The use of ICT for learning: the Ireland experience

Education ICT and the Information Society Agenda in Ireland’s schools

CMEC - OECD - Canada SeminarMontreal, April 28 - 30 2002

Dr Conor GALVINUCD Education Department Dublin

Where we’ve been...

Early 1970s.

DES involvement in courses since 1971. University involvement since 1973.

1980s saw a series of unconnected but innovative school-based IT projects;

Primary Curriculum Unit IT project,Secondary Computer StudiesVocational IT programmes - Euro TecneT

The watershed?

15 December 1994: Netscape Navigator.By mid-1996, millions of people were accessing the Web, thousands of companies were serving it, and the press was writing about it constantly. Berners-Lee (2000: 117)

EU Action plan, 1996-8: Learning in the Information Society.

So, what did Irelandneed mid- to late-1990s?

Imagination: vision: leadership

Time to plan

Significant investment in cutting-edge people and projects.

And what do we get?

And what do we get?

And what do we get?

And what do we get?

And what do we get?

The Full Details

“ Schools IT 2000: A Policy Framework for the New Millennium” (1997)

http://www.ncte.ie/overview.htm

What was Schools IT2000 ?

A four year plan (1997 - 2001) to put in place a permanent schools’ IT infrastructure; seen to involve not just the machinery but also the teacher skills to use it.

The biggest single investment in living memory in any educational initiative in Ireland.

Three core elements

Technology Integration Initiative (TII)

Teaching Skills Initiative (TSI)

School Support Initiative (SSI), incorporating the School Integration Project (SIP), and ScoilNet.

The TII

60,000 multimedia computers in Irish schools by the end of 2001

The NCTE helped schools in building up their ICT equipment infrastructure during the course of the initiative The Telecom machine The purchase grant

The TSI

The development of an ICT skills development programme to ensure teacher progression from novice to expert

IT Skill development for at least 20,000 teachers nationally (and to at least one teacher per school) Phase courses / Front Line Maintenance Primary /second level differences

The SSI - ScoilNet

A Web site to publish Schools IT 2000 advice sheets, guidelines and curriculum materials to assist ICT integration in the classroom. ScoilNet support staff to provide expert advice to schools via e-mail. Curriculum materials to be developed in partnership with educational organisations and teacher groups. Curriculum resources produced by ScoilNet to be made available to every school.

The SSI - SIP

A schools project to lead to the identification of policy, training and support models, pedagogical strategies and classroom resources for ICT adoption in Irish schools.

A core group of 40 schools to be involved in piloting various models of ICT integration.

So…

Did this initiative have the imaginative force to change radically the teaching & learning experience provided in Ireland’s schools?

No. For a number of reasons:

Policy, planning and practice

Underfunded

Technology rather than pedagogy led

Not enough focus on digital content

Imposed rather than negotiated

For the record...

Computers in schools

Up 125%Up 125%

Up 40%Up 40%

Source: NCTE Survey, April/May 2000

Schools with networks (%)

4 times 4 times as manyas many

Up more than a thirdUp more than a third

Source: NCTE Survey, April/May 2000

A significant narrowing of the gap between the best equipped and least well equipped schools.

1:18 in primary, 1:13 in second level.[Belgium 1:25, 1: 13. France 1:31, 1:17. UK 1:13, 1:8]

Almost 3:4 second level schools have ISDN (up from 1:20). 8:10 primaries have internet access.

Other achievements

We also got...

Training up to 3 out of 4

teachers in many schools.

A significant start on the journey towards integrating ICT usage into teaching

ScoilNet a national web portal a platform for future

development in ODE for teachers on an individual and group basis.

SIP Schools Integration Project

The Clonakilty SIP: ‘You are what you eat.’

An all-girls school, mostly female staff and a ‘low technology’ culture.

PCs - iMacsA range of data capture and image

capture PC peripherals…… 9 pigs.

Cross-curricular SIP

English, Gaeilge, Business Studies, Art, Home Economics…

… Presentation events; newspapers, television, DES officials.

Confidence, IT with a purpose, motivation (for both student and teachers)

A closing note

On-line

We are immigrants to the information age; our students and our children will be the natives.

c.j.galvin@ucd.ie