Effects of ICT: Do we know what we should know?

Abstract

Many decades after the introduction of ICT into classrooms there are still unanswered questions about the impact of technology in the long and short term on students' learning, and how it has affected simple and complex learning tasks. These are important for (a) forming government policies; (b) directing teacher education programmes: (c) advancing national curricula; (d); designing or reforming classroom implementation and (e) analysing costs and benefits. While a plethora of studies has been conducted on the effects of ICT in education, major policy and methodological problems have precluded an unambiguous answer to such questions as:-"Does the way in which ICT is implemented have a major/minor impact on students' knowledge and understanding?" and "Does the impact affect the surface or deep structure of students' thinking and acting?" To date we have had no large-scale longitudinal studies of ICT's impact in education such as we have in the form of studies of earlier major curriculum development projects. Nor have we had many comprehensive studies of the complex interactions between various types of ICT implementation and the effects of other factors such as school-based interventions, socioeconomic status and school expenditures which have been shown to have a greater impact on education compared with other previous innovations in education. Furthermore we do not know if previous research studies have used research methods that matched learning objectives to instruments/procedures. Many previous studies are vague as to the actual measures used but we can infer that standardized tests were a frequent measure. In other instances, ad hoc analyses, with criteria that may have varied from analyst to analyst and were not "blind" analyses were certainly used to measure "success." All of these limitations and uncertainties and many more point to the need for a thorough, rigorous, and multifaceted approach to analysing the impact of ICT on students' learning. This paper draws on previous research evidence to identify relevant research strategies to address the gaps in our knowledge about ICT and students' learning explained above.

Teaching and Learning with Technology: Effectiveness of ICT Integration in Schools

“…Results of a previous research (Cox & Marshall, 2007) shows that teachers only need a traditional -centered approach when developing ICT skills in the classroom. The teachers are having high confidence and competency in using ICT in classroom even though it does not represents the types of ICT used.…”

Technology-enhanced learning and teaching in higher education: what is ‘enhanced’ and how do we know? A critical literature review

“…Fewer considered the second aim -how. The ways in which academics conceptualise teaching and learning with technology have significant and interrelated impacts upon their students' experience of learning (Kirkwood and Price 2012) There is increasing recognition of the limitations of much research that has been undertaken to understand the relationship between technology and learning (Cox and Marshall 2007;Oliver, 2011;Oliver et al, 2007). Research is often characterised by a lack of critical enquiry (Selwyn, 2011) and a limited range of research methods and approaches.…”

TIC en el aula inglesa – ¿Huecos entre la política y la práctica?

“…Earlier evidence of teachers' unpreparedness, identified in Cox and Marshall (2007), identified teachers' lack of knowledge and confidence impacting negatively on effectiveness, so teachers may not therefore bring about the improvements that are potentially possible. The findings of this study include teachers' readiness to use computers as a presentational tool, with the most commonly used features of technology being, equally, computers used by the teacher, interactive whiteboards used for presentation, projectors, language websites used for resource material, office applications for writing purposes, and online games (although these refer to games within a software package, for practice of vocabulary, rather than games played 'beyond' the classroom).…”