ICT and Education

1. ICT and Education Lecture for BA Education Studies

2. Functions of the ICT in Education • Two major functions of education • To transmit the culture, values and lessons of the past to the current generation • To prepare our children for the world in which they will live.

3. Global Economy • Modern, high-speed computers and telecommunications have facilitated the rapid movement of financial resources, goods and services • Created an interdependence among the world’s economies.

4. Global Economy • To benefit from these markets, nations must be competitive, and to be competitive they must have a well-educated work force. • New, science-based, information industries are emerging in which knowledge and human capital are as important as industrial plants. • The significance of this development is that if we choose to maintain our current standard of living, our knowledge workers must compete in an international market and must have a good understanding of science.

5. New Educational Demands • The launching of Sputnik, an unmanned Soviet satellite, in 1957 stirred national interest in educational reform. Thus began what has been called the "golden age" of education. Major national efforts were made to reform education. • While many of the problems in education were not new, other new and different demands were changing the basic structure of education. • First, there was a change in national philosophy from a position of making mass education available to many to a challenge to provide education for all. • Second, we were preparing children for a new type of society that did not yet exist.

6. New Educational Demands • Third, since people were now living significantly longer, formal education could not end at 14 • It ís estimated that workers would have to prepare for two to three career changes in their lifetime. • Fourth, modern communications such as radio, film, television and computers had created an information-rich society. Schools were no longer the only centre of information, but had to compete for student attention. • Finally, the new emerging educational technologies were to become an important catalyst for rethinking education.

7. THE FIRST COMPUTERS • The history of the modern computer age is a brief one. • It has been about 50 years since the first operational computer was put into use: the MARK 1 in 1944 at Harvard and ENIAC in 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania.

8. THE FIRST COMPUTERS • Early use of computers in education was primarily found in mathematics, science and engineering as a mathematical problem-solving tool, replacing the slide rule and thus permitting students to deal more directly with problems of a type and size most likely to be encountered in the real world. • In 1959, at the University of Illinois, Donald Bitier began PLATO, the first, large-scale project for the use of computers in education.

9. THE FIRST COMPUTERS • The several thousand-terminal system served undergraduate education as well as elementary school reading, a community college in Urbana, and several campuses in Chicago. • Thus, the era of computers in education is little more than 35 years old.

10. Micro Worlds • In the early seventies at MIT, Seymour Papert set out to develop a new and different approach to computers in education. • He developed a programming language, LOGO, to encourage rigorous thinking about mathematics. • He wanted it to be accessible to children and to be easy to express procedures for simple tasks like many non-numerical problems familiar to children.

11. Micro Worlds • He used it to teach mathematics by teaching LOGO in a wide variety of interesting "micro world" environments such as music and physics. Papert insisted that we should not teach mathematics, but should teach children to be mathematicians. LOGO soon became the language of the elementary school computer literacy movement.

12. Micro Worlds • Later, Papert extended LOGO to work with LEGO construction kits. The Constructivist approach viewed learning as a reconstruction of knowledge. Papert asserted that learning is more effective when the learner actually constructs a meaningful product. In building computer-driven LEGO constructions, the student learns to define a problem and the tacit practical problem-solving skills needed to solve it. • Papert has tried to move education from "computer literacy," an appreciation of computing, to "computer fluency," the application of computers to solve real problems.

13. Computers in Education • The first computers were placed in schools as early as the 1980’s. • Training in their use was only given to a few teachers. • The teaching profession showed little enthusiasm for the new technology, teachers • Lacked knowledge and confidence and in 1996 only one in two primary schools were meeting curriculum requirements.

14. What happened • In 1997, as a result of the Stevenson Report (1996/97), the new Labour Government issued the statement, • “We are determined to create a society where, within ten years, information and communications technology (ICT) has permeated every aspect of education.” (Department for Education and Employment (DfEE 1997)

15. NGfL • In 1998 the Government announced its ICT National Strategy to stimulate and support the use of ICT in education. • Internet connection and multimedia Internet compatible computers for schools (the infrastructure) being funded through the National Grid for Learning (NGfL). • The training, to enable all teachers to use ICT to support teaching and learning in the classroom, provided through the New Opportunities Fund (NOF) ICT training programme.

16. NGfL • Tony Blair stated, • “We intend to lift educational standards in Britain to the level of the best in the world. This will mean making the most of technological change. Technology has revolutionised the way we work and is now set to transform education . . . . . Standards, literacy, numeracy, subject knowledge – all will be enhanced by the Grid and the support it will give to our programme for school improvements

17. Changes in Education • In recent years we have witnessed huge advances in information and communication technology (ICT) and these have had a major impact on all aspects of life; how we live, work, use our leisure time and learn. • Since the launch of the Governments ICT National strategy for Education growing evidence shows that the effective use of ICT can enrich and enhance not only the teaching and learning in schools but also the administration and management. (ImpaCT2 study, DfES, 2002)

18. Changes in Education • A further component of this ICT National strategy for Education, Curriculum Online, was launched in 2002 • It provided a national portal, offering a single point of reference for teachers to search, compare, select and share relevant high quality, digital learning resources. • Schools will receive funds in the form of e-learning credits, (eLCs), to enable them to buy commercial products through this portal.

19. Trainee teachers • Before being awarded Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), all trainee teachers are required to pass the QTS skills test in information and communications technology (ICT) to ensure that everyone qualifying to teach has a good grounding in the use of ICT in the wider context oftheir professional role as a teacher.

20. Current state of ICT in Education Primary schools: • Have on average 37 computers each... • ...that's approximately 1 computer for every 6.2 children • 95% have interactive whiteboards • 91% have a network in place • 99% are connected to the Internet • 78% have a broadband connection • 85% of teaching staff are reported to be very confident or confident in using ICT in their job.

21. Current state of ICT in Education Secondary schools: • Have on average 275 computers each... • ...that's approximately 1 computer for every 3.6 pupils • 99% have interactive whiteboards • 99% have a network in place • 99% are connected to the Internet • 99% have a broadband connection • 81% of teaching staff are reported to be very confident or confident in using ICT in their job. • http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/ictis/facts

22. Changes since then • Whiteboards in schools • Move to embed ICT in the curriculum including subject teaching in Secondary • Content from BBC, C4 and others using multimedia for teaching. • Building schools for the future • Harnessing Technology 2005

23. Content development • Production of digital learning resources to support effective learning and teaching. • Development of supporting materials to go with it. • Use of multimedia concepts, video, sound and text.

24. The DfES Primary Schools Whiteboard Expansion project • The DfES Primary Schools Whiteboard Expansion project (PSWE) provided substantial funding to 21 local authorities in 2003-04 • To support the acquisition and use of interactive whiteboards in primary schools.

25. Building Schools for the Future • Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is the biggest single government investment in improving school buildings for over 50 years. • The aim is to rebuild or renew every secondary school in England over a 10-15 year period, bringing together major investment in buildings and in ICT

26. Harnessing Technology 2005 • This strategy describes the use of digital and interactive technologies to achieve a more personalised approach within all areas of education and children's services. It is an ambitious strategy covering all sectors for the next five years and beyond.

27. Harnessing Technology 2005 • The Government's e-strategy sets the expectation that: • by spring 2008 every pupil should have access to a personalised online learning space with the potential to support an e-portfolio (provided by their local authority) • by 2010 every school should have integrated learning and management systems (a comprehensive suite of learning platform technologies).