IT in schools is now in urgent need of a coherent strategy, writes Mike Smith. Information technology in schools appears to be a success story. Everyone now expects to find computers in classrooms. It is unusual to see a wall display that does not include attractive word-processed text. Some secondary schools have large networks and in many schools, primary and secondary, the libraries and resource areas have CD-Rom.
Yet this apparent success is only partial especially when measured in terms of pupils’ attainment. Two recent independent reports demonstrate that many young people leave school with only a cursory acquaintance with IT (see comment, “The new illiteracy”, TES, November 18, 1994).
These outcomes are disappointing, especially when set against the growing evidence of IT’s benefits to learners, benefits recognised by the revised national curriculum. The importance of IT capability as pupils’ entitlement is reinforced by the OFSTED framework which sets competence in IT alongside speaking and listening, reading, writing and numeracy as a basic core skill. This reflects the assumption that an information society requires learning which embraces a new literacy.
The curriculum sets targets that will be difficult for schools to meet. Ensuring opportunities for all pupils to “develop and apply their IT capability” throughout all subjects is a great challenge. Not all subject Orders spell out the IT requirements, so schools may be tempted to minimise provision.
The School Curriculum and Assessment Authority will publish guidance early this year to indicate how IT should be used to enhance subject teaching. Provided that they have adequate resources, this will help teachers who already have some appreciation of IT in their subject area. Others will still face difficulties because they lack the necessary skills and confidence.
Incorporating new technology into teaching and learning is extremely demanding. Not only must teachers acquire technical competence, but they face challenging pedagogic issues. The adoption of IT challenges the very way they teach, so they need time to try out ideas, reflect and evaluate. While this is happening, the technology moves on, creating further impact on classroom practice.
All this underlines the need for quality professional support. Yet, just when it is most needed, vital provision is under threat.
Much of the success up to now is attributable to the Department for Education’s IT in Schools programme, which has served schools in a co-ordinated and well-directed fashion. The most effective outcome of this scheme has been the training and deployment of a corps of skilled advisory teachers. This has provided strategic professional support to classroom colleagues, and has underpinned the development of IT in schools.
Now changes for 199596 could threaten progress. Grants for education support and training will no longer be specifically earmarked for IT only; this, together with further devolvement and a reduction in funding levels makes the future uncertain. Local teams will be weakened and, in some areas, schools may find that good quality professional support and training are no longer available.
It is ironic that all this is happening just when the support is most needed. Powerful computers are already being used at home and access to vast amounts of information will soon become commonplace. For school education to remain relevant it is vital that five years of curriculum stability does not become a period of stagnation. For schools to get IT right, they require sufficient hardware and appropriate software, effective management, curriculum development and teacher competence. These separate elements do not come together by chance; their co-ordination is a complex process. Planning is essential at all levels, local and national.
The National Association of Advisers for Computers in Education (NAACE) believes that there is now a pressing need for a clear, national strategy for IT in education, which would lend coherence to the individual efforts of all the key players in this vital area. The Government, and in particular the DFE, has a crucial role, but the contributions of a wide range of bodies and organisations are vital (for example SCAA, OFSTED, the National Council for Educational Technology, the IT in education industry and professional bodies).
As a first step NAACE has initiated discussions with the headteacher associations on what needs to be achieved. This is not a plea for central direction but common agreement on objectives from which a national strategy can emerge, guaranteeing the benefits of IT to all learners. It would be tragic if the gains of the past were to be dissipated and the gains for the future jeopardised through the lack of a co-ordinated approach.
Mike Smith is chair of NAACE
