I C T: School Innovation and the Quality of Learning - Pro g ress and Pitfalls -

For the past three years, and in response to the request of Education Ministers in OECD, CERI haslaunched a major study on the importance of ICT in education. The focus has been on ICT’s impact oneducational innovation and reform, student learning and experiences, the role of the teacher, ICTpartnerships and market developments and, not least, the issue of access to ICT for all. The re s e a rch willbe completed early in 2002. This bro c h u re summarises results so far, under five main themes, in eachcase describing the present situation, emerging issues, and possible ways ahead. The five themes are :t o w a rds a changed educational culture; e-learning and partnerships; learning to bridge the digital divide;teaching and learning; and re s e a rch and deve l o p m e n t .

"People, education and learning lie at the heart of these issues and their solutions. The machinesand sophisticated ICT equipment are useless without the competence to exploit them… the gapsthat define the ‘learning digital divide’ become as important as the more obvious gaps in accessto the technology itself."

Donald J. Johnston, OECD Secretary-General

G ove r n m e n t s , the private sector, families and individuals have made and are continuing to make hugei nvestments in ICT for education and learning. In its 1999 Education Policy A n a ly s i s , OECD estimated ana n nual and growing figure of US$ 16 billion for OECD countries across primary, s e c o n d a ry and tert i a rye d u c a t i o n , within which the bulk was spent on hard w a re and netwo r k i n g , little on software and only aro u n d5% on teacher training. One consequence of the investment is a dramatic growth within the whole educationsystem in the use of computers with access to the Internet for e-mail, and for teaching and learning purposes.

F i g u re 1. indicates the percentage of school students with such access across 13 OECD countries.While thereis considerable variation, almost all lower secondary schools in Finland, Canada and Iceland have access.

To w a rds a Changed Educational Culture

P r esent situation

Source:Education at a Glance, OECD, Paris, 2000

Primary educationLower secondary educationUpper secondary education

Pe rc e n t a ge of students in schools using computers with access to e-mail/Internet f o rinstructional purposes, by level of education (1998-1999)

During the year 2000, 95% of Australian children aged 5-14 had used ac o m p u t e r, and half of these had accessed the Internet. In Sweden andC a n a d a , a round thre e - q u a rters of youths aged 12-24 access the We bf rom schools, and more than 90% of students in those countries withInternet access use the Web to complete school assignments1.These arenot isolated deve l o p m e n t s .At the level of Higher Education, institutions are investing heav i ly in thed evelopment of on-line learning materials, whether to enhancetraditional faculty teaching or for separate distance-learning purposes,a sF i g u re 2, c overing the U. S . ,i n d i c a t e s :

1 9 9 8 2 0 0 2Fo u r- y ear colleg e so f f ering distance learning 6 2 % 8 4 %

Student enrolment in distributed learning 710 000 2 200 000

Source of data:Report of the Web-based Education Commission,December 2000.

M a ny sectors have undergone wholesale transformation under theinfluence of ICT - automobile, t e x t i l e, re t a i l i n g , banking - to deliver hugeg a i n s , though often with considerable tensions during the period ofi m p l e m e n t a t i o n . H oweve r, m o re than any other sector, education - withits focus on students and teachers - is labour- i n t e n s i ve. Its mission isoften seen in part in terms of safe g u a rding and transmitting a part i c u l a rk n owledge culture, with a predominance of face-to-face teaching. T h eadoption of ICT poses a vast challenge to conventional practice.F u rt h e r m o re, such traditional views of teaching are coupled with ar ap i d ly ageing teaching fo rce in most OECD countries, making the in-s e rvice training of teachers for the use of ICT a ve ry complicated task.On the other hand, most new teachers will have had good ICT training

during their pre - s e rvice period. A fo rce of innov a t i o n , although oftenu n t ap p e d , exists in terms of the students’ knowledge and willingness towork with ICT in learning. P romising examples exist of ICT-k n owledgeable students becoming ‘teaching assistants’, to help otherstudents who are less familiar with ICT.

The compre h e n s i ve changes in education and learning brought about ormade possible by the adoption of ICT re q u i re a fundamental re - ap p r a i s a lof the learning env i ronment and support systems, w h e re by theu n d e r lying aims of education can be strengthened and adapted to thechanged circumstances of a massive penetration of ICT-based educationand learning. Such an appraisal will have to include at least the fo l l ow i n g :

IC T I N F R A S T RU C T U R E. Most countries are today invo l ved in a phaseof building up the needed hard w a re and connectivity. It is afundamental objective to ensure that all learners and teachers area d e q u a t e ly equipped, and that equipment is maintained.PE O P L E.The challenge is to convince all - school leaders, t e a c h e r s ,a n dstudents - to use ICT in their daily work and profit from doing so.T h i sis where training and retraining will be needed on a major scale, w i t hap p ropriate incentive s , so that educational institutions becomelearning organisations.PA RT N E R S H I P S.T h e re is a compelling need to develop and stre n g t h e np a rt n e r s h i p s : h o r i zo n t a l l y b e t ween education, the private sectorand the community at large, to build and maintain an adequate ICTi n f r a s t r u c t u re ; and ve rt i c a l l y b e t ween the diffe rent sectors of theeducation system, n o t a b ly higher and secondary education, in re s p e c tof subject matter and pedago gy.EVALUATION. Research and evaluation are needed to show ‘whatworks’ and ‘what does not work’ in the implementation of ICT,particularly for the in-service education and training referred to forschool leaders and teachers.1 - NUA Internet Surveys , 27 Nov 2000 and 13 Sep 2000.

Critical Issues

The Way A h e a d

Private ve n t u re - c apital companies are anticipating that e-learning will develop rap i d ly and that e-learningm a r ke t s will grow substantially over the coming ye a r s ,a c ross school, p o s t - s e c o n d a ry and the corporate sector,whether in the U. S . (as in Figure 3. b e l ow ) , or elsew h e re inOECD countries and the global marke t :

e-learning market in U . S . ($ billion, e s t i m a t e d )

1 9 9 9 2 0 0 3

S c h o o l 1 . 3 6 . 9

Po s t - s e c o n d a r y 1 . 2 7 . 0

C o r p o r a t e 1 . 1 1 1 . 4

Source:the Knowledge Web,Merrill Lynch,May 2000.

These estimates of e-learning markets in 2003 arei m p re s s i ve. A l re a d y, e-learning has been integrated intotraditional university courses, the use of the Internet beingan integral element in 39 % of all college courses in theU. S . in 1999. N eve rt h e l e s s , a lot of uncertainty exists interms of technology and content prov i s i o n .The e-learningm a r kets themselves are volatile and unpre d i c t a b l e, as isillustrated by the many closures and buy-up mergersamong private companies.The emergence of partnerships has become crucial for thed evelopment of e-learning. The sheer cost, scale andcontent complexity of e-learning make collaborative

activity all but inev i t a b l e, p a rt i c u l a r ly if countries are tom a ke pro g ress in lifelong learning. People and organisationsneed to reach outside their own core competencies ands k i l l - s e t s , if they are to deliver the products and serv i c e sre q u i red in an incre a s i n g ly global economy. S c h o o l s ,u n i ve r s i t i e s , l i b r a r i e s , publishers and broadcasters arecollaborating with telecommunication and softwarec o m p a n i e s , to take advantage of the potential for newbusiness opportunities in the education marke t .The fastest developments are seen in post-secondary andcorporate education.The number of cro s s - b o rder public-private alliances in post-secondary education is risingr ap i d ly, to match growing competition in an incre a s i n g lyglobal e-learning marke t . In the school marke t ,p a rtnerships are often national and concentrate on high-quality software deve l o p m e n t .T h e re is also an emergingissue for the school sector relating to the costs ofd i f fe rent computer operating systems, for instance Linu x ,for which the codes are open and are distributed fre e, a n dthe dominant closed systems.

G overnments must have a clear understanding andpurpose in re g a rd to the fo l l ow i n g :

T h e re is so far no internationally accepted qualityassurance framework for post-secondary education.H oweve r, students will incre a s i n g ly be offe red a rangeof post-secondary courses, often from unfamiliarp roviders operating outside their country ’s jurisdiction.

E - l e a rning and partnerships

P r esent situation

Critical issues