his opinion, the sharp increase in popular aspirations foreducation, the acute scarcity of resources, the inherent inertia ofeducational systems, "which caused them to respond too sluggishlyin adapting their internal affairs to new external necessities, evenwhen resources have not been the main obstacle to adaptation, andthe inertia of societies themselves—"the heavy weight of traditionalattitude, religious customs, prestige and incentive patterns, andinstitutional structures—which has blocked them from making theoptimum use of education and of educated manpower to fosternational development."17 years after the publication of Coombe's first book, things are notmuch better. In fact, the education situation worsened as the worldeducation crisis turned in 1985 into a world crisis in education. Theearly warnings of a world educational crisis were no false alarm. Notonly had the crisis Coombs [2] noticed in 1985, been intensified bygrowing maladjustments between education system and the rapidlychanging world around them, but it had acquired new dimensions thatwere even more troubling. The most troubling of all was that thereemerged a crisis of confidence in education itself.The explosion of learning needs and the inability of educationsystems to bring both the quantitative and qualitative changesnecessary to balance the evolving learning needs, and the tightercost squeeze on education were facts of life. And there was aclear-cut maladjustment between education, on the one hand, and2introductionthe world of work and the economy, on the other. Sadly, Africa facestoday all these plus many more problems in education. The crisisimpacting African education goes deeper and various drasticmeasure? are required to address it before the situation gets evenworse. A number of initiatives were taken in response to the gravityof the complex challenges facing education. The Jomtien Declarationand Framework of Action on "Education for All" in 1990 sought tore-enforce commitment by Governments, funding agencies andnon-governmental organizations on the principles that would bringabout basic education for all. The Priority Africa Programmeestablished by UNESCO in 1989 called for vigorous efforts topromote, among others, distance learning, information technologyand higher education in Africa. The Assembly of Heads of State andGovernments of the Organization of African Unity COAU), held inYaounde, Cameroon in June 1996, proclaimed the period 1997-2006the Decade of Education in Africa. The Education Department of theOAU acts to promote harmonisation of education policies systemsand programmes at all levels, as well as the development of networksand the Pan-African cooperation in education area. In 1999, the OAUMinisters of Education and Heads of States approved the Decade ofEducation Programme of Action in which it clearly noted some of theacute problems [3] faced by the formal education systems in Africa:• Persistence and maintenance, whether deliberately orotherwise, of the aims, objectives and outcomes of outdatededucation systems, despite the numerous reforms undertakenfrom time to time.• The fall in the general standard of achievement of pupils andstudents linked to the shortage of infrastructure, equipment and

teaching materials, pn the one hand, and on the other hand, to3Utilization of Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Education in Africathe large class sizes as well as poor qualifications and low moraleof teachers.• The lack of relevance of the content of educationalprogrammes, whether in terms of language and culture, or interms of employability and technology, resulting not only in asignificant number of dropouts, but also in a lack of linkagebetween training and employment, expressed in the persistentunemployment of graduates.• Inability of formal education systems to satisfy development"needs and strategies, and therefore its inability to participate indevelopmentIt is increasingly realised among various educational and politicalcircles that present-day educational challenges cannot be met withtraditional means alone. The introduction, use/re-use and deploymentof new as well as old electronic and communications technology are,therefore, being considered an important contribution to the solutionof the problems in education. "Higher education institutions mustadopt new approaches for the packaging of information, for coursedelivery and for thinking traditional approaches to teaching andlearning", says the Consolidated Declarations and Plans of Action ofthe Regional Conferences on Higher Education held in Tokyo and Dakar(1997-98). The U N E S C O Regional Conferences clearly emphasisethat teachers, professors and technical and administrative staffmust be given training that enables them to integrate newinformation and communication technologies into their teachingprogrammes, and to examine the multiplier effect with regard to theiruse.4IntroductionVarious attempts have recently been made, to increase access tomodern technologies and services. However, very few educationalinstitutions have the technical and financial resources needed to usenew technologies for educational purposes. In addition, the low levelof development of the underlying infrastructure needed to makeeffective and wide use of technologies is quite discouraging. Africa'scommunication and information infrastructure is mostly limited tocapital cities and it is out of reach of the great majority of Africanswho live in rural areas and dispersed geographical locations. Thisshows that the current utilization of information and communicationstechnology for education is minimal, limited and constrained in manyways. But since new information and communications technology andeducation act together as multipliers, the prospect of educationaldevelopment working in tandem with the telecommunicationsdevelopment in future looks promising.This report presents first a general overview of the presentutilization of electronic and communications technology, particularlynew technologies such as computers and the Internet for educationin Africa and then recommends specific strategies for theapplications of such technologies in education focused particularly on:• Teacher education• Curriculum development• Distance education, and• Educational policy, planning and managementThe report, in describing technology use in African education, willconsider application of technology at a broad level, but with some5Utilization of Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Education in Africaemphasis on the tertiary education. The term 'technology' will referto 'electronic and communications technology' and 'technology use"will assume both 'technology as a product' and 'technology as aprocess' ideas [4]. The terms 'technology use' and 'technology

utilization' are u^ed interchangeably.UTILIZATION OF ELECTRONIC ANDCOMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGYSeveral countries in the Africa region are already familiar withdifferent technologies introduced in the educational systems.Various studies have shown that educational radio and educationaltelevision have been used in many developing countries primarily as ameans of reaching learners in remote locations and making educationaccessible and affordable to many. Training in-service teachers at adistance has, for example, been a regular practice of teachereducation programmes in many African countries.Although technology use in distance education and learning is, in fact,a long-established practice, there has recently been a remarkableshift in its use in developing countries. Potashnik and Capper [5]observe:Technology is still a major contributor to the dramatictransformation of distance learning. Although the use of technologyfor distance learning is not new—radio and television have been usedeffectively for more than forty years—satellites and the Internet aretransforming the world into a borderless educational arena,

6Utilization of Electronic andCommunication Technologybenefiting both previously underserved citizenries and educationentrepreneurs.New technologies have now greatly expanded, at least in theory,our educational horizons. However, Potashnik and Capper believethat print-based communication will continue at least for some timein future. They note:Various technologies have been used for distance education,but print-based correspondence courses have been, and willcontinue to be, the dominant delivery mechanism in both thedeveloped and the developing worlds. Print is still the cheapesttechnology, and, even if the costs of using high-techdissemination tolls fall below those of print, it will be some timebefore many countries have adequate infrastructures.One good example of the highly successful print- orcorrespondence-based practice is the Zimbabwe Integrated TeacherEducation course (ZINTEC], established after independence in orderto train primary teachers in the country. The successful ZINTECtradition was a precursor to the Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU),established in 1999 to upgrade school administrators and teachersand address the need to provide educational opportunity to a largerclientele [6]. The ZINTEC programme combined distance educationthrough use of print and radio with two extended periods ofresidential training, weekly seminars held at the schools wheretrainees were placed in clusters of three, weekend and holidaycourses. Residential courses cover twelve months of the four yearcourse.7Utilization of Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Education in AfricaAfrica has a long history of the use of technology of one kind oranother for educational purposes. The continent has been a fertileground for a number of open universities, distance educationdepartments under universities, independent distance educationinstitutions, and various technology-based programmes, projects andinitiatives. Many of the institutions and programmes, initiated inthe past, are still actively deploying technologies in various forms andcombinations as means to enhance existing programmes and fulfildifferent educational objectives.Unfortunately, a number of the past technological innovations

[based on radio, television, video, film, print technology etc.] have notbeen sustained. As far as the breakdown of the systems/innovationsin education is concerned, it is primarily related to technicalknow-how in both utilization and maintenance of the systems.External aid played a key role indeed, in the establishment of most ofthese technologies, but in many cases, the need for theprovision/supply of local experts was not given the due considerationit deserved [7]. Consequently, a number of programmes initiated withenthusiasm in the past lost their momentum, and were unable tosurvive.Despite some early weaknesses and failures, new technologies,particularly the computers and networking technologies, have, bycreating conditions for rapid connections, opened up possibilities formany different educational and learning opportunities. From radio andsatellites to computers at the desktop and palmtop, variouscommunications channels have been used to deliver education andtraining both on-campus and off-campus. Today, Internetconnections are, for example, possible over any kind of network: dial

8Utilization of Electronic andCommunication Technologyup telephone, private digital and analog networks, satellites, radio,cellular, public switched telephone networks, Asynchronous TransferMode [ATM), and so on.Advances in technologies have led to the creation of a greatopportunity to what is now called "leap-frog" stages of development.This is an opportunity that is unparalleled in history. In 1995, theWorld Bank [8] issued a dire warning:If African countries cannot take advantage of the informationrevolution and surf this great wave of technological change, they maybe crushed by it. In that case they are likely to be even moremarginalized and economically stagnant than they are today.The uses of technology for various educational Cand other) activitiesseem to be growing exponentially in recent years. This is a worldwidephenomenon, and equally true of Africa. In some places, use of variouscomputer-based programs has multiplied. A variety ofcomputer-assisted instruction/programs have proliferated and theuse of computing and information systems in management hasincreased tremendously. As a result, various initiatives andprogrammes have been launched to respond to the challenges andcrises confronting education and learning and to stimulate changeand create new learning environments that address localised andspecific needs of learners in different places and settings. Currently,we witness a flurry of activities and projects being run and operatedunder the cooperation between the public and the private sectors. Afew international organizations and institutions have remainedincreasingly active in transforming the education sector to enablepeople to acquire new skills and training that are so essential in theInformation Age. In some places, such education and training

9Utilization of Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Education in Africaprograms form part of formal education, while in others, it is primarilya component of nonformal, even informal education. The followingexamples were selected, within a limited time frame, out of a largepool of activities and projects throughout Africa. Their presentationdoes not follow any priority order.It is clear that despite four decades of development efforts, thenature and quality of education, educational access and opportunityfor the majority of people in Sub-Saharan Africa [SSA3 have notimproved. The education situation at the tertiary level has beendeteriorating rapidly. Many tertiary institutions in their present formare overwhelmed with problems related to access, finance, quality,and internal and external efficiency, to mention a few. Two years ago,

the African Virtual University CAVUl was launched, keeping in view themonumental problems affecting the higher education sector inSub-Saharan Africa CSSA]. The introduction of A V U is basicallygeared towards promoting alternative modes for the delivery oftertiary education to complement the efforts of existing institutionsof higher learning. As the first interactive instructionaltelecommunications network, AVU uses the latesttelecommunications technology such as satellites, and thecomputer-based technology [the Internet) to improve the quality andrelevance of science, engineering and business instruction for thebenefit of students and professionals from 22 countries inSub-Saharan Africa. One major aim is to expand enrollment levelssignificantly in these areas. AVU has, by now, provided more than2,000 hours of broadcast instruction to some 9,000 students andprofessionals in 14 Anglophone, 8 Francophone and 2 Lusophonecountries.

10Utilization of Electronic anaCommunication TechnologyEstablished only a few years ago, the Confederation of OpenLearning Institutions of South Africa (COLISA), serves as thetorchbearer of higher education through distance learning in SouthAfrica. Cr'LiSA comes as an attempt to address educational needsthat; cannot be met by individual institutions acting alone.Collaboration and coordination are necessary in various stages ofwork. CGLiSA's members include the University of South Africa(UNISAÎ, Vista University and Technikon SA.UNISA, the oldest and largest distance learning institution in Africaand one of the eleven mega distance education institutions in theworld, serves as a prime example of technology-based education and1

learning. Its three regional centres in the north, south and east, sixlearning centres throughout Africa plus its library which is one of thelargest and best equipped research libraries in the southernhemisphere—all bear testimony to the increased use of technology inSouth African education.SchoolNet S A and Cyber School Africa (CSA) are two moreexamples of the technology-based educational initiative in SouthAfrica. Established in South Africa, SchoolNet SA, a nationalnon-governmental organization (NGO) is actively developing andexpanding the use of the Internet in South African schools. Thisorganization is helping educators and learners transform educationthrough the application of information and communicationtechnologies (ICT). SchoolNet S A works by providing leadership andexpertise needed in education, and it helps develop effectivepartnerships in various areas, including the Internet connectivity andappropriate technology, human resource development and capacitybuilding and content and curriculum management and development.

11Utilization of Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Education in AfricaThe organisation's major activity is to contribute to the realisation ofnational priorities in the education and training system, workingtowards a knowledge-based society, expanding access totelecommunications and information, and educating youth for fullparticipation in South African and international life [9].Cyber School Africa [CSA), an on-going project in South Africa, onthe other hand, focuses on the intensive development of web-basedrevision tutorials in the Physical Sciences [standard and advanced)and Mathematics [standard) related testing for the South Africanmatriculation examinations. The project also includes arrangementsfor individualized tutoring by e-mail and fax. The provision ofsupplementary services currently being developed includes freeweb-based e-mail for all C S A members [including teachers andparents), URL archives [curriculum-based links to other on-lineresources), and South Africa's first graphical user interface (GUI)

chat facility for educational purposes. CSA also emphasisesmarketing the site, further enhancing the site, and extending the siteto include additional subjects, such as Higher-Grade Mathematics,Biology, or English.During the last decade, computer networking has spread rapidly inSub-Saharan Africa. Now, virtually all nations have established someform of connectivity. It is interesting that universities and theirsupporting governments were not among the network pioneers forobvious monetary and political reasons. Since 1990, however,university participation, to a greater or lesser degree, in computernetworking has increased. Establishment of some form ofconnectivity, however limited, has been a priority for many for quitesome time. In Mozambique, for example, there were few human and

12Utilization of Electronic andCommunication Technologyfinancial resources to support early uses of the Internet.Consequently, the strategy employed was based not on theimperative of new technologies, but upon providing basic electronicmail connectivity for at least the provinces of the country. The earlyusers of networking on the continent were organizations working inspecial areas such as health, agriculture, pest control, marine andfisheries and the like with funding from external sources. Onlinenetwork development has thus been spurred mainly by developmentagencies and non-governmental organisations and many onlineconnectivity projects have, in fact, used UNIX and FidoNetstore-forward technologies.Aside from the Republic of South Africa, which has an installedbase of commercial/university systems facilitating Internet growth,the computer communications in other countries do not have aninstalled base of commercial/university support systems. So many ofthem are only small 'bulletin board' systems facilitated particularly bythe Association for Progressive Communications (APC1 The situationis now changing as a result of the APC's British affiliate GreenNet'shelp with, particularly the establishment of several dozen smallsystems aimed at expanding African connectivity.Other examples of technology utilization and development includeRINAF [Regional Information Network for Africa] which has beenactive in the development and dissemination of information regardingthe use of telecommunication technologies in Africa since 1988.PADIS CPan-African Development Information System), based in AddisAbaba, has served a wide range of development needs that includecomputer networking throughout a wide region. It is reported thatPADIS has been instrumental in the development of low cost

13Utilization of Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Education in Africaconnectivity in numerous university departments in the region. TheRegional African Satellite Communications Organisation CRASCOM)was established in order to address the problem of access totelecommunications in rural areas.Similarly, the American Association for the Advancement ofScience CAAAS3 has been active since 1987 in a Sub-Saharan AfricaProgram that focuses upon the problems of dwindling funds for booksand periodicals in university research libraries. Side by side with thisproblem, research capacities of African universities had declined byas much as 5 0% since 1982, according to a report presented to theAssociation of African Universities in Accra in 1992. MakerereUniversity reported that its subscriptions to periodicals in all fieldshad fallen from 8 0 0 in 1985 to 2 0 0 in 1995. The A A A S project hasbeen working with 8 libraries in an effort to determine the value ofC D - R O M uses and other electronic information technologies inresearch libraries.The creation of the African Educational Research Network [AERN)in 1992, by a small number of African, American, Canadian and British

universities is an example of North/South collaboration in networkingactivities. The Network coordinates various efforts to supportresearch capacity building in African universities. Recently, the A E RNis busy implementing "electronic research roundtables" aimed atbringing together professors from African and northern universitiesas supporting resources for the large number of African studentswho are working in several northern institutions. The members of theAERN include Kenyatta University, Addis Ababa University, theUniversity of Zimbabwe, Makerere University, the National Universityof Lesotho, Bayero University in Kano, the University of Ottawa, the

14Utilization of Electronic andCommunication TechnologyUniversity of Manchester, Clark-Atlanta University, Ohio University,North Carolina State University in Raleigh and Oklahoma StateUniversity. All A E R N members have connectivity with the exception ofBayera Uriversity.The Educational Research Network for Eastern and SouthernAfrica CERNESA], currently led by the University of Botswana and theEducational Research Network for Western and Central AfricaCERNWACA) coordinated by the IDRC (International Development andResearch Centre], based in Dakar, are examples of two thrivingnetworks that began with conventional modes of exchanges and arenow moving toward electronic information exchange.Technology-based or enhanced educational initiatives focusedprimarily on African women include proposed activities being plannedunder the partnership between the Forum for African W o m enEducationalists CFAWE) and the U E S C O International Institute forCapacity Building in Africa CIICBA], Abantu for Development is anon-governmental organization founded in 1991 by African w o m e n forthe purpose of harnessing new technology-based informationresources to the benefit of African people.Internet connectivity in African nations is rising, althoughaccessibility remains only in capital cities and/or particular areas oflarge cities. In the past, the private sector initiatives to bring thecontinent online were insignificant. But since 1995 there has been aresurgence of efforts to bring "full inter-connectivity" by the year2010 under the leadership of the United Nations EconomicCommission for Africa ÍECAJ. The Regional Symposium on Access toTelematics in Africa, hekï in Addis Ababa in April 1995, was

15Utilization of Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Education in Africaremarkable in that it gave birth to a new initiative, the "AfricanNetworking Initiative", which comprises the ECA together with a fewother international organizations, including UNESCO. The ECAConference of Ministers held in May 1995, appointed a high-levelworking group on Information and Communication Technology to draftand design the Action Framework to help African countries to"leapfrog" stages of development and participate in the InformationAge. A year later, the Framework was approved by the meeting ofECA Conference of Ministers. The result is an "African informationsociety initiative" [10]. Africa has lately become the ground for anunprecedented range of development projects aimed at increasingthe uses and impacts of information and communicationstechnologies.The overall position of African inter-connectivity, based on anaccount presented in 1997 by Jensen [11], is as follows:• 36 Countries in Africa have full Internet access in the capitalcities: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, BurundiCameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central AfricanRepublic, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana,Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco,Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Reunion, Senegal,Seychelles, Republjc of South Africa, Swar "and, Sudan, Tanzania,

Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.• Countries that will very shortly have capitals with full Internetaccess: Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Rwanda, SierraLeone, Chad.• Countries with capital cities remaining without full Internetaccess: Cap Verde, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Equatorial Guinea,

16Utilization of Electronic andCommunication TechnologyEritrea, Liberia, Libya, Mauritania, Sao Tome e Principe, Somalia,Western Sahara.• Countr'js with only one full public access ISP: Algeria, Benin,Burundi Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic,Mauritius, Niger, Malawi, Seychelles, Tunisia, Zaire, Zambia.• Countries with access in some secondary towns: Benin,Botswana, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco,Senegal, Republic of South Africa, Zimbabwe.• Countries with low-cost dial-up Internet access nationwide:Burkina Faso, Mauritius, Morocco, Senegal, Republic of SouthAfrica, Zimbabwe.This shows that African connectivity is rising but it is severelylimited to major cities and capitals. Again, there is a great disparitybetween various sub-regions."Creating Learning Network for African Teaehers". is a U N E S COproject that forms part of the Harnessing Information Technology forDevelopment component of the Special Initiative on Africa. The majoraim of the project is to enhance the capacity of teachers and theirinstitutions to become more responsive to new challenges in teachingand learning, by connecting teacher training colleges and EducationMinistries, researchers and communities through the existingInternet infrastructures. The project also aims to increasetechnology applications among teachers and provide them with basicskills to use such new technologies. <; A regional -vypr^ksiipp onComputers in Education, held in Lesotho, in 1996, and.a meeting inHarare on Capacity Building for Information Technologies in Education17Utilization of Information and Communications.--, Technology for Education in Africain Developing Countries organized by the International Federation forInformation Processing (IFIP1 are among the activities linked to thisproject. Further efforts are being made to develop a projectnetworking for teacher-training colleges in each of the twenty Africancountries [121.One remarkable feature of telecommunications development is theincreasing number of telecentres, telecottages or communitycommunication centres in various parts of the continent. Theestablishment and operation of hundreds of telecentres andcommunication centres indicate a new level and flow of interest intechnology use. Some of the common labels used to describe theseactivities, include telecentres, telecottages, community technologycentres CCTC], community communication shops, networked learningcentres, multipurpose community telecentres CMCT), digitalclubhouses, community communication centres (CCC1, technologyaccess centres etc. One common characteristic of these centres isa shared place/facility that provides access to information andcommunication technologies for various purposes. These centresmay differ from one another in the way they are funded, organized,owned and operated/administered. Generally, they are guided by theconcept and spirit of universal service in telecommunication.Information Technology is now considered, at least in some policymaking circles, an agent of transformation of various dimensions ofhuman life and activities in the knowledge-based society of the newcentury.Some of the telecentres are equipped with only a telephone and afax machine, others with computers, printers and an Internet

connection, but they are mushrooming all over Africa. These centres

18Utilization of Electronic andCommunication Technologyare primarily designed to serve various informational, educational anddevelopmental needs of the community. The ACACIA initiative,launched by the International Development and Research CentreCIDRO in 1997, serves as an example of telecentres aimed at puttinginformation and communication technologies to work on behalf ofsocial and economic development for local communities insub-Saharan Africa. It is said that Acacia will initially be focused onfour countries: Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda andthe projects will aim to reform policy, extend infrastructure, addresstechnology and usage issues, and support the creation of relevantapplications and content.Thus, some of the major organizations engaged in telecentreactivities are: the International Telecommunications Union tlTU),Canada's International Development Research Centre CIDRO, theU.S. Agency for International Development CUSAID), The UnitedNations Development Programme [UNDP], and the World Bank.Among the major initiatives in Africa include IDRC's Acacia, ITU'sMultipurpose Community Telecentres, USAID's Leland and LearnLink,U N D P ' s Community Communications Centres, and the World Bank'sWorLD.In addition to the International Development Research CentreCIDRO, which supports a range of ICT projects in Africa through theAcacia initiative [13), some of the leading organizations and initiativesrelated to African inter-connectivity and technology development forvarious developmental purposes, including educational are:

19Utilization of Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Education in AfricaBellanet: It aims to serve as a catalyst for the appropriate useof ICTs in development and a 'best practice' model that shareslessons learned from projects and the collaborative initiativeswith which it works [143.International Institute for Sustainable Development (USD]: It providesan Internet site for information on sustainable development, includinginformation and communications technology [15LWorld Bank, Knowledge Information and Technology Centre: Itprovides the Africa Live Database, a system that gives users easyelectronic access to the latest economic, social, and sectoral data onsub-Saharan Africa.<http://www.worldbank.org/aftdr/connect/connect.htm>The Bank also provides the Sector Knowledge Management System,which captures, synthesizes and disseminates knowledge ofdevelopment practices and lessons learned from experiences on theground in Africa< http : / / w w w . worldbank. org/html/extdr/af r. htm >

20Utilization of Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Education in Africa

BarriersThe uevelopment of African connectivity and information andcommunication technologies CICTsl also faces a number of problemsand barriers. The cost of systems and the need for managementCtechnica' and administrative] remain the major challenges facing thedevelopment of African connectivity. Technical costs not only residein hardware. "System running costs can become prohibitive in anAfrican environment when a node must handle the rising tide of

"unsolicited" e-mail usually associated with Internetinter-connection", says Karen Banks of GreenNet/APC [181. Shefurther points out that most local African computer networks arechronically under-financed, under-staffed, and saddled withinappropriate software, and that lack of resources has compelledsome to take a stepped "grassroots" approach to the development ofconnectivity in Africa.IMPLICATIONS F O R UNESCO INTERNATIONALINSTITUTE F O R CAPACITY BUILDING IN AFRICA (IICBA)Internet development is moving fast in northern and southernAfrica. The east and west sub-regions are lagging behind, but thecentral sub-region is the one that is way behind. Internetdevelopment is, in fact, very skewed in favour of South Africa. SouthAfrica is relatively quite advanced, with about 225,000 dial-upaccounts and hosting betweerf700,000 to 800.000 of Africa's 1.2million Internet users. The number of Internet users in Europe and

21Implications for UNESCO International InstituteFor Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA)North America is estimated at around one in six, but in Africa thefigure is one in a thousand. If South Africa is discounted, the figure isone in five thousand. The Institute CIICBA3 should, in partnershipswith other institutes and organizations, explore ways to addresssuch an imbalance between regions and among various sub-regionswithin Africa.Distance or open learning is expanding worldwide. There is also anew interest in nonformal education. Information andcommunications technology for development now includes a widearray of nonformal education and training programmes. This is agrowing trend that is energized by education's capacity to fostersocial change and development. Another remarkable development isthat telecentre activities and programmes are expanding, gradually insome places, and at a remarkably faster rate, in others. These arevaluable resources established, in many cases, under both the publicand private, governmental and non-governmental partnerships.Better and innovative ways should be found to utilize them foreducational purposes. W e need to seize this momentum. At thesame time, there are various uncertainties that are overshadowingsuch efforts and the gap between the rich and poor countries andsegments of African societies is widening further. The Instituteshould make consistent efforts to conduct needed research aimed atopening new avenues of understanding of such problems andchallenges. Meanwhile, it would be useful to explore how informationand communications activity centres or telecentres can be used tohelp promote activities related to curriculum development, teachereducation, educational policy, planning and management, anddistance education.22Strategies for the Utilization of ElectronicAnd Communications TechnologySTRATEGIES FOR THE UTILIZATION OFELECTRONIC AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGYStrategies for the utilization or application of electronic andcommunications technology in various dimensions of education forman integral part of the overall educational strategy of IICBA. In thissense, the specific strategies described below are an integralcomponent of the IICBA's overall strategic policy framework. TheInstitute's overall strategic policy framework focuses on:• Addressing the educational, technical and professional needs ofmember states.• Providing a forum for the sharing of both positive and negativeexperiences so as to enable institutions and education systemsto benefit from work done by sister bodies.

• Bringing the latest research and development in Africa andglobally to institutions in Africa.• Enhancing the capacities of regional, national and local levelinstitutions.• Providing the opportunity for technological improvements, suchas utilization of electronic media for networking and foreducational purposes.One of the biggest problems in the majority of educationalinstitutions in Africa today is the lack of resource materials, inparticular the lack of library facilities. Many university libraries areunable to purchase the latest books and journals because of a seriousshortage of funds. As a result, students, researchers and lecturersmay well be seriously out of touch with the latest developments in23Utilization of Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Education in Africatheir fields. At primary and secondary school level, many classesfunction with the minimum of resources, often with only one or twotextbooks in a class. This serious deficit can today be tackled throughthe utilization of radio, audio cassettes, television, videos, diskettesand C D roms, which offer a low cost but high impact way of providingeducational materials to many learners who are presently deprived ofsuch facilities. IICBA's electronic library programme already seeks toovercome this deficit.The overall strategic framework of IICBA includes the clause"providing the opportunity for technological improvements" that isdirectly related to the theme of this report. Intimately linked to thisframework are the following strategies focused on the four vital areasof our concern—teacher education, curriculum development, distanceeducation, and educational policy, planning and management.

STRATEGY FOR UTILIZATION OFTECHNOLOGY IN TEACHER EDUCATIONThe Institute has already begun setting up its Teacher EducationNetwork [hereafter called Network], a network of teacher traininginstitutions in Africa utilizing where possible electronic media,including internet. A group of nine countries has already beenselected in Phase I of this programme. An inauguration workshopwas held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in October, 1999. The Networkrecognizes the importance of the improvement of teachers' academicand professional skills, their teaching methodologies and theircontribution to the improvement of educational systems. It also24Strategy for Utilization of TechnologyIn Teacher Educationspelis out the need for uniting teacher education institutions Africawide to each other and to key institutions internationally.The strategy suggested below takes into account this and otherencouraging developments which have taken place in teachereducation area recently. Elements of the specific strategy fortechnology use in teacher education are:aJThe Institute must have a technology network that is capableof handling high volume work with high levels of efficiency. Itmust match the nature, extent and networking needs of theInstitute's various programmes and activities.blThe Institute should make strong efforts to build or develop acomprehensive education sector database, preferably inpartnership with groups such as the Africa Live Database atthe World Bank and U N E S C O Divisions responsible formaintaining education sector database related to Africa.Various international databases contain a large pool ofmacro-economic and sectoral data. The education sector datacover, in most cases, student enrollment by age, level andgender. Data on other vital educational performance indicatorssuch as teachers [their education level), money allocated to

education, library facility and many other education indicatorsare conspicuously lacking. Organized data and information onnonformal education is hardly available anywhere. Necessarysteps must be taken in this direction. The Institute can, inpartnership, collaboration or cooperation with other agencies,contribute something of historic significance in both formal andnonformal education areas. And the work that involves updating

25Utilization of Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Education in Africaand maintaining such a databasets) can form an integral part ofthe Institute's research and development activity.c)Proper mechanisms or pilot projects should be initiated ordeveloped to encourage teachers and teacher educators to useor find innovative ways of using, where and when available,telecentres or community communications centres forteaching and learning purposes. For example, one way couldinvolve arrangements of teachers or teacher educators' timelyget-together programs to discuss and explore innovative waysof acquiring and using technology for teaching and learningpurposes. Such meetings can provide valuable insight into theproblem at hand.d]Provisions should be established to make distance teachereducation or learning courses available in partnership with theAfrican Virtual University, UNISA, the British Open University,the Cambridge Extension College, the Indira Gandhi OpenUniversity and reputable institutions from both the North andSouth.eJAIso, initiatives should be taken to create an environment,which facilitates innovative ways of using new electronic andcommunications technologies for expanding teacher educationunder the Network. For example, where access to electronicnetwork or facility is unavailable, one way would be to facilitateteachers network through the use of facilitators whose job willbe to carry messages containing teachers' perspectives,ideas, etc., on a routine basis. The Network can act as asource/provider of information and knowledge that are relevant

26Strategy for Utilization of TechnologyIn Teacher Educationand which can help fulfil many different needs felt by teachers ineducational institutions. Even newsletters and radio programscan be used to reach teachers who are participating in theNetwork from distant or remote locations.fIThe "persistent inability of education in general and schools inparticular to keep pace with the advances in informationtechnologies" [19] is an important issue. A mixed mode thatcombines features of both electronic and traditional networkcan serve the purpose well, enabling classrooms to accessresources outside their immediate milieus through electronicmeans. Moreover the cost of electronic networking is likely todecrease considerably, making the technology cheaper andmore easily accessible. W e should plan, prepare and act basedon the proven fact that one of the key features of today'selectronic and communications technology is the continuing fallin charges.

STRATEGY FOR UTILIZATION OF TECHNOLOGYIN CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENTIICBA's plan to establish a Curriculum Development Network inAfrica aims at serving a number of vital functions in the developmentof curriculum that is time-sensitive and desperately needed in thenew development context. Transforming traditional, outmodedcurriculum is not something that can be achieved easily in that such

an activity calls for a complex procedure involving the cooperation ofmany different government agencies, education departments and27Utilization of Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Education in Africaothers. Elements of the specific strategy for technology use incurriculum development are:a)IICBA should, through the proposed Curriculum DevelopmentNetwork, onduct a general evaluation of various activitiesconcerning curriculum development in a select group of Africancountries.tOIICBA should plan to hold both face-to-face and electronicdiscussions, including a list-serve-based discussion periodicallyto increase interaction and exchange of views focused,particularly on the problems associated with curriculum inscience, mathematics, technology and language, with specialemphasis on distance learning or other technology-basedprogrammes.cDThe recently announced WorldSpace broadcast programme has,it is reported, plans to deliver a wide variety of programmesrelated to, among others, educational, medical and religiousinformation. It is said that international and regional contentproviders will ensure that listeners have access to news andeducational programming content, and that a multimediaservice will be offered in the near future which will bring users avariety of content to their desktop computers. IICBA shouldexplore, in addition to the visual data transfer capabilities ofsuch a carrier for use with computers, the possibility ofdeveloping curriculum appropriate for our educational purposesvia this channel.28Strategy for Utilization of TechnologyIn currriculum Developmentd)Special training programmes should be devised andimplemented for teacher educators and facilitators Cwho assistdistance teachers at places such as satellite downlink sites] aswell ar learners who will have to operate at the interfacebetween curriculum and new technology. Such training will benecessary because, as new technologies such as computersand communications satellites open up new vistas fortransmitting educational and learning programmes, curriculumand methods of teaching and learning will have to adapt to thesenew innovations and programming in order to be effective. N ewdevelopments are already taking place in content and curriculumdevelopment and more will follow in future.elAttention should, at least, be focused on encouraging the use ofcomputer-aided instruction (CAIJ, where the computer becomesan auxiliary to the teacher or the printed teaching materials.Most African settings are, as can be imagined, still far from theStage of computer-based instruction CCBIÏ, where the computeris used to deliver instruction, or the stage of training in skillssuch as word-processing, spread-sheeting and databasemanagement, where the computer turns into a productive tool.flProper mechanisms or pilot projects should be initiated ordeveloped to encourage teachers or teacher educators to useor find innovative ways of using, where and when available,telecentres or community communications centres foraccessing information and knowledge about curriculumdevelopment in African and other developing country settings.

29Utilization of Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Education in AfricaSTRATEGY FOR THE UTILIZATION OF

TECHNOLOGY IH DISTANCE EDUCATIONIICBA's plan to establish a Distance Education Network [hereaftercalled Network] in Africa aims at serving, like the CurriculumDevelopment Network, a number of important functions in thedevelopment of distance and open learning in Africa. Elements of thespecific strategy for technology use in distance education are:aillCBA should plan to hold both face-to-face and electronicdiscussions, including a list-serve-based discussion periodically,to increase interaction and exchange of views focused,particularly on the potentials as well as serious problems andchallenges associated with distance education and othertechnology-based programmes.MSpecial training programmes should be devised andimplemented for teacher educators and facilitators as well aslearners who will have to operate at the interface between newcommunications media-based instruction, the body of latestthoughts and developments in a specific discipline or subjectand technology. New technologies such as computers andcommunications satellites require that methods of teachingand learning adapt to these new innovations in educationalprogramming in order to be effective. Additionally, low-costtechnologies such as the audiocassette and printed materialsshould continue, where and when appropriate, to be part of thedistance learning process.30Strategy for the Utilization of TechnologyIn Distance Educationc)Efforts must be made to explore the educational potential usingWorldSpace and other new broadcast system. IICBA canbenefit from WorldSpace's visual data transfer andtele-educational capabilitiesd)IICBA should, through the Distance Education Network,conduct a general evaluation of various activities concerning thenew technology use and distance education in a select group ofAfrican countries.eJProper mechanisms or pilot projects should be developed toencourage teachers or teacher educators to use or findinnovative ways of using, where and when available, telecentresor community communications centres or any other electronicand communications facility for taking courses at a distance andfor accessing needed information and knowledge.fISpecific modalities or mechanisms for partnerships with theAfrican Virtual University and other institutions from the Northand South should be designed and developed to provide Africanstudents with the opportunity to learn what they want andwhat is needed most for African development.STRATEGY FOR UTILIZATION OF TECHNOLOGY INEDUCATIONAL POLICY, PLANNING AND MANAGEMENTThe Institute's plan to establish an Educational Policy, Planningand Management Network thereafter called Network] in Africa nextyear aims at serving, like the other Networks related to Teacher31Utilization of Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Education in AfricaEducation, Curriculum Development, and Distance Education, anumber of key functions in the building of African capacity. Elementsof the specific strategy for technology use in educational policy,planning and management are:aJMatters concerned with educational policy, planning andmanagement require reliable and well-organized data andinformation. IICBA should make strong efforts to build ordevelop a comprehensive education sector database, preferablyin partnership with groups such as the Africa Live Database at

the World Bank and U N E S C O Divisions responsible for Africa.Various international databases contain a large pool ofmacro-economic and sectoral data. The education sector datacover, in most cases, student enrollment by age, level andgender. Data on other vital educational performance indicatorssuch as teachers [their education level], money allocated toeducation, library facilities and many other indicators areseriously lacking. IICBA can, in partnership, collaboration orcooperation with other agencies, contribute significantly byproviding data useful for educational policy making, planning andmanagement.bJEducation, training and learning is a life-long process. This is animportant consideration from the point of view of policystrategy. Proper mechanisms or pilot projects should beinitiated or developed to encourage policy makers, planners andmanagers who belong to various levels of administrative andfunctional chains to use or find innovative ways of usingtechnology training centres or laboratories for learningpurposes. Mechanisms must be in place to help policy makers

32Strategy for Utilization of Technology inEducational Policy, Planing and Managementand planners learn about the benefits, costs ar challenges oftechnology-based education and training.cîSuch projects or mechanisms can provide planners and policymakers with valuable insight into problems associated withtechnology use and development.d)IICBA should, through the proposed Educational Policy, Planningand Management Network, make available information on thelatest research and development in this area.e)IICBA should, in collaboration with other institutions, devisecourses in educational planning linked to economic and otherforms of development.flllCBA should plan to hold' both face-to-face and electronicdiscussions, including a list-serve-based discussion periodicallyto increase interaction, and exchange of views. This shouldfocus particularly. on the problems influencing variousdimensions of educational policy, planning and management inthe Information Age.g)The Network must encourage policy and measures towardsimproved education at all ages and especially expansion ofsecondary and higher education, and vocational training viadistance learning.hJThe Network should devise ways to encourage the participationof education institutions in developing proper policy and33Utilization of Information and CommunicationsTechnology for Education in Africaregulatory environment that facilitates greater use oftelecommunications for educational development.ConclusionToday's technology world is increasingly dominated by the Internet.Educational and learning programs, like many other activities, canbenefit tremendously from Internet's open architecture and itsunique multimedia and other capabilities. These and new technicaladvances are destined to play a key role in transforming education,commerce and the broad range of other human activities in bothindustrialized and developing countries. Ironically, if the current crisisin education continues without strong capacity building measures,the impact in poor and low-income countries in particular, can bedevastating. New technologies, which can be used to reverse thetraditional trend, can also be used to perpetuate the currentdisparity. Issues related to technology utilization strategy should

receive highest consideration. Careful analysis of various technologychoices and options are necessary to create maximum impact andbenefit for many. In conclusion, despite some problems confrontingthe continent, great possibilities still lie ahead.34ReferencesReferences[1] Coombs, P.H. Í19683. The educational crisis: A systemsanalysis. Oxford: New York.[2] Coombs, P.H. (19853. The world crisis in education. Oxford:New York.[3] OAU Conference of African Ministers of Education. (1999J.Programme of Action of the Decade of Education in Africa. OAU:Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.[43 Yapi, A. C1997). The relevance of technology in developingcountries. UNESCO-Africa, 14/14, 43-53.[5] Potashnik, M. and Capper, J. C1998). Distance education:Growth and diversity. Finance and DevelopmentfMarch 1998. TheWorld Bank: Washington D.C.[ß] Chung, F. (1999). Capacity building spotlight: ZINTECprogramme for primary school teacher: IICBA Newsletter,October 1999.

35References[7] Nwaboku, N.C. [1997], New information technologies ineducation and new roles for potential teachers. UNESCO-Africa15/15, 30-37.[8] World Ban.: [1995]. Priorities and strategies for education.Washington, D. C.[9] [http://www.school.za/schoolnet.html[10] http://www.bellanet.org/partners/aisi[11] http://www.wn.apc.org/[12] UNESCO [1997], Review of UNESCO's activities in Africa[1996-1997], Africa Priority Department.[13] http://www.idrc.ca[14] http://www.bellanet.org[15] <http://www.iisd.ca/linkages.htm[1 B]http://www. worldbank. org/aftdr/connect/connect. htm[17] http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/afr.htm[18] http://www.wn.apc.org/[19] Ochao, M . L and Henao, B. M . [1997). Can networks help tomodernize schooling? The Tourna Rural Research Network(Colombia)

36

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Teachers

UNESCO estimates that 18m new teachers are needed globally between now and

2015 to accommodate all children at school in classes of no more than 40 children

per teacher. Sub-Saharan African will need 2.4m new teachers. This calls for massive

new investments, but it is clear that such growth in spending is unlikely to be

achieved according to reseach by ActionAid entitled Confronting the contradictions:

The IMF wage bill caps and the case for teachers. Despite compelling evidence that

education is a sound long-term investment for a country, the IMF regards spending

on education as simply ‘consumption’ and not as ‘productive investment’ and

therefore education spending, especially on wages, is always curtailed. The

researchers argue that in setting these wage bill caps, rising school enrolment rates

should be taken into consideration.

Policy developments

In her budget speech, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said the continued failures of

some teachers and education officials could no longer be blamed on apartheid or

insufficient resources and that levels of under-performance in the education system

were too high and an unjust subversion of the promise of freedom and democracy, to

our people. After referring to ‘reported failures in our execution of the no-fee schools

policy the minister also said ‘the time have arrived for SA to offer all children free

primary education’. Free primary education is also one of the issues to be discussed

at the ANC policy conference at Gallagher Estate this month.

Minister of science and technology, Mosibudi Mangena, announced in his budget

speech that some R323m would be spent on development programmes to encourage

careers in the ‘critical’ human resources shortages in science, engineering and

technology (SET). His department also allocated R178m to provide modern research

facilities and infrastructure for the research community. The minister said his

department and the National Advisory Councils on Innovation have compiled a

comprehensive report on the infrastructure requirements of both science and

innovation, which is toform the basis of a long-term infrastructure plan for science

and technology.

Libraries and reference material

A novel programme aimed at installing a reading habit among low-income

communities was recently launched in Argentina. The ‘Books and Houses’ campaign

plans to distribute a total of 80 000 bookshelves, each complete with 18 volumes of

books, to individual households in 800 districts and towns around the country. The

books were carefully selected by a team of experts in education and literature, and

although the central goal of the new programme is to make books available to

children in order to help them acquire a reading habit, the volumes that were chosen

are for the entire family. The programme began by delivering bookshelves to 70

homes in Anatuya, where 27% of the local residents have either no formal schooling

or did not complete primary education. The next area to be targeted is the Buenos

Aires suburb San Isidro, where affluent neighbourhoods coexist alongside six slums

that are being upgraded with new low-cost housing.

Volunteers at the English Wikipedia and SOS Children have launched the 15 volume

Wikipedia Selection for Schools consisting of articles that have been cleaned up and

checked for suitability for children, avoiding adult content as well as extra material

specifically selected to be of interest to children who follow the UK National

Curriculum and similar curricula elsewhere in the world.

Wikimedia Foundation chairperson said the foundation aims to encourage the

development and distribution of reference content to the public free of charge. It is

intended to extend and update the selection periodically.

Corruption and crime

A new report, Corrupt shools, corrupt universities: What can be done? by the United

Nations

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), traces illegal registration

fees, academic fraud, embezzlement and other problems which are undermining

education systems in more than 60 countries, with information derived from

government ministries, development agencies and research institutes. The report

notesthat bribes and payoffs in the recruitment and promotion of teachers lowers

their quality, and illegal fees paid for school entrance and other hidden costs result in

low enrolment and high dropout rates. In universities most corruption is in the form

of fake universities offering bogus degrees and engaging in accreditation fraud. The

number of phony universities offering sham degrees quadrupled from 200 to 800 on

the Internet between 2000 and 2004.

The study argues that leadership and political will at the highest levels of

government is crucial to combat this. Transparent regulatory systems and stronger

management efforts to bring about greater accountability are among the

improvements necessary for corruption in education systems to abate. The report

recommended that management, accounting, monitoring and audit skills are crucial

for such groups as administrative staff of schools, parent-teacher associations, unions

and other individuals associated with the educational process.

The past month has seen numerous attacks on pupils by fellow pupils while three

pupils died in violent attacks by classmates.

Open, distance and flexible learning (ODFL) tackles HIV/AIDS

According to research by the UK Institute of Education, ‘business as usual’ will not

meet the education challenges of the HIV epidemic in South Africa and Mozambique,

but open, distance and flexible learning (ODFL) can reduce the effects of HIV on

young people. ODFL has the potential to increase access to education; improve

quality of schooling (and thereby child survival and family health); raise public

awareness and advocacy for health initiatives; and spread health information and

encourage health behaviour. The study found that HIV/AIDS-afffected young people

need more opportunity to develop literacy skills and undertake vocational training.

They are most easily reached by radio and particularly like to learn through music,

drama and stories. The study recommends using ODFL to:

deliver the national curriculum to those out of school;

promote critical thinking, positive group identity and solidarity among young

people;

develop, coordinate and disseminate the knowledge base on HIV/AIDS at the

national level;

improve teachers’ ability to empathise with young people affected by HIV/AIDS

and provide psychosocial guidance and counselling; and

give young heads of households access to information, psychosocial support,

training on business skills and careers counselling.

Mathematics and science

The DoE has backed out of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies

(TIMMS), an international maths and science exam conducted every four years to

measure pupils’ performance in maths and science globally, because it did not want

to subject pupils to too many tests. South African pupils came last in the two most

recent TIMMS conducted in 1999 and 2003. Vishnu Naidoo, chairman of the SA

Mathematics Foundation described the country’s pullout as sad. ‘Even though we

may perform poorly, these are indicators that serve to inform us about our

curriculum and what adjustments we should be making’.

SA technology and training company IT School Innovation has launched an

educational tool MOBI which turns mobile phones into edutainment devices by

allowing users to chat and listen to the latest music hits while learning the high

school maths syllabus. The service is available in English and Afrikaans and other

subjects such as physics and chemistry are in the pipeline. MOBI runs on most Java

enabled handsets and can be downloaded and installed for free. Once installed the

application is able to connect to an online server via a mobile wireless protocol such

as 3G or GPRS and provide access to MOBI Maths, MOBI Chat and MOBI Radio. Full

use of MOBI Maths is charged at a nominal monthly fee, while some sections such as

Basic Skills are free.

Database launched

The department of science and technology (DST) recently launched a database that

quantifies and monitors the levels of unemployment among science, engineering and

technology graduates. The database will be managed by the South African Graduate

Development Association, an NGO that empowers unemployed graduates. It will be

used by job seekers, employers, candidates for postgraduate studies, institutions of

higher learning and other stakeholders to improve the rate of human capital

development, especially in science, engineering and technology. According to

science and technology minister Mosibudi Mangena, SA has a considerable skills

mismatch retarding the country’s economic growth and competitiveness. ‘I have no

doubt that what we are engaged in today is a step in the right direction to closing the

gap between the skills shortage and the skills mismatch’. The minister also

announced that the lion’s share of the DST’s medium-term budget (some R323m)

would be spent on human capital development programmes to encourage careers in

science, engineering and technology.

E-learning

The 2nd international e-Learning Africa conference that seeks to help mainstream

technology in education to serve the population was held in Nairobi in May. Topics

ranged from the use of cellphones as education tools to the training of civil servants

through distance education and the role of e-learning in HIV/AIDS awareness and

prevention. Experts said computer-based learning has created opportunities for many

who would otherwise have been overlooked. The Electronic Schools Project aimed at

creating digital centres in schools throughout Africa is set to grow, following the

successful outcome of a pilot study which implemented the project in 120 schools in

16 African countries. The pilot study recorded a 35% improvement in students’

examination performance in places where electronic schools (e-schools) are

operational. The primary goal of the e-schools project in Africa, led by NEPAD and

supported by Smart Technologies, Hewlett Packard, Nokia and Microsoft, is to have

600 000 schools on the continent imparting ICT skills to their students within 10

years of implementation. Smart Technologies have already donated 50 ‘smartboards’

– electronic blackboards that enable teachers to communicate information to

hundreds of students at a time – to help the project in Kenya, Rwanda and SA.

According to Smart Technologies, the success of the project depends on the speed at

which teachers can be trained to adopt and use the new technology. The project also

faces challenges such as lack of infrastructure, especially in rural areas, lack of

physical security and difficulties involved in managing a consortium of private sector

partners.

Poverty and malnutrition

A study by the University College of London, the London School of Hygiene and

Tropical Medicine and an international group of academics which assessed the links

between poverty, stunted growth – often caused by ill health and malnutrition – and

low achievement at school, has found that more than 200m children under five years

in developing countries are not achieving their full potential.

They do badly at school and have low productivity in adulthood, and as a result they

pass on poverty and deprivation to future generations. The researchers found that:

many mothers in poor families were uneducated, suffered from stress and

depression and were unable to provide a stimulating home environment;

poor children often attended inadequate schools and had little support from

family members who did not appreciate the benefits of education;

stunted children were less likely to be enrolled in school and if they did go to

school, they were more likely to enrol late, get lower grades and have a low IQ for

their age; and

stunted children were less likely to have completed their primary education.

The study found a strong link between school success and economic prosperity: each

year of schooling increases adult wages by almost 10%.

Skills survey

A Centre for Development and Enterprise survey, The South African skills crisis: A

report from the corporate coal face, revealed that SA’s businesses had few positive

things to say about the schooling system in SA. For instance:

private sector employers have ‘grave reservations’ about the overall quality of

education in SA;

they saw a decline in school leavers’ abilities in maths, science and especially

language skills;

there was ‘no work ethic’, there was a lack of discipline and culture of learning,

and learners lacked the ability to be trained;

dealings with SETAs were cumbersome and assessors were poorly trained;

there were uneven standards between universities; and

skills issues were their greatest single source of frustration.

According to the survey findings the skills shortage was worsening as a result of the

brain drain, the aging of skilled staff or their promotion to more senior positions, and

government’s emphasis on employment equity.

The report recommends that an improved apprenticeship be instated, immigration be

opened up as a short-term solution and that government should moderate its

pressure for employment equity.

Education Trends is compiled by the Institute for Futures Research.

This Work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License

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Understanding ICT integration in South African Classrooms

Wilson-Strydom, M and Thomson, J

The adoption of ICTs in education continues to pose challenges both globally (John &

Sutherland 2004) and locally, in South Africa (Hodgkinson-Williams 2005). According

to the White Paper on e-Education these challenges can be summarised into three main

areas:

Participation in the information society;

Impact of ICTs on access, cost effectiveness and quality of education; and

Integration of ICTs into the learning and teaching process (DoE 2003:8)

[emphasis added].

The Department of Education (DoE) stipulates that participation in the information

society means that, “Every South African learner in the general and further education and

training bands will be ICT capable (that is, use ICTs confidently and creatively to help

develop the skills and knowledge they need to achieve personal goals and to be full

participants in the global community) by 2013” (DoE, 2003, 17). Full participation in the

information society is enabled by successful e-education, which, according to the DoE

(2003) incorporates learner-centred pedagogy, inquiry-based learning, collaborative work

and the development of higher level thinking skills. For these reasons and to achieve

other policy goals reflected in the White Paper, the adoption of ICTs in schools generally

(for administration and management systems) and the integration of ICTs into teaching

and learning practices specifically is being encouraged.

This paper reports on a project which aims to support teachers’ integration of ICTs into

the classroom and specifically into pedagogical practices. The research reported on here

is drawn from a survey of 231 teachers. The paper reports on both the stages and the

types of integration observed.

The paper begins by conceptualising the adoption of ICTs into classroom and the

integration of ICTs into pedagogical practices. It then describes the Intel® Innovation in

Education Teach to the Future programme which seeks to support ICT integration into

teaching and learning. It moves onto to explaining the research process, which sets out to

ascertain:

The extent of access teachers have to ICT, and the role access plays in relation

to use;

The extent to which teachers have learners use ICT as part of their lessons;

Teachers’ reasons for not integrating ICT into the curriculum

Teachers’ perceptions of learner responses to the use of ICT; and

Teachers’ perceptions of changes in their pedagogical practices.

Finally, the paper discusses the findings in the light of the specific questions as well as in

terms of broader considerations around the adoption and integration of computers.

Conceptualising adoption and integration

It is our contention that the concept of integration as expressed in the the White paper on

e-education (DoE 2003) needs to be unpacked or problematised. In practice, the adoption

and integration of computers is a challenging and complex process for schools,

particularly where there is limited previous experience in the use of ICTs to support

teaching and learning. Furthermore, at many schools that have had access to ICTs, the

focus has tended to be on ‘learning about ICTs’ rather than learning with or through the

use of ICTs (Jonassen, Peck & Wilson 1999).

Historically, the concept of ICT integration as an approach evolved as a reaction to early

computer-in-schools programmes where the emphasis lay on developing computer

literacy or technical knowledge of computers and the use of various computer

applications. More recently ICT integration has been recognised as “using computers to

learn, rather than learning to use computers” (UNESCO/COL, 2004, 45). Thus the focus

is on adding value to the curriculum in numerous ways1, What is important is that ICT

skills are not taught as a distinct activity (“just-in-case”), but are acquired “just-in-time,”

in the context of activity that is meaningful to learners” (UNESCO/COL, 2004, p.45).

Indeed, “the integrated approach places information technology in a pivotal role in the

already transforming learning process. Its success as an approach lies with the ability of

teachers to set tasks that require learners to use these information skills. This is

appropriate and necessary at this time when South African teachers are being encouraged

to adopt new teaching strategies that are outcomes based and learner-centered” (Roos,

2005, p. 21).

We suggest that integration can be described in two ways. The first way relates to the

stages of integration and is closely associated with adoption. The second way relates to

the type or kind of integration and is closely associated with use. We argue that particular

stages of integration are more likely to be associated with specific integrative uses.

Those authors who see the integration of ICT into teaching and learning as part of the

broader issue of the adoption of computers within the school as a whole, valuably provide

ways of describing the steps likely to be taken at school and educator level. A report on

ICT curriculum and teacher development for schools (UNESCO 2002) suggests a four-

stage continuum of ICT integration. These are:

• “Emerging

1 These include: Using generic software packages (office applications, graphics and presentation packages); using specialist software for interactive learning, simulations and content mastery; using asynchronous and synchronous communication tools for online collaboration and information exchange (e-mail, Web forums, instant messaging, audio- and videoconferencing); and using the Internet as an information and research resource.

Schools at the beginning stages of ICT development demonstrate the emerging

approach. Such schools begin to purchase, or have donated, some computing

equipment and software. In this initial phase, administrators, and teachers are just

starting to explore the possibilities and consequences of using ICT for school

management and adding ICT to the curriculum … Schools at this emerging phase are

still firmly grounded in traditional, teacher-centred practice.

• Applying

Those schools in which a new understanding of the contribution of ICT to learning has

developed exemplify the applying approach. In this secondary phase, administrators

and teachers use ICT for tasks already carried out in school management and in the

curriculum. Teachers largely dominate the learning environment.

• Infusing

At the next stage, the infusing approach involves integrating or embedding ICT across

the curriculum, and is seen in those schools that now employ a range of computer-

based technologies in laboratories, classrooms, and administrative offices. Teachers

explore new ways in which ICT changes their personal productivity and professional

practice.

• Transforming

Schools that use ICT to rethink and renew school organization in creative ways are at

the transforming approach. ICT becomes an integral though invisible part of daily

personal productivity and professional practice…ICT is taught as a separate subject at

the professional level and is incorporated into all vocational areas. Schools have

become centres of learning for their communities” (UNESCO, 2000, p. 15-16).

In addition to describing stages of integration, we think it valuable to differentiate

between types of integration. Here, we find it useful to distinguish between

“representational” and “generative” use of computers, as explained by Hokanson and

Hooper (2000). The term “representational use” is used to describe how computers are

used to merely represent information in another medium. Here the computer is

incorporated within a task, but its purpose it to “re-present” information, not to generate

or construct new information. We suggest that the underlying epistemological assumption

of Hokanson and Hooper’s (2000) “representational use” is that knowledge is absolute,

definable and “re-presentable”. Our thesis is that if teachers’ epistemological assumptions

are defined by objectivist beliefs of knowledge and their pedagogical practices are

informed by behaviourist theories of learning, then they are likely to limit the use of

computers to representational uses. This might account for teachers’ beliefs that merely

typing an essay or making a pretty front cover using every conceivable font and page

border can be termed “integration”. Therefore we maintain that using ICTs as a

“representational tool” is only partly integrative.

By contrast:

“What is important about computer use is not being able to word process, or view

a multimedia presentation, but the ability to interact with the computer in the

manipulation and creation of knowledge through the rapid manipulation of

various symbol systems. The value is not in more efficient representation but in

improving the capability to generate thought” (Hokanson & Hooper 2000:547).

This concept of “generative use” appears to be underpinned by a Piagetian cognitive

constructivist view of knowledge and learning which assumes that knowledge is not a

product that can be transmitted from one person to another, but is a process of

individually constructing knowledge. Jonassen and Reeves (1996) use the term

“cognitive tools” to refer to the role of ICTs in enhancing the learners’ cognitive powers

during thinking, problem-solving and learning. We maintain that if teachers’

epistemological assumptions are defined by constructivist beliefs of knowledge and their

pedagogical practice are informed by cognitive constructivist theories of learning, then

they are likely to extend the use of computers to generative uses. This might account for

teachers’ beliefs that computers can be “integrated” into the curriculum to support

learners’ individual development. We suggest that using ICTs as a “cognitive tool” can

be seen as individually integrative.

The concept of “generative use” may also be extended to a Vygotskian socio-

constructivist view of knowledge and learning which assumes that knowledge cannot be

limited to an individual’s view of it, but is instead a process of negotiation of meaning in

a specific context. By “continuously (re) constructing and refining knowledge on the

basis of their experience and opportunities for inter-subjective exchange, learners [or

teachers will] bring prior understandings to bear in individual ways on new information

and situations” (Levy et al. 2003: 304). In this sense computers can operate as

“mediational tools” (Wertch, 1991; Lim 2003), which we argue is socially integrative.

This conceptual categorisation may be helpful in trying to understand what and why

teachers, and indeed learners, understand by the term “integration”.

We suggest that at the “Emerging” and “Applying” stages of adoption computer

integration is partial and the predominant use of ICT would be representational – that is

representing information in another medium. We suggest that learners are more likely to

be learning about computers than learning with or through computers (Jonassen, Peck &

Wilson 1999) during these two stages. We further speculate that at the “Infusing” stage

teachers’ use of ICT becomes more generative as they start using ICTs to “generate

thought” (Hokanson & Hooper 2000) and that this generative use of ICTs is extended to

learners in the “Transforming” stage. At this stage ICTs would hopefully both

individually and socially integrative.

The project: The Intel® Innovation in Education Teach to the Future programme

Launched in 2000, Intel® Teach to the Future is an international project aimed at helping

teachers integrate technology into their classrooms in order to enhance student learning.

Originally launched in the United States and now used in 33 countries world-wide, Intel®

Teach to the Future is characterized by its emphasis on pedagogy, a commitment

captured by Intel President, Dr. Craig Barrett’s comment that “computers aren’t magic,

teachers are” (Barrett, 2000). The South African programme was launched in 2003. The

goal of the Intel® Teach to the Future programme in South Africa is articulated as

follows:

To train classroom educators how to promote project-based learning and

effectively integrate the use of computers into Curriculum 2005 and

Revised National Curriculum Statements so that learners will increase

their learning achievement (Intel® Teach to the Future Training Manual,

3.3, p.1).

The programme consists of ten modules of at least four hours each that focus on the

effective integration of ICT into the curriculum through use of the project approach to

learning. The emphasis is on hands-on learning and uses the educators’ own teaching

units to work through all aspects of a project of their own choice, including assessment

and development of a library of rubrics. This provides an authentic context for learning.

Educators work in teams, problem solve and engage in peer reviews throughout the

programme. The overall aim is to explore ways learners and educators can use

technology to enhance learning. This approach makes the project accessible to teachers

with a range of computer experience with advanced teachers being able to maximize

opportunities for cross-curricular planning.

Intel® Teach to the Future has been adopted by a number of universities as an ICT

component of both pre-service and in-service programmes. The curriculum for South

Africa was initially localised by the University of Pretoria and thereafter refined by

SchoolNet South Africa. The programme is aligned to the South African National

Curriculum Statements, is endorsed by the South African Council for Educators (SACE)

and is supported by the National Department of Education.

The research

Evaluation research has been a key component of the Intel®Teach to the Future

programme, since its inception. It has included a series of case studies at a sample of

participating schools, as well as a quantitative survey administered annually. Here we

report on the results of a quantitative survey conducted during October 2004. The survey

instrument used was a standard questionnaire developed for the Intel® Teach to the

Future project, adapted to reflect country-specific contexts, and administered annually in

all countries implementing the Intel® Teach to the Future programme. The survey2 was

administered online, although some schools requested hard copies of surveys due to

Internet access problems. By October 2004 a total of 1078 educators in South Africa had

completed Intel® Teach to the Future training (as recorded in the programme

management database). Surveys were sent to all 1078 educators and atotal of 231

responses were received. The response rate was thus 21%. This is lower than desirable,

but given the dearth of empirical data on ICT integration in South Africa, a data set of

231 responses provides a useful sample with which to begin to unpack factors affecting

ICT integration at the classroom level. Descriptive statistics and frequency counts were

generated using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) programme.

The survey sample was made up of 48.5% men and 51.5% women. The majority of the

sample (43%) lived in township areas, with 26% in rural areas and 31% in urban areas.

Of the sample 59% were General Education and Training (GET) educators and 41%

Further Education and Training (FET) educators. The majority of the sample fell into the

30-39 years age category (45%), followed by 36% in the 40-49 years group. The 20-29

years and 50 years and above categories accounted for 9% and 10% of the sample

respectively. The number of years teaching experience was roughly evenly distributed

across the following categories; 0-5 years (15%), 6-10 years (20%), 16-20 years (18%)

and more than 20 years (20%). A slightly higher number of respondents (28%) had

between 11-15 years teaching experience.

Findings and discussion

ICT access and use

In terms of access to computers for teaching and learning, 93% of respondents indicated

that they have computers for this purpose while 7 % of respondents indicated that they do

2 The survey can be accessed at http://teach.schoolnet.org.za/common/impact.php?required=false.

not. This suggests that overall the participating schools are at least at the “Applying”

stage, if not at the “Infusing stage” of the UNESCO model (2000).

A total of 79.1% of the sample reported having a computer laboratory at school, while

20.9% did not. In terms of learner access, this suggests the majority of participating

schools are moving beyond the “Emerging” stage and that the teachers have the

opportunity to operate within the “Applying” or even the “Infusing” stage as the schools

are able to offer opportunities for learners to use ICT.

With respect to Internet access, 63% reported having Internet access in their computer

laboratories, while 37% did not. This suggests that the use of ICTs as “mediational tools”

is possible in the majority of participating schools.

Of the participating schools 80.7% reported that they had no computers available in the

classroom (as opposed to the computer room), 11.2% had one classroom computer

available, while 7.2% had more than seven computers in the classroom. This latter group

appears most likely to be made up of Computer Studies educators or educators who make

use of computer rooms as their classrooms. The lack of reported access to computers in

the classroom seems to suggest that integrating ICT within the learning areas or subjects

may be still quite limited as teachers and learners do not have constant access to ICTs,

indicating an “Emerging” phase.

In the light of the data on access to ICT, we now consider to what extent access

influences the extent to which ICT integration takes place. Figure 1 shows the frequency

of technology-integrated lessons by number of computers in the school for teaching and

learning.

1% 0% 0%

23%

39%

10%

14%

20%

25%

58% 57%

25%

35%32%

29%

33%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

More than once permonth

About once permonth

Less than once permonth

Never

0 computers

1-10 computers

11-20 computers

21 or more computers

Figure 1: Frequency of technology-integrated

lessons by number of computers for teaching and

learning

The most striking finding here is that the teachers who reported to have implemented

technology-integrated lessons about once per month (58%) or less than once per month

(57%) have between 11-20 computers only. Yet, 33% of teachers report that they have

never used technology-integrated lessons even though they have more than 21 computers.

This suggests that increased access to computers alone does not necessarily mean

increased implementation of technology-integrated lessons. In terms of the UNESCO

model, it would seem that there is a possible tension between computer access being at

the “Applying” or “Infusing” stage, while teachers use may be lagging behind at an

“Emerging” stage.

It is interesting to note that 1% of those who implement technology-integrated lessons

more than once per month do not have direct access to computers for teaching and

learning. This is likely to be teachers who make use of a local computer centre.

With respect to influence of Internet access on frequency of implementation it was found

that lack of Internet access appears unlikely to be a reason for lack of implementation of

technology-integrated lessons. However, for those who implemented about once per

month, most had Internet access in the computer laboratory. For those who implement

more than once per month, the difference between those who did and those who did not

have Internet access is much smaller. We might speculate – but as yet do not have data to

support this – that when teachers first start integrating technology, they do so about once

per month and then tend to focus on information-gathering activities using the Internet.

Once technology integration becomes a more integral part of their teaching, then reliance

on the Internet appears to be reduced and a wider range of computer applications used.

This would be an interesting assumption to explore in further research.

Extent of Technology Integration

The core focus of the survey was to assess the extent to which technology-integrated

lessons have been implemented by those who have completed Intel® Teach to the Future

training. Of the sample 48.5% reported that they had learners use technology within their

lessons more than once per month. A further 13.5% used ICTs in teaching and learning

about once per month, while 9.2% used technology in their lessons less than once per

month. In contrast 28.8% of the sample had yet to implement a technology-integrated

lesson. This means that approximately half of the sample have implemented what they

learned in the Intel® Teach to the Future training, which may be reasonable number

given the various contextual constraints at South African schools.

In order to better understand factors affecting ICT integration, it is important that we try

to understand who makes up the 28.8% (66 respondents) who have never implemented a

technology-integrated lesson (those who fell into the ‘never’ category). In order to do this

a descriptive analysis was carried out using available data.

Reasons for lack of integration

Analysis of the 66 respondents who had not implemented a technology-integrated lesson

showed that this group was 59.1% female and 40.9% male. The ratio of female to male is

slightly higher than for the full dataset, but the difference is small. A larger difference

was found when we considered those educators who are in the GET (75.4% of

respondents) and FET (24.6% respondents) bands. Similarly, with respect to geographic

location, we found that 44.3% of those who have never implemented a technology-

integrated lesson live in rural areas, 36.1% in urban areas, and 19.7% in township areas.

A recent study in South Africa has highlighted that facilities at rural schools are likely to

be scarce, class sizes often large, and hence use of ICT for teaching and learning, where

available, more challenging (HSRC and EPC 2005). In terms of the UNESCO model, it

would seem that schools in rural areas are still approaching the “Emerging” stage and

will need a great deal of support to move to the other stages.

In order to further explore the influence of ICT access on the group of educators who

never used technology in their lessons, it is helpful to compare access frequencies for this

group with access frequencies for those in the sample who did implement a technology-

integrated lesson. Frequencies of computer laboratory access, number of computers in the

school for teaching and learning, access to the internet in the computer laboratory, and

frequency of computer laboratory use for each of these groups were calculated.

There was very little difference with respect to the responses of those who did and did not

implement technology-integrated lessons when we consider the availability of a computer

laboratory at the school. Of particular interest is that those who did not implement appear

to have slightly better access to a computer laboratory than those who did. This suggests

that the presence of a computer laboratory is not sufficient to encourage implementation

of technology-integrated lessons. Very similar results are found with respect to Internet

access at the school, with those who do not implement technology-integrated lessons

having slightly better access to the Internet than those who do, although the difference is

again very small. Thus it appears that Internet access at a school is also not a sufficient

condition to influence the implementation of technology-integrated lessons.

Participants were asked in the survey to indicate how often they were able to make use of

the computer laboratory at their school. Clearer differences between the two groups

emerged when we consider regularity of computer laboratory use.

18.3%

65.9%

8.5%2.4% 4.9%

1.6%

20.6%

9.5% 11.1%

57.1%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

daily weekly monthly less than onceper month

never

Regularity of computer useSample - implemented

Sample - did not implement

Figure 2: Regularity of Computer Laboratory Use

From Figure 2 it is evident that 57.1% of those who have not implemented what they

learnt in their training, never use their computer laboratory. A further 42.9% of those

responding with ‘never’ do in fact make use of their computer laboratories, although not

to implement technology-integrated lessons. Cohen (2004, p.164), in a study on ICT in

South African use, found that the ‘most fundamental use being made of the computer in

all the schools was for administration purposes.’ It would seem that “representational

use” of computers is still a dominant use of ICTs at school, which once again suggests

the “Applying” stage of the UNESCO model. The questions included in the survey about

reasons for not implementing new technology-integrated lessons also suggest reasons,

such as lack of access to required software, too little preparation time, and lack of both

administrative and technical support available. Figure 3 provides a summary of responses

given as to why educators had not yet made use of technology in their teaching.

21.7%

44.8%

42.1%

69.6%

69.6%

47.4%

64.9%

69.6%

80.4%

66.7%

69.6%

52.6%

57.9%

52.6%

3.3%

6.9%

14.0%

12.5%

8.9%

28.1%

8.8%

19.6%

12.5%

15.8%

5.4%

10.5%

8.8%

12.3%

75.0%

48.3%

43.9%

17.9%

21.4%

24.6%

26.3%

10.7%

7.1%

17.5%

25.0%

36.8%

33.3%

35.1%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Necessary computers not available

Software not available

No internet connection

Technology-integrated lesson too difficult

Did not consider implementing

Plan to use my lesson by the end of the year

Lesson did not fit my curriculum

Unsatisfied with my lesson

Will not help to meet learning outcomes

Teaching assignment changed

Not confident enough with technology skills

Too little preparation time

Lack of admin support

Lack of technical support

Disagree

No opinion

Agree

Figure 3: Reasons for not implementing technology-

integrated lessons

The most commonly noted reason for not implementing a technology-integrated lesson

was that ‘necessary computers were not available’ (75%). This was particularly so for

educators in schools where large class sizes are common (see also Cohen, 2004; Lundall

& Howell, 2000). Other reasons noted by 30% or more of the sample included:

• Software not available (48.3%);

• No Internet connection (43.9%);

• Too little preparation time (36.8%);

• Lack of technical support (35.1%); and

• Lack of administrative support (33.3%).

Similar trends were found in the data analysis conducted across all countries

implementing Intel® Teach to the Future where 59.4% of the sample agreed with the

statement ‘necessary computers were not available’, 53.2% agreed that they had ‘too little

preparation time’, 47% agreed that they ‘did not have adequate technical support’ and

44.5% agreed that they ‘did not have adequate administrative support’ (Martin & Light,

2004). However, this finding is inconsistent with the data reported on the extent to which

access to computers inflences ICT integration (See Figure 1 and associated discussion).

Further research is needed to explain some of the tensions, one of which seems to be that

while computer access is at least at the “Applying” phase for most of the schools,

teachers may still be operating at the “Emerging” stage.

Learner responses to the use of computers, as reported by teachers

Those respondents who did implement lessons in which they integrated technology in a

new way, were asked a series of questions about their experience of implementing these

lesson and the response of learners to these lessons (Figure 4).

3%

3%

3%

3%

3%

5%

2%

7%

2%

3%

9%

13%

10%

14%

8%

6%

8%

7%

94%

88%

84%

88%

83%

88%

92%

85%

91%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Motivated & actively involved

Worked together

Different learning styles accommodated

Work is more creative

More in-depth understanding

Communicate ideas and opinions

Gave positive feedback

Accommodates different skills level

Help each other

Disagree

No opinion

Agree

Figure 4: Learner responses to technology

integrated lessons

Figure 4 reflects that overall, educators report that learners have responded very

positively to ICT integrated lessons. The three most frequently reported benefits of

technology-integrated lessons were that learners were motivated (94%), gave positive

feedback (92%) and helped each other. This indicates quite a high “mediational” role of

the technology-integrated task and suggests that the learners may be approaching the

“Transforming” stage.

When asked about the challenges that were experienced whilst implementing technology-

integrated lessons the most common responses educators gave included:

• Too few computers (67%);

• Time constraints and hence lesson not completed (62%);

• Learners did not have enough computer skills (61%); and

• Difficulties with scheduling enough time (59%).

Once again the access to computers is being “blamed”by the educators. Further research

does need to attempt to ascertain to what extent the lack of access is really the problem,

or if other aspects are hindering the integration.