Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
that as schools develop skills in planning for ICT, they tend to identify opportunities to
enhance the core business of teaching and learning through the innovative use of ICT in
administrative, collaborative, and support roles.
While external influences can make a school move forward in its ICT planning (as
happened in relation to the MOE requirement that schools provide ICT plans in order to
qualify for ICT funding), our findings indicate that internal factors are more likely to influence
the movement from one stage of planning to the next. These include the extent to which school
management is committed to ICT use, staff attitudes toward and beliefs about ICT, the amount
of experience that staff have in using ICT, and their knowledge about its potential for teaching,
learning, and administrative support. Principals, in particular, seem to play a vital role in
determining the planning maturity of their schools. It would appear that a principal with sound
knowledge of and commitment to ICT can override a good number of the internal factors that
can hinder ICT planning maturity in schools.
One of the most significant findings in this study was the lack of vision evident among
Stages 1, 2, and 3 schools regarding the potential that ICT has to facilitate and enhance
administrative, communication, and collaborative functions within the school system.
Similarly, the potential for ICT to improve recording, analyzing, and reporting student
progress and achievement appeared to be an underdeveloped area among the participating
schools.
The development of a stage model of ICT planning maturity for schools provides a tool
for analyzing current planning processes and assessing maturity vis-à-vis each of the
planning categories proposed by the model. In this regard, it also offers further evidence of
the usefulness of stage theory in understanding organizational development and IS strategy-
business strategy alignment. The model descriptors (Figure 1) provide benchmarks for
highlighting areas of deficiency, assessing future directions, and providing assurance to
school leaders that as they work toward planning maturity. The stage drivers (Figure 2) go
beyond the basic stage model to provide direction on aligning ICT planning with school
strategic planning.
It needs to be noted, though, that these stages and their associated drivers reflect our
interpretations of observations made among eight schools and assessment of publicly
available documents. Although these findings represent an important contribution to
understanding the evolution of ICT planning in schools, the research limitations provide
opportunity for further research to confirm or refine our model's proposed stages of maturity.
ENDNOTES
Information systems planning is the term used to describe the process of determining
objectives for organizational computing and identifying potential applications that
should be implemented in the organization (Teo & King, 1997).
1
Information technology is defined as the hardware and software that allow the access,
retrieval, storage, organization, manipulation, and presentation of information by
electronic means (Ministry of Education, 1998).
2
Within the school context, IT is nowadays more commonly termed ICT, and it is the
term/abbreviation that will generally be used throughout this chapter when reference
is made to this context.
3
