Many primary teachers have 15 or more years experience of having a computer in their classroom and yet ICT (as we now call IT) still seems to be only just on the brink of being an accepted part of the furniture to support teaching and learning.

Some would have us believe that the success of ICT in schools is due to the technical brilliance of computer engineers and programmers, but no, all the success is due to the ingenuity and persistence of enthusiastic teachers working with often untried and unreliable equipment. This book serves as a celebration of the vision and sheer hard work of these teachers.

It briefly describes countless examples of innovative uses of ICT in a wide range of crriculum areas, working with real teachers and real pupils. However, it does not meet its proclaimed aim as an introduction for teachers but rather forms a compendium of ideas and a catalogue of useful references and Internet sites. Fourteen chapters from a variety of authors cover the use of ICT to support literacy, mathematics, science and history. Many examples illustrate the value of forging international links.

This book details the value of collaborative projects and suggests how to get involved in such projects using ICT in the classroom.

However, as with most books by enthusiasts, there is understandably little criticism of the use of ICT in schools.

Jon Coupland is the director of the centre for information technology in education at The College of St Mark and St John, Plymouth