Education policy and the rationale for technology development in schools: political drivers - Teaching with Technologies: The Essential Guide - page 38

Conclusions
While technology had been developed in schools from the early 1980s, it became
very apparent by the mid-1990s that the state of technology in schools was 'primitive
and not improving' and it was 'a national priority to increase use' (Stevenson 1997: 6).
Problems concerning the major deficiencies were: technology training, resourcing,
whole-school management and curriculum application. First, the problem with
resourcing was the urgent need to replace obsolete computers. Second, teachers
required specialist training to be proficient with technology. Third, school managers
needed to develop a whole-school policy for technology, and fourth, there was a need
to address the curriculum application of technology across all subjects.
In the late 1990s policy-makers embraced technology and made it a seductively ano-
dyne 'cure all' for education. Arguably, the panacea of technology was cast as the solution
to no less than the fundamental problems of education and the economy. As Somekh
(2000: 20) argued it was taken 'and offered to the electorate as a talisman'. In turn, this
led to the first-ever, nationally coordinated technology strategy and was, historically, the
most ambitious and expensive change ever to be implemented in British state schooling.
Despite the political idealization of technology and the fact that it may not have had the
significant impact on attainment as originally hoped, the Labour government were com-
mitted to embedding technology in schools and providing a technology entitlement to
all pupils. Arguably the economic rationale was the most politically persuasive regarding
the unprecedented financial investment made by the Treasury in technology for schools
under Labour 1997-2010 (£5 billion). What remains for the future, in terms of policy
development for technology, will be a case of waiting to see.
Further reading
DfES (2002b) Transforming the Way We Learn: A Vision for the Future of ICT in Schools ,
London: DfES.
Somekh, B. (2000) New Technology and Learning: Policy and Practice in the UK 1980-
2010, Education and Information Technologies , 5(1): 19-37.
Younie, S. (2006) Implementing Government Policy on ICT in Education: Lessons Learnt,
Education and Information Technologies , 11(3-4): 385-400.
Websites
DfE (Department for Education) http://www.education.gov.uk/
For current policy on technology in schools refer to the government website for education.
National Archives http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
To access Becta research reports, see the national archives, which has records of research
into technology and education from 1997 to 2010. Following a change of govern-
ment, web-based support and provision for education practice was withdrawn by the
incoming Conservative and Liberal Democrat government in May 2010. A number of
websites with research and evidence-based practice on technology were discontinued:
for example, ttrb (teachers training resource bank), multi-verse, Becta.