ict in ireland

"Smart" society and how not to achieve it!

2010-02-03T16:15:00.000-08:00

I note from a report in the Irish times on Tuesday, November 17^th that there is to be a new €150m investment in “smart schools”, providing every classroom in the country with a laptop and digital projector. Does anyone else wonder at the timing of such an initiative, just prior to a budget that is likely to contain many cutbacks to an education system that is already one of the worst funded within the OECD?

This “initiative” would seem less cynical if it were part of an overall plan, but sadly the only policy document the DES ever produced was in 1997, Schools IT 2000 - A Policy Framework for the New Millennium. That policy document was replaced by – nothing! There is no ICT policy in the DES. Some commentators speak of a lack of joined up thinking, but in reality there is no thought at all, just a tablula rasa.

The Digital Schools Initiative launched 2 years ago shows that the only vision for the use of ICT in schools is the vision of serving teachers who have worked bravely and ploughed a lonely furrow in recent years, despite no funding, in spite of clapped out computers and in spite of any policy directives from the DES.

ICT has a very broad role, as a set of enabling technologies and services that underpin the development of a country as an “information” or “knowledge” economy. An ICT capability in this sense is critical in achieving national goals in areas such as science, education and innovation. ICT teachers are worried at the complete lack of vision in terms of either policy or investment in technology in our schools.

In 2005, the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources announced an €18m investment — mostly stumped up by the telecoms industry — to deploy broadband in schools. That initiative led to a very patchy deployment of broadband to about 80% of schools, mostly in urban areas, leaving many rural schools with no connectivity. The schools broadband system gave a 1MB speed to primary schools and a 2 MB speed to post-primary, sufficient to allow a couple of computers to access the internet before “freezing” or crashing! Schools were expected to avail of broadband using old computers, most of them 8 or 9 years old. The sad reality is that those computers were not capable of using broadband; in fact they can’t operate modern educational software, which is probably just as well, because schools have received no funding since 2002 to purchase software, or to repair or upgrade outdated equipment.

Technology in education is a three-legged stool: you need infrastructure, you need to have technology ingrained in the curriculum and teachers need to see technology as part of their professional and personal development. If you are missing any of the legs the whole edifice comes crashing down.

We have a creaking, if not collapsing infrastructure at the moment because of the chronic lack of planned funding. What is urgently required, if politicians are serious about ICT, rather than being in the business of paying lip service to it, is a strategic plan along the following lines:

1. An ICT plan for primary education. How can any school Principal organize a coherent and integrated ICT plan for a school when there is no central ICT policy to refer to? We have had several years of in-service in which there has been no reference to ICT, bar the mention of a few websites. Much of the revised primary curriculum, in history, geography, local studies and SPHE is indigenous. Yet the DES has made no attempt to encourage or fund local indigenous software.

2. We need a five year policy framework with planned funding of €200m just to catch up with our neighbours in Europe. You might think €200m is a fanciful figure but as far back as 2006, IBEC was promulgating that the Government purchase laptops for every 2^nd level pupil in the country and that would have cost between €280m and €320m. The Fine Gael Party in 2007(?) produced a policy document calling for the government to give a laptop to every student entering secondary school (an investment of €38m in a single year). So €200 is indeed quite a realistic figure.

3. Training in the use of ICT for teachers is an imperative. The sad reality is that currently only about 5% of teachers use ICT daily as a curricular tool. ICT has to become an integral part of the professional and personal development of teacher training. Unless there is a concurrent rollout of appropriate professional development in the pedagogical usage of ICT, any initiative is doomed to failure.

Deplorable state of ICT in Irish schools

2010-02-03T16:06:00.000-08:00

ICT is a complex set of enabling technologies and services that underpin the development of a country as an “information” or “knowledge” economy. An ICT capability in this sense is critical in achieving national goals in areas such as science, education and innovation. As a primary teacher who has used ICT in my class on a daily basis for many years, I am extremely worried by the complete lack of vision in terms of either policy or investment in technology in our schools by the DES.

The only policy document the DES ever produced was in 1997, Schools IT 2000 - A Policy Framework for the New Millennium. That policy document was replaced by – nothing! There is no ICT policy in the DES. Some commentators speak of a lack of joined up thinking, but in reality you cannot have joined up thinking where there is no thought. What we have is a “tablula rasa”.

In 2005, the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources announced an €18m investment — mostly stumped up by the telecoms industry — to deploy broadband in schools. Now schools are expected to avail of broadband using old clapped out computers, 8 or 9 years old. The sad reality is that those computers are not capable of using broadband; in fact they can’t operate modern educational software, which is probably just as well, because schools have received no funding from the department since 2002 to purchase software, or to repair or upgrade outdated equipment.

It is disheartening to listen to the Minister speak of the “Knowledge society” given the reality of today’s classroom. The Minister in Feb. 2007 when announcing the formation of the strategy group to advise her on the future development of ICT in schools said: "Ireland's continuing development as an advanced knowledge society will rely on the skills of our young people. The development of strong ICT literacy in all of our children will be an essential life skill for them as they look to participate in the opportunities of the global knowledge society. It is imperative that our schools provide opportunities for all of our children to develop to their full potential in that regard".

Again in January 2008 the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, launching the Schools Broadband Access Programme said: “ICT in the classroom is important, both in terms of giving students the opportunity to achieve computer literacy and acquire the necessary skills for participation in the Information Society, and in terms of enhancing the educational experience across the broad range of subjects taught in schools”. She was at it again the following day! The Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin T.D. delivered a keynote address to the 2008 Government Leaders Forum, taking place in Berlin, Germany.

Speaking about the critical role of Europe's education systems, Minister Hanafin said "in order to compete in the global market, we have to ensure that we are fostering the creativity, skills and motivation for learning that will give us the vital edge needed for sustained economic and social success. Europe's and Ireland's future success relies on our ability to create and to innovate. We cannot be found standing still when development of new ideas, new and better products and processes are needed to drive forward our economy.

The sad reality is that we have a collapsing infrastructure at the moment because of the chronic lack of funding. Then on the last day of the school year for secondary schools (June 20, 2008), we learn that the ICT Advisors attached to the Education Centres would have their contracts terminated from August 31^st. It is also now clear that the reluctance of the DES to publish the Expert Groups report on ICT is because it has been decided, though not publicly admitted, that the much vaunted €252m announced in the NDP is not now going to be paid.

Irish schools are in a digital “limbo”. There is no policy within the DES on ICT; the schools broadband system, supplying a woefully inadequate download speed of 1mb to primary schools and 2mb to secondary is creaking; schools’ computers are old, and not amenable to an upgrade, even if the money existed for such; indigenous Irish software for Irish curricula does not exist.

We need a five year policy framework with planned funding of €500m just to catch up with our neighbours in Europe. A huge digital divide is opening up between this country and the rest of Europe. If we look at what is happening in Northern Ireland we see some US$100m being invested as part of a Classroom initiative to enable education authorities there to proceed with a 10-year plan to give all students from primary to university level access to their own PC, email address and broadband access.

The programme, run by the Western Education and Library Board, involves 900 primary and 250 post-primary schools throughout the province and serves some 350,0000 students and teachers. It comprises between 60,000 and 70,000 PCs distributed across Northern Ireland. That is a ratio of 1:5

The Digital Schools Initiative launched last year shows that the only vision for the use of ICT in schools is the vision of serving teachers who have worked bravely and ploughed a lonely furrow in recent years, despite no funding, in spite of clapped out computers and in spite of any policy directives or input from the DES. If the current recession leads to renewed emigration, we are in danger of sending our young people out without the requisite skills in ICT that will make them employable in the global economy. Surely it is time for some vision from government, time to invest in education, because investment in education is an investment in our future.

The Evolution of ICT

2007-08-24T07:17:00.000-07:00

The speed of the evolution of information and communications technology (ICT) has been phenomenal. My grandfather grew up in a society with no telephone; my father in a society in which the radio was a source of wonder and television a late and expensive purveyor of black and white imagery. I live in a society that constantly expects to receive broadband Internet connectivity and my sons live in a world where music is an MP3 file downloaded from Napster.

The changes the ICT evolution has wrought affect every sector of society. My mother’s hearing aid is a miracle of miniaturisation and transistors. Without microprocessors, hospitals would have to close, airlines would be grounded and the bank is enabled to closely monitor the details of my current account through on-line banking.

The evolution of ICT has occurred in five stages:

· Computer
· PC
· Microprocessor
· Internet and
· Wireless Links

The story begins during World War II with the large electromechanical calculator Harvard Mark I. It was 50 feet long, eight feet tall and weighed 5 tons. Some years later the ENIAC was presented in Philadelphia. It used 18000 vacuum tubes and weighed 30 tons. Each task to be performed required the throwing of 6000 switches covering three walls, a mammoth machine occupying a large space. In 1947 the first transistor was invented and the use of transistors allowed for the development of smaller, more versatile and more powerful computers. “Computers” became a catchword and input-output technology graduated from punch cards to magnetic tape; new computer languages were designed to allow interaction with the new technology. Applications were expanded and the ICT evolution was underway in earnest.

The second stage in the evolution of ICT began in the 1970’s when it became possible to place processors on a “chip”, and magnetic discs were constructed. In 1977 Ken Olsen, the President of Digital asserted that “There is no reason why anyone would want a computer in their home.” How wrong he was! At the same time, Steve Jobs and Steve Wosniak began to sell their Apple II machine and a young man called Bill Gates founded a firm called Microsoft. Within a few years the PC had changed from being regarded as an esoteric toy to a valuable work tool for word processing, accounting and later graphics. IBM first launched its Personal Computer on the world in 1981. Now the PC has become as popular as bicycles in my grandfather’s time or the radio in my father’s time.

The third part of the ICT evolution is that microprocessors have now become embedded in a myriad of products to the extent that the world as we know it would grind to a halt without the humble microprocessor. The steering systems of planes, the traffic lights on our streets, the control panels of power stations, air conditions systems all depend on microprocessors. Microprocessors control every facet of our lives; they are constantly expanding their capacity, applications and users.

The fourth evolution of ICT has its origins in the 1960’s when the US Dept of Defence drew up guidelines for a communications network among computers called ARPANET. Universities within the US and later from outside the US began to link up to this system and to use it to send messages. France developed a variant – Minitel system – at the start of the 1980’s. The US National Science Foundation set up its own network as also did a number of universities on the east coast of the US. In Europe EARN became a network among academic institutions and CERN in Geneva was crucial in the development of the World Wide Web which only got its name in 1990. Within a few years “surfing” on the net became a social phenomenon. The advent of broadband will accelerate this phase in the evolution of ICT. What is important about this evolutionary phase of ICT is that users have built social networks to make them useful and effective. Indeed the social superstructure in this instance is indeed super!

The fifth and current stage in the evolutionary process of ICT is the wireless one. This phase began with the invention of the mobile phone. The initial mobile phones were large and bulky. Reduction in size has been accompanied by a greatly expanded range of functions. Now, depending on the age of the user, mobile phones are used for talking, transmitting messages, pictures and music. Linking without phone lines is now taking place not just inter-continentally but via satellite. High frequency short-range radio transmitters that cover a specific area and “blue tooth” and infra red communication within buildings make wireless communication a world-wide phenomenon.

The speed and impact of the ICT evolution is a practical proof of Says’s Law: Supply creates its own demand. Contrary to Ken Olsen’s prediction, PCs have become a household appliance. When they became linked to a telephone line they were transformed into networks and their usefulness increased exponentially when access was available to libraries, information and email. The PC was a household gadget that became a necessity. The PC itself has become synonymous with globalisation. Components come from all continents, chips from Asia, software from America, mobile phones from Europe. Brand names are instantly recognisable all over the world.

The development of new products and services has been to the forefront of burgeoning economies over the past ten years. The development of the World Wide Web and the Internet has led to the development of an interactive network of individuals. It is by and for interacting people. This epitomises what the ICT evolution has been all about. It has been about spotting opportunities and inviting everybody to participate and to make good use of them. The ICT evolution has been an evolution in learning. The individual has realised the potential of the new tools and has introduced them into his/her home. As an evolution in learning, ICT has transformed the available technologies; the means of studying, the modalities of school operations, investment and expenditure on resources, and the way we think about what education should be.

The development of the Web and the Internet and the increasing availability of broadband will allow schools to post course material on the web, assignments can be communicated and received via email, and teachers can be accessed at any time. Indeed the new technologies will allow schools to reach out to many students who up to now might have slipped through the educational net. Distance education is now a reality.

The evolution in ICT should make us question the way we think about organised education. ICT liberates the provision of education from time and place constraints. Education and training can be customised by allowing materials to be adapted to individual needs and paced according to individual progress.

In Ireland we have been on the cusp of the great “leap forward” into ICT-based learning since the late 1990s. Those years of energy-charged enthusiasm have now petered into a déjà vu sense of “where did we go wrong?” Teachers have been trained in the use of ICT; computers have been put into schools, but why has the educational system not been transformed? My personal opinion is that it is far too soon to say the revolution has failed. After the hype there must be a “bedding-in”. Many teachers are only now coming to terms with ICT. Only when teachers as individuals begin to use ICT for email and begin to make use of the Internet for personal research, will they fully comprehend what an awesome tool they have for teaching and learning. It’s an evolutionary thing, which is where I think I began this essay!

Status of ICT in Irish education in 2007

2007-08-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

The primary rationale for the introduction of ICTs into Irish education was to affirm the professional skills of teachers and the personal growth of students. This would mean the integration of ICTS into educational aims at a national level and at local level, ICTs would have to work in tandem with the development of school development plans. This is not currently the reality. There is no discernable policy of integrating ICTs into the curriculum. There have been four years of in-service at primary level and there has been scarcely a mention of ICTs other than in passing.
Furthermore school development planning cannot take place in a vacuum! How can any principal teacher plan meaningfully, for the integration of ICTs into curricular areas, when s/he has no idea from year to year if there will be funding to replace obsolete hardware or to replenish/replace software?We are now in the ludicrous situation of broadband and networks being placed in schools that for the most part are equipped with a stock of ageing computers that date back to 2002 at the latest, or in many cases, right back to 1997.
The role of the National Council for Technology in Education (NCTE) has been emasculated from the beginning. NCTE was never established on a statutory basis. Personnel in the NCTE are retained on annual contract; there is no guarantee of employment from year-to-year. Personnel are on secondment from their teaching positions and may be recalled by their boards at any time. A primary task that NCTE was charged with was to deliver in-service training to teachers. This has been successful in producing training courses and putting “bums on seats” in attendance at courses. However there has been no corresponding transfer of skills to the classroom.
Too many NCTE courses concentrated on the acquisition of computer skills, and insufficiently on the use of ICTs as a tool for teaching and learning. There has been a change in the content of courses being offered in recent years, with an increasing emphasis on using ICT as a teaching and learning resource, and the acquisition of skills as an integral part of the process of doing the course. However the experience of teachers in the early years of NCTE courses has meant a sharp decline in numbers attending courses.What needs to be done to ameliorate the situation?Planned funding in line with industry’s best practise; technical backup regionally from education centres; ongoing in-service that will place emphasis on the use of ICTs as a teaching and learning resource; integration of ICTs into curricular in-service; curricular developments that encourage the use of ICTs ; funding for new technologies e.g. interactive whiteboards.
The question of planned funding is fundamental to the development of ICT. Schools must know what funding will be available to them on an annual or two yearly basis. it is no longer sufficient to starve the system for years and then to pump in some funding because there is an election pending, this helps only to politicise the system and does absolutely nothing to encourage good planning and prudent spending. The DES needs ot be cognisant if the old adage "as ye reap so shall ye sow"

2007-08-21T06:50:00.000-07:00

CESI Editorial 2006

2007-02-21T06:52:00.000-08:00

As I look back over 2005 and contemplate 2006 I cannot phrase it better than Charles Dickens and I can only reiterate that it was “the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…”

The revised Irish Primary School Curriculum published in 1999 was a response to changing needs, particularly in the areas of science and technology. In its general aims (p.7) it states that "In a rapidly changing society effective interpersonal and intrapersonal skills and skills in communications are essential for personal, social and educational fulfillment".
ICTs are emphasised throughout the guidelines. It states in the Teacher Guidelines for English Language, for example, “Computers and other items of information and communications technologies enrich the teaching and learning of language considerably" (English Teacher Guidelines, p.91).

The primary rationale for the introduction of ICT into the Irish school system is that it should complement the achievement of broader educational aims, which affirm the professional skills of the teachers and the personal growth of students. At a national level this should mean that ICT integration correlates with wider educational aims. More importantly, at local level, ICTs must work in tandem with the implementation of school development plans. The Minister for Education and Science launched his IT initiative with the publication in 1997 of the policy document IT 2000 A Policy Framework for the New Millennium.

What saddens me enormously is the apparent lack of “joined up thinking” by the DES. With the ending of the IT 2000 initiative the educational system was left in a policy vacuum as far as ICT was concerned. When is the last time that you heard a Minister or even a high profile politician speak about the values of ICTs in education? The IT 2000 policy document was launched with the usual fanfare of trumpets and photo calls. Schools received grant money to purchase hardware and software. Since 1997/98 what funding has been received? Schools are now struggling to maintain a range of outdated and outmoded computers at a time when the DES is spending a vast amount of money introducing broadband to schools!

The general rule in other EU countries is that schools are allotted money for maintenance, purchase and repairs to computer equipment in a planned manner. Schools know in advance exactly how much money they will have to spend. In Ireland grants come sporadically, if at all! In the context of School Development Planning, how are school principals expected to plan for the integration of ICTs when they have no money and have no idea of when or if they will receive funding? Lack of vision and leadership is compounded by a lack of funding!

For six years primary teachers have invested an enormous amount of time and energy in attending in-service on the principles and methodologies of the revised curriculum. ICTs rarely get a “look in” at these inservice days. Such mention as there is will refer teachers to lists of websites, but there is scarcely an acknowledgement of the fact that ICTs are a powerful medium for collaborative activity-based teaching and learning. Inservice days thus serve to act as a negative reinforcement for the many teachers who regard ICTs as largely irrelevant to their work in the classroom.

I have pointed out already that the lack of planned funding places schools in an invidious position with regard to devising a comprehensive ICTs school policy that its inclusive nature requires. The general lack of resources is compounded by the glaring lacuna of indigenous interactive software with material specific to the Irish curriculum in the areas of history, geography, Irish language and culture. Talk of developing the knowledge society rings hollow when we fail to use the wealth of talent that exists in Ireland to produce at home indigenous content for the curricula at primary and secondary levels.

But enough about the “worst of times” and the “winter of despair”; let’s get on to the “spring of hope”! “Nature”, as my old science teacher used to say, “abhors a vacuum”, and the deafening silence emanating from the DES in terms of an ICT policy is now being actively filled by experienced practitioners, i.e. teachers. One such initiative, to be launched early in the New Year, is the Digital Schools Initiative (DSI). You can read about the DSI in an accompanying article in this newsletter by Robbie O’Leary, whose brainchild this scheme is.

CESI as a representative body of teachers who actively use ICTs on a daily basis, as a tool for teaching and learning in the classroom is also in a renewal phase. We have done a serious bit of navel gazing in the past year to see how we as an organization can actively encourage teachers, in the absence of any initiative by the DES, to use ICTs as a tool for teaching in the classroom.

CESI has decided to encourage best practice in the classroom by:

· Inviting practicing teachers from primary and post primary levels to present at our annual conference in February how they implement the curriculum in the classroom through the use of ICTs

· Reinstituting the Student Fair as an integral part of the Education Show that takes place in the RDS from 6-8 April. The Student Fair allows students from both primary and secondary schools to showcase projects they have undertaken using ICTs in a non competitive atmosphere. All participants will receive a certificate.

· Organizing a number of workshops/presentations as an integral part of the Education Show to demonstrate best practice in ICTs

· Holding urgent talks with the DES on the formulation of future policy on ICTs. We would welcome the views of teachers on any aspects of the current situation so that we will have an informed view in approaching talks with the DES.

Finally I remain sanguine that with a modicum of goodwill from all the partners in education, all of the problems that I have alluded to above can be addressed. It is past time for a well thought out policy to be put in place that addresses the pedagogical, structural and financial problems if the benefits of the technological revolution are to be reaped by the current cohort of children in our schools. If this opportunity is not grasped, then not only will we have failed our children but we will also have failed our economy and our country.

Matt Reville

Communications - BBC News Website

2006-10-06T03:21:00.000-07:00

First broadcast September 2006
The way we communicate with one another is currently going through a dramatic change.
Communication is becoming quicker, easier and cheaper and it is changing the shape of families and societies right across the globe.
In this four part series, Mike Williams looks at the way communication and the associated technology is changing our lives, the way we do business and the way we learn.
Part Four - Communications Technology and Communities
It seems that you can carry your culture with you wherever you go. Online communities are being maintained in around 1500 languages.
Family relations can be maintained across vast geographic distances. There are new ways for culture to make an impact and whole new societies are being formed.
In this programme we look at the concept of web communities, match-making sites, instant messaging, SMS and how modern communications technology can be used in novel ways to keep families together.
Some parents use the web and podasting to read stories to their children from hundreds of miles away. What are the implications of this on the family in a world where due to demands on our time, personal contact is becoming increasingly virtual.

Story from the BBC News website

The Stellenbosch Declaration

2006-10-06T01:57:00.000-07:00

International Federation for Information Processing July 2005

THE STELLENBOSCH DECLARATION ICT IN EDUCATION: MAKE IT WORK

Preamble
This declaration is the result of the expert group of educators and specialists of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in Education, from six continents, who met and worked together in Stellenbosch, South Africa from 4th to 7th July 2005 at the IFIP 8th World Conference on Computers in Education ("40 years of Computers in Education, What Works?") held by the IFIP Committee on Education (IFIP TC3).
We, the members of the group, hope that this Stellenbosch Declaration will improve the integration of ICT in Education as a resource for both better teaching and learning and as a preparation of citizens for the Knowledge Society. We address this to all stakeholders in ICT in Education: teachers, practitioners, researchers, academics, managers, decision-makers and policy-makers, in order to increase the access to Education for everyone around the World.
Information and Communication Technologies are changing the World. We are now in the
Information Society, a Society in which information is an essential and valuable commodity that
one can buy, sell, store, or exchange. But this Society may also be the Society of the Digital
Divide, enlarging the gap between the haves and the have-nots. As educators, we know that
information and knowledge are not the same. We want not only an Information Society, but also a Knowledge Society in which Knowledge can be shared and distributed all around the world,
enabling all children and all people to access Knowledge and to benefit from being educated.
Education is a key issue in the Knowledge Society, and Educators have a major role and mission.
Holding this Conference in Africa has made more visible the huge problems that African and other developing countries are facing, and it is the responsibility of all educators and decision-makers around the world to help such countries take part in the developments of ICT in Education. Having reflected on many aspects of Education and the influence of ICT on Education, we recommend that stakeholders and decision-makers in ICT in Education focus on 6 major areas that will shape a beneficial use of ICT in Education:
• Digital Solidarity;
• Learners and lifelong learning;
• Decision-making strategies;
• Networking;
• Research;
• Teachers.

For each of these areas we formulate recommendations and we propose a set of possible actions
(see Annex) in order to put the recommendations in place. These actions address 3 main levels:
L1: Societal level.
L2: Learning and teaching level.
L3: Technological and infrastructure level.

All stakeholders of these 3 levels are invited to consider the recommendations and actions as
appropriate to their work.

1. DIGITAL SOLIDARITY
Information and Communication Technologies may increase the divide between people, and the
"Digital Divide" is a major problem for our Societies, not only at the World level but also at the very local level. ICT have also enabled a huge number of success stories, of experiments and
innovation, improving the access to Education and Knowledge, especially in developing countries.
In the field of Education, ICT should help develop "Digital Solidarity". A World Digital Solidarity
Fund has been established, together with the Digital Solidarity Agency. It is now the mission of
educators, researchers, education-policy-makers, to make this Fund and this Agency achieve its
aims in the field of Education. Digital Solidarity means dealing with the access to ICT infrastructure on one hand and admission to digital content and media on the other. It requires strong and joint actions of all stakeholders (political decision makers, education systems and industry) to guarantee the right of participation in the digital society for all students in the world.

Recommendations:
We recommend a Digital Solidarity Action. All stakeholders will agree on the importance of
fighting the digital divide and on the principles for doing this described above. This action will:
• define as the most important aim for the next five years, that every child in the world has
access to a digital information and communication infrastructure;
• support projects that establish collaboration of students and teachers on a global level and
through networks;
• express the will to share digital educational content among education systems of different
countries while respecting International Property Rights.

2. LEARNERS AND LIFELONG LEARNING
In the Knowledge Society, the Learner is not only the formally enrolled pupil or student. Lifelong learning has become an essential component of the Knowledge Society, and Education must take this into account. Every learner is a lifelong learner who needs to adapt to the knowledge-based society and actively participate in all spheres of social, cultural and economic life, taking more control of his/her future. The content and the methods of initial education must take into account preparation for lifelong learning. This gives Schools and Educators a new role and mission. ICT is a key tool for developing lifelong learning.
Recommendations:
• Education systems must integrate the mission of lifelong learning into policy and practice.
• The development of lifelong learning needs an integration of education into the real world - ICT should be used for this purpose.
• New and emerging key skills are to be identified and promoted, particularly basic skills and
competency of literacy and numeracy.
• Impacts on curricula, learning content and methodologies, as well as on Education systems
need accessible, affordable, inclusive, and secure ICT.
• Lifelong learning must be encouraged in all countries, as a tool for reducing the Digital Divide.

3. DECISION-MAKING STRATEGIES
In order to help decision-makers and to make decisions meet the real needs and improve the
situation of Education and ICT in Education, the decision-making processes and strategies must
be considered. Bridging research, practice, experimentation, innovation with decision-making is
essential.
Decision-makers should make better use of the experience of Practitioners and the findings of
Researchers. In turn, Practitioners and Researchers should make their findings and results more visible and usable for the Decision-makers.
In the field of ICT in Education, decision-making needs not only technical information; it needs a
vision of Society, a vision of Education, and a vision of the place of Education in Society.
Recommendations:
• Educators and researchers should help in elaborating a vision and making it explicit. Decisionmakers and stakeholders in Education should together create a context for informed decisionmaking.
• The decision-making processes should use a systemic approach, involving all stakeholders
and promoting regional and international co-operation.
• A climate of collective ownership and responsibility for the development and implementation of
ICT policies should be created.
• Stakeholders should use innovation and success stories of others to create and promote future
ICT policy and implementations.
• Decision-makers should use the results of research; researchers should make their results
readable and usable by decision-makers.
• There is a need for more practical implementation oriented research.
• Decision-makers should promote trust and security in the use of ICT.

4. NETWORKING
One main characteristic of the Knowledge Society is being networked and this means that many
activities are no longer organised in a hierarchical or pyramidal way. The clearest example is the
Internet, in which information is accessible in a networked way, and in which people can
communicate in a networked way. In a network structure, there are generally several ways to go from one point to another; a network is interactive, and permanently evolving. Networks in
Education offer many ways to access knowledge, offer many possibilities for networking people
and developing collaborative work and enhancing the "collective intelligence". There are many
different networks, local, global, and they can interact. The network structure of Society has an
impact on policies, on the way systems are organised, and on educational systems.
Recommendations:
• Develop networks in order to facilitate access to information and knowledge and in order to
enhance collaborative activities.
• Take into account the networked structure of society in the design of educational policies and
in the organisation of systems.
• Make people be part of networks, in each community, in each country, internationally.
• Involve all countries, particularly developing countries, in the education networks. Help in
making real this sentence of an African child: "I am a child of Africa and a citizen of the world".

5. RESEARCH
The development of ICT-based education and training processes is a growing reality. Evidence of this can be seen by progress made in distance educational and training systems, the development of Virtual Universities, the development of a variety of learning environments, and in the drive towards the definition of standards for the field of e-learning. Corporate training and professional reskilling systems are other areas in which important developments have taken place.

There is therefore a need to continue research work on the development of these technologies and their applications. A certain realignment of research priorities is necessary, as we suggest in the following recommendations.
Recommendations:
• There is the need for the research community to consider the following aspects:
a. Bridging the gap between technology and pedagogy (in the field of ICT-supported
learning, pedagogy and technology have often been treated separately; pedagogy
often being based on what the technology appears to permit, rather than fully
integrated as a basis for technological design).
b. Development of solid theoretical frameworks (the possibility of relying on solid
theoretical frameworks is one of the key factors that can enable conception of the
many positive experiences already taking place in order to reach the definition of
reliable innovative reference models).
c. Development of an understanding of the use and the effects of ICT in Education.
This means considering positive aspects as well negative or problematic ones.
d. Finding an appropriate balance between fundamental, applied, and development
research as well as between public research and research made by the private
sector.
• The output of research should be made widely available, as open source, for improving
practice, decision-making, and resources development.
• Establishment of research networks in which developing countries are systematically involved.
• Research should take into account all cultures, not only western. One should critically look at
results in terms of generalising and the possibility of adapting to different cultures.
• The establishment and development of a mutual understanding between researchers and
practitioners.
• Encourage Research of different learning situations, including informal learning.

6. TEACHERS
The information and knowledge society provokes a continuous change in the role and the mission of teachers. Being a teacher in the Knowledge Society requires new specific competencies: a teacher has to deal with new knowledge and new ways for accessing knowledge; a teacher has to deal with a networked world and with new types of co-operation and collaboration; a teacher has to deal with a society in which knowledge plays a crucial role; a teacher has to deal with lifelong learning. The networked Knowledge Society results in teachers working in a more collaborative way, not only locally in their school, but regionally, nationally and also globally. The teaching profession therefore needs to evolve strongly and quickly.
Clearly it appears that teachers are the key agents in the education system and are instrumental in the evolution of Education. Hence we must take into account their major central role when creating educational policies, and it is our common responsibility to help all countries, though particularly developing countries, to train and recruit teachers, and to involve all teachers in international networks. ICT changes teaching and learning, but technology is not the main issue. We should always remember: "Technology matters, but good teachers and good teaching, matter more".
Recommendations:
• Educational policies should consider teachers as key agents of Education, of the evolution of
Education, and of the preparation of players and citizens of the knowledge society.
• The teaching profession should be made more attractive; the number of well-trained teachers
should be increased.
• Teacher education should include not only knowledge and knowledge transmission but also the
human and social components; teachers must be enabled to work with human beings and to
work in the context of the society.
• Teachers must be empowered with ICT integration skills.
• One should empower innovative teachers and promote communities of practice for innovation,
in order to facilitate the dissemination of innovations.
• Teachers must be involved in a lifelong learning context. Teacher professional development in
the context of Lifelong Learning should include ICT knowledge and expertise. This knowledge
should include not only technological abilities but also cultural and cognitive roots of computer
and computer science, such as, for example, a knowledge of the history of the field, which is
essential for understanding the present - its beliefs, desires and intents for ICT in education
and how it might evolve.
• International networks of teachers should be developed and activated, systematically including
developing countries.

IFIP Committee on Education (TC3)
Contact:
Prof. Bernard Cornu, Chairman of the Declaration Committee, bernard.cornu@inrp.fr
Prof. Jan Wibe, IFIP TC3 Chairman, jan.wibe@plu.ntnu.no

ANNEX
A list of possible Actions
For each of the 6 areas we propose a set of possible actions in order to put the recommendations
in place. These actions address 3 main levels:
L1: Societal level.
L2: Learning and teaching level.
L3: Technological and infrastructure level.
All stakeholders of these 3 levels are invited to consider the recommendations and actions as
appropriate to their work.

1. DIGITAL SOLIDARITY
(L1 - Society) Provide equal and open access to digital information, content and media for all
students and their teachers.
• Everyone should have equal access to basic ICT products, services and user knowledge in
their own native language.
• Making digital information ‘content free’ and ‘open on the web’ is a powerful way of reducing
the knowledge gap and reducing confusion and intolerance between developing and developed
countries.
• A climate needs to be created for collective ownership and responsibility for the development
and implementation of ICT policies;
• Frameworks for partnerships need to be guided by clearly defined policies and objectives of
governments;
• Always adopt a citizen-centred focus; co-operative in nature, seen as seamless from the
beneficiaries, and transparent but accountable in decision-making.
• Determine the role of Civil Society and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in the Digital
Solidarity Fund.
• It is important that the next World Summit for Cities and Local Authorities focuses on the
development of an integrated ICT action plan, as well as the development of training as
leverages for growth competitiveness.
(L2 – Learning and Teaching) Approach to networks for digital communication and support to
establish interaction and collaboration among students and teachers in different parts of the world.
• Recognise the right of every student to have access to ICT.
• Create common criteria for quality assessment of e-Learning. Jointly accepted credit system,
such as the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS).
• ICT must be embedded in local government policies.
• Local government must take a long-term view on achieving the goals of an information society
– no quick fixes.
• Users, namely learners, teachers, trainers, etc., have to assert themselves as a driving force
and not act only as consumers. It is necessary to maintain the focus on the social dimension of
education-related activities and these cannot be reduced to just business and market issues.
• The newly established Digital Solidarity Fund should help promote and expand successful
development projects, particularly those that have only been funded as innovations and would
not otherwise be sustainable, so that excluded people and countries can enter the era of the
Information Society.
(L3 – Technology and Infrastructure) Provision of an infrastructure for a global collaboration
between students to share knowledge, experience and different perspectives.
• Standardisation of electronic interaction is needed.
• All educational institutions need a broadband Internet connection to facilitate teaching and the
provision of such connections should receive governmental support.
• Governments should create an electronic portal (e-government) to support the creation of an
information society, and this e-portal should be based on citizens’ needs.
• A city’s and local government’s information and communications network should be established
by the United Nations, to communicate information within local government and government in
general.
• The Digital Solidarity Fund must promote low-cost access to telecommunications and Internet;
• The Digital Solidarity Fund should promote free and open source software.

2. LEARNERS AND LIFE LONG LEARNING
(L1 - Society) Changes in the Education system.
• We need to consider all learners as lifelong learners.
• The process of change does not only involve the methods and tools for education but also the
different contents and their relative significance.
• Measuring ICT knowledge, understanding and skills must be part of all learner evaluations in
today’s (digital/information) society.
• Always give consideration to cultural and social contexts when introducing technologies in
educational processes.
• Technology and pedagogy are to be considered together as it is pointless, from a pedagogical
point of view to make ICT-based tools available if the educational strategies, and the activities
in which the learners engage, are not suitably revised.
• Shift e-learning emphasis from content to activity.
• Informal learning should be better exploited and applied in structures and conditions of work at school so learners can be better accommodated and learning be more effective.
• Technology cannot refer only to pedagogical assumptions and to the organisational structure of
existing educational institutions. New models and roles for teaching and learning, including
non-institutional and non-formal settings, need to be studied.
• Learning for the socially disabled can be highly motivated by the use of ICT.
• Students should learn more collaborative skills at school. ICT provides avenues through which
this can be done.
• Education in ICT is a gender issue as girls have different learning styles and social support
needs. Certain relevant abilities (e.g. spatial skills) are also gender related.
• Computer games are a neglected but very important area of computer supported learning,
which can promote critical thinking, strategic and logical skills, as well as co-operative and
negotiation capabilities.
• Schools need to adapt to accommodate young students who enter education already
possessing significant ICT skills.
• Online learning environments need to be designed carefully and appropriate instruments
developed for reflection on what works and what doesn’t.
• Lifelong learning is required to ensure economic, social, cultural and political development of
education through ICT.

(L2 – Learning and Teaching)
• Develop basic skills and competency of literacy and numeracy.
• Generic skills – such as communication skills, collaborative skills – are more and more
important.
• Students and teachers respond well to having choices in the technologies they use for learning
and teaching, rather than compulsion.
• Rethink how to integrate ICT in schools; how to be more flexible to give more access to more
students.
• Ensure ethical access to ICT.
(L3 – Technology and Infrastructure) Accessible, affordable, inclusive, and secure ICT.
• Internet safety is of great concern on a global basis and the world’s youth are at risk unless
parents, students and communities are educated on safe Internet use.
• More attention/awareness rising for the accessibility of digital learning environments and digitallearning materials for students with a handicap/functional impairment.
• Recognise that accuracy, relevance and timeliness of data about students is of prime
importance in enabling an effective educational management system.
• Learning should be tailored to the individual student’s requirements by using meta-data-tagged source material.
• Learning systems should be tailored to the students’ requirements and allow for collaborative
work.
• There should be improved international and professional collaboration in the ICT professional
field: i.e. try new mergers between international and political organisations.
• Develop portals for different age groups. To make sensible use of the immense data provided
by a "meta-digital library".

3. DECISION-MAKING STRATEGIES
(L1 - Society)
• National initiatives and policies should encourage the use of educational technology and
support communities that use technology.
• Much more attention needs to be paid to what is meant/understood by integration in national
policy.
• Governments should create an electronic portal (e-government) to support the concept of
creating an information society, and this e-portal should be based on citizens’ needs.
• In a changing world, we need to have an idea about what Lifelong Learners do in their
professional and their personal life to be able to develop effective policies.
• Public-private partnership must be policy driven through a framework.
• ICT is more than computers. It includes many other tools that should not be forgotten (PDAs,
Mobile phones, digital transmissions etc.).
• ICT must be embedded in local government policies.
• The views of Education players, Civil Society, Youth, and other groups should be considered
by the political and industrial leaders presently dominating the decision-making processes.
• Civil Society should be included in public-private partnerships.
• Determine where Civil Society fits into the critical ICT choices and decisions made by
governments.
(L2 – Learning and Teaching)
• Maintain the focus for the use of technology (for instance through curriculum delivery
enhancement).
• Encourage local ICT initiatives and build local capacities.
(L3 – Technology and Infrastructure)
• Encourage the use of open source software.
• Provision must be provided for the managing, financing and sustaining of technologies when
moving forward.
• As a principle, any funding proposals should have an ICT component built in (e.g. an
application to improve roads in an area should have a budget line for the laying of fibre optic
cables at the same time), with possible applications to Education.
• Local governments must take a lead in the "last mile issue", in order to bring connectivity to all
places.

4. NETWORKING
(L1 - Society)
• Use networking to encourage and develop partnerships.
• Involvement all stakeholders.
(L2 – Learning and Teaching)
• Use ICT to facilitate collaborative work, exchange and co-operation.
• Facilitate interactivity and create new learning spaces for activity.
• Establish virtual communities in Education, with common goals to pursue.
• Forums should be used for collaborative learning and debating.
• Creativity should be an encouraging underlying principle in education (and in teacher training).
• Develop e-Learning through networks as a way for ‘Education for All’.
• Move from e-Learning to connected and networked learning (digital or D-learning).
• Create and extend research networks of excellence on a global basis.
• Share daily across the world, contributions and advancements in ICT education, to enhance
and improve even the most remote communities.
(L3 – Technology and Infrastructure)
• Network municipalities, schools, universities, health organisations, etc, through digital
infrastructure, to increase information sharing (share information and facilities to benefit from
economies of scale).
• Ensure capacity (technical – producing, installation and roll-out) to get all schools connected.
• Provide through a multi-sectorial approach school laboratories, mobile libraries, virtual
classrooms, innovation hubs, etc.
• Provide ICT collaborative and learning networked environments.
• Encourage the use of collaborative facilities such as web services in creating inter-operability
infrastructures.

5. RESEARCH
(L1 - Society)
• ICT use in education must be effective and regularly evaluated.
• Reinforce research on the education issues of ICT outside western countries.
• Student evaluations of e-Learning should be more rigorously assessed and fed into the design
of e-learning environments.
• Focus online-learning research and practice to include issues of student diversity.
• There is a need for dedicated software for teaching, as smart as commercial general-purpose
products, but with pedagogical attributes.
• The shift of focus from teaching to learning necessitates a shift of focus from input to outcome,
and from outcome to impact.
• It is important to introduce young researchers, who naturally have the "ICT culture", into
research networks in order to expedite their integration into top research activities.
• Develop e-research culture that will lead to use of Internet for research.
(L2 – Learning and Teaching)
• The design of educational technology should include examples of meaningful pedagogical
processes based on a widespread consensus derived from appropriate pedagogical research.
• There is the need to address research questions regarding what teaching and learning
practices are successful and how it is possible to map effective teaching and learning in order
to be able to reproduce the processes involved.
(L3 – Technology and Infrastructure)
• We have to build a reliable system to allow co-operation between universities and industry so
that good ideas and prototypes are quickly transformed in products.

6. TEACHERS
(L1 - Society)
• The most important enabler for computers in education is the teacher. More focus should be
given to training and motivating teachers.
• An international agreement on skills and competencies for teacher professional development
may improve training in ICT.
• Empower practitioners and insist on collaboration between researchers, practitioners and
decision-makers.
• Teachers in all countries should get a tax break on technology.
• Counter the effects of cultural, educational and pedagogical imperialism during the
transmission of learning packages across cultural levels.
• Teachers need the philosophical underpinnings for inquiring into their practice.
• The teacher has to maintain his/her leading role in the classroom – too much technology is
detrimental.
• The time teachers spend in planning and organising ICT-based teaching and learning activities
should be considered within their current job timetable and not as an additional activity they
have to perform at home outside their current school timetable.
(L2 – Learning and Teaching)
• Good use of ICT in education requires modifications in pedagogy.
• Good teaching skills are more important than good ICT skills in effective use of ICT in
education.
• Developing teachers’ communities of practice using ICT is a valuable possibility to foster a
greater involvement of teachers at all school levels.
• Choice of software to support online learning should be undertaken by ICT experts in
consultation with the teachers.
• Learning Management Systems should not control the pedagogy. They should not hide or steal
the presence of the teacher.
• Basic skill training in ICT is still needed, but this should be carefully pitched at the adult learner
level. This model is particularly useful for developing countries.
• An exemplary "computer engaging" teacher must conscientiously plan for opportunities where
they can actively support children using computers during quality task based computer
activities.
• Anchoring fundamental ICT concepts in subjects and subject matter is essential to getting
students to "Being Fluent with Information Technology".
(L3 – Technology and Infrastructure)
• Computers and software should be made available for free to Educators, as professional tools.
• Empower public servants: access for teachers and principals; enforce ICT literacy among
educators.
--==oOo==--

Hello

2005-05-27T03:37:00.000-07:00

This site will offer hints on the use of ict in class. It will be practical in nature and will spring from well founded theory rooted in practice, using software that the author has found to be especially useful for classwork.
The two most useful pieces of software that I have used this year are:

Tintin and the Search fot the Lost letters and
AcceleRead/AcceleWrite

The first piece of software is very useful for working with a dyslexic child. It is used on a one-to-one basis, tutor and child. It gives the tutor a detailed profile of the child's strengths and learning style. It is user-friendly and affirming, so the child will enjoy working through the software.

AcceleRead/AcceleWrite uses the capabilities of the computer and a talking word processor to teach the child in a multimedia format to recognise letter patterns and so develop reading and writing skills.