In brief, Information Technology (IT) plays a combination of the following possible broad roles in a school:

• administrative use
• time tabling, school administration, marks administration
• professional vocational teaching
• computer studies

• a tutoring system in the computer-aided instruction role
• a wide range of educational software is used. This software is largely behaviouristic with limited true interactivity

• a source of training in "computer literacy"classes
• the applications are often taught in training situations

• integrated with the curriculum where mastery of IT skills takes place in the educational context
• the suite applications and other truly interactive simulation software and specific applications are used as tools in the learning process

The introduction of the Internet and the emergence of ICT (Information and Communications Technology, referring mostly to online computers in the school context) has not seen large-scale change in the strategies that schools have towards the technology. In order to explain this, one needs to examine the educational paradigm influencing technology-related decisions in the school.

Teachers who conduct lessons in the "chalk-and-talk" methodology (commonly found throughout the world), are not likely to view ICT in the same light as teachers who encourage independent thinking and inquiry. They are more likely to view ICT as a personal information source and as a tutorial device for those being taught. Good teachers who teach more in the constructivist-type learning style will see ICT as a tool and resource to be used by the learners in the learning process.

New dimensions that the Internet offers IT are its strength in communications and information - hence the term ICT (Information and Communications Technology) . New challenges emerge in the need for information literacy and a broad range of information management skills. At the same time learners are exposed to a much wider range of opinions and understanding as they collaborate across cultural boundaries using e-mail. The Internet is offering educators the opportunity to transform their teaching. It offers the resource for learner-centred project-based learning, where knowledge is constructed in collaborative contexts. This collaboration often extends beyond the classroom boundaries in the form of telecollaboration. In this process learners are developing the life-long learning skills associated with outcomes-based education.

There is as much documented evidence suggesting that technology makes no significant difference to learning as there is claiming that technology has made a significant difference. Examination of these reports highlights a few issues. Research claiming that technology makes no significant difference tends to be concentrated mainly on the use of technology as a delivery method for distance learning and correspondence study. Measurable criteria in these studies have concentrated mainly on test scores. The assumption that must be made here is that the mode of teaching and evaluation used has followed traditional teaching patterns, where the mastering of content is emphasised.

Of course there is a large amount of research claiming the exact opposite - that technology indeed does make a difference to learning. Interestingly, much of this research points to additional factors such as student attitudes and drop-out rates. One of the most significant pieces of research that has been conducted was by the Centre for Applied Special Technology (CAST) in1996. This research shows "significantly higher scores on measurements of information management, communication, and presentation of ideas" for online groups. Online access helped learners become "independent, critical thinkers, able to find information, organise and evaluate it, and then effectively express their new knowledge in compelling ways". This describes a reformed classroom, where constructivist-type learning takes place.

In terms of traditional/behaviouristic versus project- or resource-based/constructivist learning there is a clear distinction between the roles of the teacher, learner and information. The role of ICT and the types of software used will also clearly be different.

If marks and content mastery are what educators want, they are likely to use ICT and software in a very different way to educators using outcome-based approaches. Traditional educators will use more behaviouristic software such as drill-and-practice software. The attractive, so-called interactive, multimedia informational tutorial software, which is so commonly available, is used for its ability to "teach" and develop understanding. The aim of its use is to improve learner performance in tests and exams.

Outcomes-based educators will encourage learners to use the same informational software for its value as a source of information. In this case the aim is to use information as a resource in the process of synthesis, be it as part of a problem-solving exercise, to help make informed decisions or to aid critical thinking. The educators will also more likely use simulation and modelling software, once again as a stimulus to thought in a learner-centred process.

SchoolNet SA chooses to align itself with the constructivist learning paradigm. In so doing it will invest its resources into programmes and online content that are able to facilitate development of teachers towards achieving levels of competence that will enable them to use ICT as a tool, rather than a crutch. In so doing measurable outcomes will shift from better results to better life-long personal and information skills and independent learning. Short term outcomes will be measurable in anecdotal evidence of the benefits of cross-cultural collaboration, more efficient information search strategies and better synthesis of information (as opposed to information transfer) in the project work produced by learners. Using the strengths of ICT (information and communications), teachers will harness the technology to enable their learners to work collaboratively with a spirit of inquiry. This will provide them with the context for acquiring information management skills such as creative and critical thinking, problem solving, information search and evaluation, synthesis and presentation of original ideas in ethical ways. SchoolNet supports learning strategies that are in line with the critical cross-curricular outcomes of Curriculum 2005. In brief, SchoolNet aims to improve learning rather than to improve teaching. It aims to improve teachers’ skills in order to facilitate better learning.

It is with this approach in mind that the proposal for the Eastern Cape Project was re-worded to largely exclude reference to software. It is a commonly-supported opinion that technology and software will not make a bad or indifferent teacher a better teacher. The use of drill-and-practice programmes and tutor programmes will only make a bad teacher look significantly better. A resource like the Internet and truly interactive, learner-driven software will be well-manipulated by good teachers, but will be of little real educational value to traditional teachers.

It is a better long-term investment, with long-term measurable outcomes, to support development in the use of ICT as a telecollaborative tool and as an information resource (as opposed to a source of content). Indifferent teachers will use the World Wide Web to merely produce more content and more current examples. Good teachers who encourage inquiry in collaborative contexts will allow their learners to access the same resource, and any other informational software as a resource, to assist the learning process.

Extensive perusal of software catalogues and online software review sites have not produced any Math software other than Geometer SketchPad that fully satisfies the requirement of true interactivity. Very little in the way of Science software falls into the same category. There is attractive multi-media Science tutoring software, but this kind of software does not stimulate inquiry through true interactivity. There is also data logging software and equipment, but this just simulates and/or assists in laboratory experiments conducted by the teacher (given its prohibitive cost). Existing resources such as the Internet are often able to provide the same answers to learner’s questions, albeit with the employment of more sophisticated information skills.

It is therefore my recommendation that SchoolNet not become over-involved in employing educational software in its projects, unless the educational objectives of doing so are well-understood. It would seem that teacher development towards using ICT as a tool in the educational process will result in more long-term benefits for life-long learners who, as independent thinkers, will become valuable information-literate members of a global economy.

Gerald Roos
2 February 2000

EMail: roosg@mweb.co.za
Last updated: 11 April 2000