ew policies have attracted more support from British governments than that of equipping schools for the e-world. Reviews of ministerial statements for the past decade show eulogy piled upon eulogy about the transformative potential of these new technologies.

In some respects the British roll-out of information and communications technology to schools and colleges has been by international standards a considerable success. The ratio of computers to pupils is good, and virtually all schools are now connected to the Internet.

However some progress is worryingly slow. Most estimates suggest that the ICT in schools is only used for perhaps 40 per cent of the time, a hugely under-used resource. Children use ICT for only an hour or so a week, and that usage is still concentrated in the ICT subject area.

Most teachers remain unconvinced of the potential of ICT. If one delves into the annual statistics of ICT usage published in September 2001, the rising levels of teacher confidence in ICT, trumpeted in press releases, mask other disturbing data. Around 60 per cent of teachers say that they use ICT either “not at all” or “a little” and that ICT has “no” or “a little” positive effect on teaching.

Everything one sees concerning ICT in schools suggests a very patchy picture, with some schools and some teachers grasping the new technologies but most not doing so. Where it has rooted in a school, this seems to reflect only on the presence of some enthusiasts on the staff. Across schools, probably three-quarters of total usage is simply accessing information, with much of the remainder of usage being wordprocessing to produce neat copies of work in humanities subjects.

This picture of ICT, widely shared in the sotto voce conversations of policy-makers and politicians, is not one that surfaces in public. It is, of course, in no one’s interests that it should. One does not need to be a cynical conspiracy theorist to understand that an ICT industry subsidised with orders worth billions of pounds may not acknowledge our problems. Civil servants preparing their bids to loot the Chancellor’s funds in the coming public spending review would also be foolish to do so. For these groups, and others, ICT in education is an end in itself, an end from which they benefit.

What do we need to do to improve things? First, we need to rid ourselves of the delusion that ICT, like some new drug, is something that should be used in all subjects, in all topics. When film came into educational settings from the 1930s, it was debased in the eyes of the profession by being rolled out universally rather than being concentrated upon where it worked. ICT is in danger of going the same way.

Second, we need to research and codify “what works”. It may be that different subjects need ICT to be used in different ways. There are hints that ICT is very effective in mathematics when used for reinforcement of skills but that this may not apply in other subjects. ICT seems to be effective as a central part of mathematical investigation, historical research and practical language work, but in science it seems to be more effectively used as a supportive supplement in science. We need to know more about these issues.

One sad aspect of the present situation is that we do possess some of the knowledge we need - it is in the volume of data on effective ICT teaching collected by the Office for Standards in Education, only a small part of which has been released. The exemplary practice that it charted, plus pictures of what the ICT experts are doing, could be crucial.

Our ICT problems will not be solved by further photo opportunities or reams of press releases. Significant numbers of researchers must acquire for the first time a focus on ICT. Resources are required for research and development activities.

Available now are technologies that can transform education for all, including online pupil assessment, digital learning communities and classrooms where video quality pictures of the world’s great teachers can be brought to a British classroom wall. This is all threatened as long as we delude ourselves that ICT in schools is an unvarnished success story. It isn’t.

David Reynolds is professor of education at the University of Exeter and a member of the board of BECTA (The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency)