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ICT in schools in the digital age: an overview of the literature

Many thanks to the CMIS Evaluation blog for pointing me to the first 2009 issue of the WACOT Digest, written by Margaret Meiers for ACER and titled The use of ICT in schools in the digital age: what does the research say?

While the Digest does not really say anything new it does present a very readable and useful summary of the state of play in ICT usage in Australian schools. As always it would make a useful foundation for staff discussion, particularly in an analysis of where your school is on the spectrum of ICT usage and embedding.

Meiers says there are some key messages emerging from the research evidence:

  • teachers’ confidence about using ICT in the classroom is variable;
  • ICT learning objects are used mostly in mathematics, English and science;
  • the use of computers is common at home and at school;
  • students use ICT in limited ways. Information access and searching are common, but creating, analysing and transforming information are less common.
  • One Comment

    1. Priscilla
      Posted June 4, 2009 at 7:38 pm | Permalink

      I understand this is true, but it is slowly changing. I think with faster Internet speeds ICTs will be further embedded in our curriculums across the KLAs. I’ve been a student teacher in a forward thinking classroom this term which uses ICTs in most of their learning. It is really insightful to see students engaged in this way. However this sort of learning experiences will only be common place is our educators are confident in the technology (this means training in these areas) and our broadband speeds are adequate to cope with the usage.

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