Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
1.
School Size
In School 1 (refer to Table 1), the small, two-teacher rural school, the principal was, as
he said, “responsible for everything,” a situation that is common in schools of this size.
When asked how he would rate the planning and implementation of ICT in his school
compared to other schools, he replied that, “We're somewhere a little below the
middle.” We found this school to be the least sophisticated in terms of planning for and
using ICT. In contrast, some of the larger schools had teachers with special interests
and well-developed skills in ICT, or teacher-librarians with interest and skills in library
information systems, or they had an established ICT curriculum team. School 3, a 20-
teacher urban school, had a full-time ICT facilitator based in the school.
2.
ICT Competence and Attitudes of Top Management
The ICT competence of the schools' principals, coupled with their attitudes toward
using ICT, appeared to be an important factor influencing ICT planning and develop-
ment. For example, the principal of School 3 (Principal 3) demonstrated an active interest
in ICT: “
I really enjoy using it, and if I had time to find out more, I would be right in
there. I try to model it, and I'm probably one of the better users in the school
.” She
expected staff to use ICT as a tool in their own planning. All staff had been given laptops
and were required to use these to prepare long-term plans, and to email them to the
principal. The school was also trialing an assessment package, and there was recog-
nition that teachers needed access to computers at home (thus, laptops), because this
is when they had time to enter assessment data. The laptops doubled as an extra
classroom computer during the day.
The seven other principals did not match Principal 3's degree of confidence with ICT,
and several indicated that they had little experience of using technologies such as email
and the Internet that are reasonably well established in the wider New Zealand
community. In general, these principals appeared to have little expectation of their staff
to use ICT for anything other than classroom tuition.
3.
Staff ICT Competence and Attitudes
The level of ICT competence exhibited by the schools' staff (for example, hardware/
software knowledge, operating skills, software use, and ability to use ICT in delivering
the curriculum) varied within and between schools. For some schools, the different
levels of competence evident among their staff made it difficult to determine an
appropriate ICT-related professional development strategy. As the principal of School
8 observed,
“We have to work hard at recognizing that staff are going to be in different
places. The bigger the staff, the worse it is. We have 19 staff - 19 different stages
almost.”
Those schools with staff with specialist ICT knowledge/skills were able to rely
on them for valuable input into the ICT planning process. However, Principal 3 believed
that staff's willingness to learn about ICT was more important than actual staff
expertise.
The attitudes that staff held regarding the role of ICT in the school also appeared to
influence ICT planning maturity. Principal 8, for example, considered that effective use
of ICT in the school depended on staff sharing a common belief in the value of ICT for
schools. Principal 5, in describing how his school had first implemented ICT and then
sought to develop a vision regarding its use, observed that it would have been better
if the vision had been fostered before the implementation. He was particularly
concerned about teachers making statements like,
“I don't feel confident with this,”
and
“Our kids don't need this.”
