Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
sharing in the wider school community. Although they reported that their schools were
using standard office applications for word processing, desktop publishing, and
maintaining student records, these principals indicated that they were only just
beginning to use email for their own communications. Although a few were using the
Internet to access information from the Ministry of Education and other school-related
sites, the principals had not explored the possibilities of using ICT for communication
and collaboration within the school, for example, digital school calendars, planning
templates, shared curriculum planning, and central storage of resources (CD-ROMs,
digital images) on school networks or intranets. And, they had not considered using
computerized reporting systems and email for daily absences, parent and staff
communications, or interactions with staff in other schools. In short, their schools had
yet to embark on the “re-engineering of teaching and learning and of school adminis-
tration processes” referred to in the planning guide (Ministry of Education, 1999, pp.
1-3).
Overall, there was little evidence of explicit, formal integration between the schools'
ICT plans and their formal strategic plans. Where links existed, they tended to focus
on the core business of teaching and learning and, except for School 3, did not consider
the potential of ICT to enhance broader areas such as administrative functions and
collaboration or communication with the wider school community.
The Model
In addition to outlining the four stages of our model, Figure 1 provides a set of
benchmarks that correspond to each of the stages. These benchmarks are organized across
the four categories of curriculum , professional development , infrastructure development ,
and school administration . While the first three categories are based on funding criteria set
by the Ministry of Education (ERO, 2000), the fourth category, school administration ,
emerged from our data analysis. The use of ICT to support school administration was an
implied area of focus in the Ministry of Education's national ICT strategy for schools (MOE,
1998), although explicit reference was not included in the funding criteria (ERO, 2000).
From our interview and document evidence, we determined that the four stages are not
discrete but are points along a continuum of planning maturity. The benchmark character-
istics associated with each stage are, therefore, similarly, indicators of progress along an
evolutionary pathway rather than examples of discrete categories. The following discussion
illustrates the four stages (and their benchmark characteristics) and identifies some of the
drivers (key factors) that enable schools to progress from one stage to the next in their
planning (see Figure 2 and Panel 1). Throughout, examples are used from the case study
evidence, not because they epitomize a stage with particular clarity, but because they
demonstrate characteristics that are useful in explaining and describing the proposed theory
for ICT planning in schools.
Stage 1: Little or No Planning
Schools at this stage of planning have established an ICT budget, but the emphasis is
on equipment acquisition (technical) and operations. Stage 1 schools have technical goals,
such as establishing and operating an ICT network, providing Internet access, having a
computer in every classroom, and achieving a reasonable computer-to-student ratio. How-
ever, schools at this stage have not yet considered how ICT could be used to support the
Search WWH ::




Custom Search