Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
STUDY LIMITATIONS
Our study and the model arising out of it are governed by limitations inherent in our
methodology. The first limitation concerns the interpretive nature of the study. While
researcher bias cannot be eliminated in this type of research, it is acknowledged as a factor
affecting data collection and analysis. Certainly, it may have inadequately represented the
participants' perceptions of ICT planning and the priorities they awarded to certain facets
of ICT planning. Moreover, the retrospective nature of the interviews makes it difficult to
validate the accuracy of responses given, which may be impacted by problems of recall.
However, because most schools did not begin to develop formal ICT plans until 1999, the
relative recency of events minimized the potential for poor recall. Document analysis also
provided a secondary source of information, which was useful in validating respondents'
perceptions.
The second limitation lies with the use of one respondent in each school. Although a
pretest (designed to test the interview format and check that the principal would be able to
answer the queries and provide the documentation) showed that the principal was the best
person to interview, because he or she was likely to be the person most aware of ICT planning
in the school and the person most conversant with the school's strategic plans, interviewing
a wider cross-section of personnel (for example, teachers, school administrators) would have
enabled triangulation of the findings as well as further insight into the issues explored.
A third concern is that the research context was confined to a small number of New
Zealand primary schools. While this situation supported cross-case comparisons and the
identification of trends among the schools, it may have limited the wider applicability of the
findings to environments that do not have similar characteristics. The skewed nature of the
sample (yielding five Decile 10 schools of the eight schools that participated in the study)
may also have limited interpretation, but it allowed one important observation to be made,
namely, that marked differences in ICT planning and implementation among schools may not
be influenced by decile rating. Nevertheless, future research should consider a wider range
of schools.
CONCLUSION
Achieving effective integration of ICT within the educational process is a complex
undertaking, encompassing educational and administrative areas. Although the schools that
participated in this study tended to address these issues differently, the information that we
collected about them allowed us to identify characteristics of planning as well as some of the
factors that enable schools to move forward in their planning and implementation of ICT. The
value of this research is therefore twofold. First, it supports the notion that ICT strategy
planning evolves over time, thereby offering a tool for assessing and explaining the evolution
of ICT planning in schools, providing direction for growth, and providing a basis for further
study of ICT in schools. Second, it highlights the impact of external and internal factors on
ICT planning in schools.
In similar vein to the study conducted by King and Teo (1997), our study revealed a
progression from unformulated ICT plans with piecemeal implementation of hardware and
software, through to the development of coherent and focused plans that emphasize the
strategic goals of the school in the areas of teaching, learning, and administration. It seems
