Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
focus from acquiring application skills to learning how to integrate ICT into the curriculum
in a meaningful way. The school was also beginning to focus on identifying appropriate
Internet sites for children, and staff members were learning how to download material for
classroom use.
Stage 3: Focused Formal Planning
By this stage, schools have begun to recognize the value of ICT to enhance adminis-
trative and communication functions as well as teaching and learning. They have a more
comprehensive understanding of the potential of ICT to contribute to the school's strategic
objectives, and they are using ICT to modify or reengineer some of the processes within the
school. Their strategic educational planning reciprocally identifies and promotes these
processes.
Although many of the
schools exhibited characteristics of Stage 3 ICT planning
maturity, most were mixtures of Stages 2 and 3, with some categories having greater planning
focus than others. For example, School 5 demonstrated a Stage 3 approach to using
technology for supporting administrative efficiency and effectiveness but was very much
Stage 2 in its struggle to understand how best to use ICT to enhance classroom learning.
Schools 6, 7, and 8, while exhibiting some Stage 2 characteristics, leaned far more toward Stage
3 maturity. These three schools had well-developed plans for the use of ICT and its application
to teaching and learning. School 8, in particular, had a well-developed network plan and initial
plans for using the school Web site to reach families, in the school community, with non-
English speaking backgrounds. School 7 had included ICT in its property management plan
and was designing an ICT center for wider use by the community; for this school,
ICT planning
was an accepted part of the school planning process. The three schools were also beginning
to explore how ICT could be used to support other functions, such as administration.
School 6 provided a particularly clear example of the Stage 3 characteristics of
understanding how ICT can be used to support teaching, learning, and increased efficiency
in school administration, and of increasing levels of staff competency across and within
application areas. As such, we document it in some detail here.
This school had reasonably well-developed infrastructures and a written ICT plan
dating back to 1994, although the latter had not been significantly updated until 1999. Staff
development was personalized to meet the needs of individual staff and coordinated
throughout the school to ensure increasing sophistication in ICT use. The principal also
considered that the school had “
trained the trainer
” and was reaping the benefits of staying
with the same external service provider.
School 6's utilization of ICT to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its student
records system is especially interesting. The school's reasonably transient population made
the ability to produce information and reports on demand important. The principal was
convinced that a computer-based student record system would meet this need. He also
believed this could become a powerful tool for teachers in the classroom, allowing them to
access information that would help them provide better programs of work for individual
students and groups.
Other indicators of planning maturity were evident in the school's plans regarding ICT
and other ICT-related needs. For example, the school wanted to ensure that new equipment
could be upgraded to meet future needs, and that the purchase and implementation of
equipment would be conducted in a comprehensive rather than piecemeal fashion to ensure
