Digital Reality in Schools

This extensive and interesting research report from 2008 titled Implementing Web 2.0 in secondary schools: impact, barriers and issues  looks at practices in UK schools and can be accessed from the Becta website.  But first some background:

A Government initiative (approximate cost NZ$600 million) has provided the most needy students in the UK (270 000 families identified as qualifying) with free laptops which they can keep, and one years freebroad, in an attempt to 'close the achievement gap' between rich and poor.  To qualify a students have to be those eligible for free school lunches but even then there is no guarantee.  It is however, official recognition that students need access to resources at home as well as at school.  British P.M. at the time Gordon Brown said 'there were educational,economic and social benefits in being online at home and that computers were no longer a luxury for a few but are as essential a part of education as books, pens and paper".  This news article and the research report both resonated with me as I was teaching in England at the time and saw the social situation being targeted.  It also coincided with schools identified as leaders in their fields recieving extra funding so that they exhibited  'best practice' and attracted students .   I taught in a specialist technology school which prided itself on its IT status.  The only problem was that the interactive whiteboards had been vandalised and the school couldn't afford more than 5 hours technical support a week so that computers didn't work and the firewall/filter didn't allow access to sites anyway!  The reality was less use of technology in teaching and learning than was happening in my NZ teaching!    Political rhetoric fell well short of the realityin that specialist school at least. 

The Becta article was based on field studies of 27 schools (mostly specialist schools) and looked at the adoption of Web 2.0 tools and the establishment and sustaining of collaborative learning communities.  It looked closely at the use of social networking, blogs, wikis, conversational arenas and media sharing.  It then touched on pedagogy  before identifying the impact and benefitsWeb2.0 learning can have on learning at school and in the community.  Four potential benefits identified were: stimulation of new modes of enquiry, new opportunities to engage in collaborative learning activities, engagement with new literacies and confidence and skills gained from publication of content.

Finally the report identified the barriers and tensions, opportunities, choices and visions, and implications for policy makers.

The study's findings are I  believe be equally valid in New Zealand and make interesting and informative reading  for anyone involved in education at any level.