Vol. 18, No. 4, December 2002

Special issue: International studies of innovative uses of ICT in schools

Commentaries:

Guest editorial: international studies of innovative uses of ICT in schools

R.E. Anderson, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA

Email: rea@iea.soc.umn.edu

This Special Issue of JCAL presents major descriptive and analytic findings from in-depth case studies of innovative, ICT-supported pedagogical practices conducted during the 2000–2001 school year in 11 countries spread across five continents. As explained in the following paper by Robert Kozma and associates, parallel case studies were conducted in 28 countries under the coordination of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) in a project called the Second International Technology in Education Study (SITES), Module 2. In each country an official national panel selected exemplary school sites with innovative pedagogical practices using ICT. While international criteria were specified for the selection of cases, the national panels in each country were asked to modify them to better represent their conceptions of ‘innovative’ learning activities using ICT’. This Special Issue features reports from selected countries in order to provide an initial, preliminary portrayal of the approaches and findings of the study. The papers analyse the results country by country. An international report with extensive comparative results is planned for 2003.

This study is unique among international comparative studies. It combines the best of ‘area studies’, which tend to be culturally in-depth but limited to one or two countries, and international assessments, that tend to be very cursory but involve 20–40 countries. The study design emerged within IEA because traditional international assessments are not well matched to educational topics that are changing rapidly and are not highly institutionalised. In the case of ICT, the content of the field is changing rapidly and, partly because of that, there is little consensus among educators about how it should be integrated into schools and their curricula.

The findings from these case studies illustrate how contemporary information and communication technology is pushing the boundaries of education conceptually and methodologically. Leading-edge ICT pushes education by expanding where and when learning can take place and raises questions about best teaching practice (Means et al., 2001). Questions of appropriate teaching roles and learning modes emerge as many students have more ICT knowledge and skill than their teachers and parents. Given the growing importance of knowledge acquisition, and information handling in the global economy, decision-makers are reconsidering educational goals and pedagogical priorities. Most disconcerting is the discriminatory implications of the high cost of contemporary ICT, making it nearly impossible in some societies for lower income parents and schools to benefit as much as those with higher incomes.

Research on educational innovations identifies innovative characteristics and contexts critical to the adoption and sustainability of implementations (cf. Huberman & Miles, 1984). To explore the extent to which these models apply to contemporary ICT across diverse cultures, a case study methodology was designed and applied in 28 countries. In addition to serving research objectives, these case studies were intended to provide policy analysts and teachers with examples of ‘model’ classroom practices and offer policy makers findings regarding the contextual factors that are critical to successful implementation and sustainability of these exemplary teaching practices using ICT.

Data sources and methods

Twenty-eight countries conducted in-depth, qualitative case studies during the last half of 2000 and the first half of 2001 for the IEA SITES Module 2 project. Projects in three of the countries, Canada, Israel, and the United States, simultaneously participated in the OECD/CERI project on organisational studies of educational change. The OECD study was similar to the IEA SITES study but it emphasised school-wide reform as well as pedagogical innovation. As each country conducted between 4 and 12 case studies, the total number of cases for analysis added up to 174. To accomplish this investigation, each case study describes and analyses classroom-based processes and their contexts.

The case studies in this project are primary and/or secondary schools (serving students of about 6 to 18 years old), selected to be exemplary because they had classrooms with innovative pedagogical practices using technology (IPPUT). Additionally these practices at the sites had to: show evidence of significant changes in roles of teachers and students; show evidence of measurable positive student outcomes and to be potentially sustainable and transferable.

International guidelines, instruments, protocols and procedures provided commonality across research sites allowing for local deviations as appropriate. At each site the research procedure included interviewing teachers, the Principal, the ICT coordinator(s), students and parents. Classrooms were observed and site documents collected. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Along with the field notes and site documents, these were analysed with codes derived from the study’s conceptual framework. Additional codes emerged that were grounded in the data.

The papers in this Special Issue were adapted from presentations at a 3-hour symposium at the annual meetings of the American Educational Research Association, April 4, 2002 in New Orleans. In writing up their preliminary findings, the national research coordinators chose to emphasise different aspects of their projects. They have been divided into three groups according to their emphasis on: characterising innovations that use ICT; impacts or outcomes of ICT-based innovations and implementation and sustainability factors. They are discussed below in this order.

Characterising innovations that use ICT

Using the Australian cases Ainley and associates analysed the ICT-based learning and teaching processes along three dimensions: a taxonomy of the type of ICT resource used; the complexity of the knowledge sought for the student outcomes and the complexity of the cognitive processing required by the student activities. Their approach is particularly powerful for those concerned with designing or analysing assessments for student learning with ICT tools. It also provides analytical categories that help to clarify the demands or expectations associated with the higher levels of knowledge toward which many ICT-based instructional innovations are oriented.

Mioduser, Nachmias, Tubin, & Forkosh-Baruch, in analysing 10 Israeli cases, were challenged by how to characterise differences in innovativeness across their cases. They produced a conceptualisation and rubric called the ‘innovations analysis schema’, that can be used to operationalise levels of innovativeness based upon the degree to which ICT and associated pedagogies have transformed the school and the number of domains (time and space utilisation, student roles, teacher roles, curriculum content and assessment) impacted. It is my judgement that their pioneering framework will be used extensively in the years ahead by other researchers. In their paper in this Special Issue, they not only describe their framework but analyse several exemplary cases in Israel.

Impacts or outcomes of ICT-based innovations

A number of the researchers focused upon the impact or outcomes of the ICT-based innovations they studied. Some concentrated upon micro-level processes in the classroom while others communities outside the classroom. The papers as a whole provide a perspective revealing the wide range of outcomes, many of which are complex and difficult to measure, from exemplary use of ICT in classrooms.

Nancy Law and associates from the University of Hong Kong evaluated their cases asking whether or not innovative teaching practices would lead to the development of learning outcomes essential for preparing the younger generation for the challenges of life in the knowledge society of the 21st century. They found that associated with significant learning gains were the following characteristics of learning activities: extended learning tasks; personal meaning and relevance of the learning tasks; involvement of significant others outside of the classroom in the learning process; and availability of suitable facilitation. They concluded that the most significant outcome of innovative learning activities involving ICT was empowerment, particularly of students. To evaluate the degree to which students and teachers felt empowered, they focused upon affective and socio-cognitive outcomes such as learning to learn from a variety of others; learning to create and to contribute to a learning community, and appreciation of different viewpoints. Furthermore, they found that all of these outcomes, which tend to be difficult to measure, were associated with higher performance teaching roles. In these roles teachers were engaged interactively with the students and responding flexibly to their cognitive needs. In brief, they were implementing student-centred pedagogies using ICT.

In his analysis of the cases from Norway, Ola Erstad took a slightly different approach. While he also focused upon learning communities, he concentrated upon more cognitive and cultural domains. For instance, he examined how digital artefacts supported knowledge construction. He argued that ICT utilisation fosters new frameworks for the students. The cases support his argument that some learning environments using ICT are much more effective than others.

Renate Schulz-Zander led the German research team and from their 12 cases they concluded that ‘new media’, which refers to ICT with an emphasis upon interactive content, promotes a learning culture that engenders problem oriented learning. They also concluded that problem oriented learning in conjunction with new media promotes cooperation among students. They give examples of cooperation in terms of students teaching each other, functioning as a learning community and collaborating in joint partnerships with other schools. They note a number of other types of collaboration, all of which were facilitated by ICT learning activities.

Sue Harris directed the case studies research in England and her analysis yielded two main ways in which ICT had been a major force in redefining the classroom: changing interactions within the classroom as a direct or indirect result of using ICT to support teaching and learning; and the involvement of others (non-teachers) outside the physical classroom in students’ learning activities. For instance, they observed how the innovative practices led to a greater emphasis upon students taking responsibility for their own progress, including self-imposed deadlines, and in other ways improving their study skills and work skills. They also noted evidence that the innovations fostered students’ ongoing reflection about their own work.

In their paper Hinostroza, Guzmán and Isaacs describe the case studies in Chile. Implementation of ICT in Chile is faced with a major challenge given geographically large rural areas, some of which have poor economies. However, a large, impressive national government project called Enlaces is coordinating the introduction and support of ICT in multiple waves of technology. The study found several factors that appeared to contribute to successful reform including reform coordination and the presence of leader teachers empowered with ICT. The researchers analysis emphasises challenges of teaching in large-scale, centralised reform especially assessment issues and focus on learning outcomes.

The Danish paper by Inge Bryderup and Krystyna Kowalsky primarily addresses the policy issue of the impact of their national policy, the ‘Act on the Folkeskole’, which has shifted most of the responsibility of school financing to municipalities. Concurrently schools are required by national policy to ‘integrate ICT into all subjects.’ Using details from two of their six cases, they showed how difficult it is for some local authorities to focus upon educational objectives, such as pedagogies and teacher education, rather than ICT resource acquisition alone. They found that schools were severely challenged to focus on pedagogical projects, facilitate teacher-innovators, provide adequate support and teacher education in terms of instructional ICT requirements and issues. National decision makers who are considering transitions to greater decentralisation in their educational systems should find their analysis of special interest.

Implementation and sustainability factors

Two research teams, those of Canada and the USA, went beyond descriptions of innovative practices and the outcomes of those practices to ask what school-level conditions influenced how effectively educational ICT was implemented. Among the conditions examined were formal staff development practices, on-going support for teachers’ ICT use, school-wide decision-making practices and policies related to ICT, individual teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and instructional practices, as well as professional community. Each of these contextual factors affects how ICT is used. Results were interpreted within the frameworks of ongoing research on educational technology and technology support, school change and reform, constructivist pedagogy, professional community (McLaughlin & Talbert, 2001), and organisational learning (Senge & Associates, 2001).

Owston and colleagues describe several schools in Canada and focus upon prediction of successful integration. Data from four of 12 qualitative case studies of Canadian schools made it possible to address the question of what teachers perceive as the factors that contribute most to their successful implementation of ICT in the classroom. Teacher interview data were coded for environmental factors, individual characteristics and ways of learning. Findings suggest that formal training has little direct impact on teaching practice, whereas informal training (e.g. on the job with colleagues) was most influential. Little relationship was found between successful use of ICT and teaching experience or experience using ICT. Among the contextual attributes that they found associated with sustainable implementation were commitment to a learning community and personal investments by teachers and staff in ICT-supported innovation.

In the final case study paper, Dexter, Seashore and Anderson analysed the first six of their 11 cases. They discovered that the metaphor of the learning organisation made a lot of sense in their schools because of their apparent educational vision, their emphasis upon a learning culture among the staff and teachers, and their emphasis upon student projects solved in learning communities. Most of their analysis focuses upon ‘professional community’, which is defined in terms of collective purpose and shared activity in their instructional mission, deprivatised practice, and teachers engaged in reflective dialogue, all of which tends to be linked to their view of themselves as professionals working together in a community. The concluded that there is a ‘powerful reciprocal interaction’ between professional community and effective use of technology.

Overall analysis

It is premature to do much generalisation across these studies because the cases presented here are limited to the initial cases and the cross-case analysis has only just begun. However, some common themes in these papers will be noted as a sample of what may be forthcoming.

Table 1 gives a sense of the breadth of countries that have at least some schools engaged in each of five activities characterised as themes. Each of these themes has been discussed in the educational literature as an approach needed to improve education. Furthermore, each theme is often associated with ICT in that ICT is touted as a useful way to accomplish the associated learning outcomes. Of course there are other themes than these five that are associated with innovation and technology, but this analysis is intended to be exemplary rather than definitive.

Table 1.  Common cross-national themes*

Theme AUS CAN CHI DEN ENG GER HKG ISR NOR USA

Learning communities Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö

Student-directed projects Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö

Real-world projects Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö

Knowledge management Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö Ö

Life-long learning Ö Ö Ö Ö

*Not all of the cases studied in each project were reported in their articles here.

The first three themes are sometimes defined as the central elements of constructivism, although all three are promoted quite independent of the constructivist philosophy as well. Table 1 shows that all three themes, learning communities, student-directed projects, and real-world projects all were found in innovative cases in a large majority of the countries. As the constructivist literature has largely come from English-speaking countries, it is noteworthy to find interest and commitment to these approaches in other countries as well.

The terminology of ‘knowledge management’ is less well known and understood in education. Hence, it is not surprising to see fewer instances of this theme across countries. Life-long learning, and its conceptual ally, ‘learning to learn’, have been promoted extensively by numerous reports for several decades. Yet the relative absence of this rhetoric in these case reports suggests that school educators have little excitement for these educational concepts, perhaps because there is little agreement on how to define and measure them.

Conclusions

One consequence of the selection criteria used across the country projects was that none of the sites required the latest or leading-edge technology. In most, if not all, of the cases, the hardware and software used had been available ‘off of the shelf’ for a number of years. This in itself is an important finding because it means that the innovative practices under investigation can be implemented in a much larger segment of the schools than those with ‘innovative technology.’

Keeping in mind that the criteria for selecting cases varied slightly in each country, the cases selected were considered the most exemplary or representative of those learning and teaching activities considered innovative (and using ICT) in each country, respectively. Consequently the results of this research provide glimpses of what the future holds with respect to pedagogy that uses ICT in teaching and learning. Leading-edge innovations do not necessarily lead to widespread adoptions, especially with such a rapidly evolving resource as ICT, but some of the teaching methods mentioned here are likely to become much more common place in schools, especially as education becomes even more globalised. What we can say with greater certainty is that the organisational processes noted in these papers as most effective are likely to be given greater and greater attention in the future.

In her paper Harris summarised the case results in England, she captured an apropos conclusion for a majority (if not all) of the cases described in these 10 reports. She said: ‘The clear message . . . is not the importance of ICTs in their own right, but the benefits to be gained when confident teachers are willing to explore new opportunities for changing their classroom practices by using ICT.’

References

Huberman, A.M. & Miles, M.B. (1984) Innovation Up Close: a Field Study in 12 School Settings. Plenum, New York.

McLaughlin, M.W. & Talbert, J.E. (2001) Professional Communities and the Work of High School Teaching. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Means, B., Penuel, W.R. & Padilla, C. (2001) The Connected School – Technology and Learning in High School. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

Senge, P. & Associates (2001) Schools That Learn. Doubleday, New York.

Guest editorial. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18, 4, 381-386

Qualitative case studies of innovative pedagogical practices using ICT

R.B. Kozma & R.E. Anderson, Center for Technology in Learning, SRI International & University of Minnesota

Email: robert.kozma@sri.com

The Second Instructional Technology in Education Study: Module 2 (SITES M2) is a series of qualitative studies that identify and describe innovative pedagogical practices in 28 participating countries that use technology. The project resulted in 174 case study reports of innovative practice that are currently being analysed. This paper describes the goals, research questions, and methodology for this study and provides a context for the other papers that are published in this issue. Given the large number of case studies, a combined qualitative and quantitative approach to the research is described.

Keywords: Case study; Computer; ICT-use; Innovation; International; Methodology; Pedagogy; Primary; Schools; Secondary

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18, 4, 387-394

Accepted 7 June 2002

The influence of IT: perspectives from five Australian schools

J.Ainley, D. Banks & M. Fleming, Australian Council for Educational Research

Email: ainley@acer.edu.au

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are now widespread in Australian schools but with variation in how, where, when and how much they are used. Computers may be located in a computer laboratory, distributed throughout the school, or students may use their own laptop computers. IT may be a subject in its own right or ICT may be used across all areas of the curriculum. It is how ICT is used in the school setting that is important in providing students with the skills to be participate in a ‘knowledge society’. This paper examines the ways in which information and communication technologies influence teaching and learning in five Australian schools. Data were gathered through observation, interviews and document analysis in schools operating at the elementary and secondary grades in relatively technology rich environments. Each of the schools participated in the Australian component of the Second Information Technology in Education Study – Module 2 (SITES-M2) of innovative pedagogical practices. Several of the studies were of specific projects where ICT was the key enabler of the learning programme. Others focused on an entire school’s approach to ICT as an agent for changed approaches to learning.

Keywords: Australia; Case study, Computer; Constructivist; ICT-use; Innovation; Pedagogy; Primary; Qualitative; Schools; Secondary

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18, 4, 395-404

Accepted 31 July 2002

Models of pedagogical implementation of ICT in Israeli schools

D. Mioduser, R. Nachmias, D. Tubin & A. Forkosh-Baruch, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Email: miodu@post.tau.ac.il

Abstract The paper analyses the data collected in 10 schools in Israel which have incorporated ICT in unique ways and have succeeded in devising innovative classroom pedagogies and changes in teachers and students roles and outcomes. The major research questions addressed are: What levels of innovation were observed in the participant schools, and in which domains? How did the level of innovation in the various domains vary among and within schools? What correlation patterns among levels of innovation in the various domains can be identified? The data were analysed by mean of the innovation analysis schema developed for characterising ICT-based educational innovations. The findings indicate that most schools were in a transition stage towards fully innovative pedagogical implementation; school activities were effected differentially by ICT, thus creating ‘islands of innovation’; these islands however, have the potential to pull forward other areas of activity and people in the school; the domains most affected by ICT were the school’s digital space, the didactic solutions implemented and the students’ roles and outcomes.

Keywords: Analysis schema; Case study; Computer; ICT usage; Innovation; Israel; Models; Pedagogy; Primary; Schools; Secondary

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18, 4, 405-414

Accepted 2 July 2002

Practice characteristics that lead to 21st century learning outcomes

N. Law, Y. Lee & A. Chow, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

Email: nlaw@hkusua.hku.hk

The key research question for this study was to ask whether or not innovative teaching practices would lead to the development of learning outcomes essential for preparing the younger generation for the challenges of life in the knowledge society of the 21st century, and if so, how are the pedagogical features related to the different learning outcomes. Preliminary analyses of the case study data collected from the SITES M2 Study in Hong Kong reveal that where the development of more significant learning gains were observed, the cases possess characteristics additional to the criteria defined in the Study for selection of innovation. More importantly, it was found that the impact of the pedagogical practices was not determined simply by the aggregation of characteristics of the practices per se, nor on the technologies used, but on whether ‘empowerment’ permeates the curriculum goal and process. Further, this paper claims that these affective and socio-cognitive learning outcomes are more important as preparation for lifelong learning in the 21st century than ‘knowledge management competencies’.

Keywords: Case study; Empowerment; ICT-use; Learning outcomes; Knowledge management; Pedagogy; Primary; Schools; Secondary

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18, 4, 415-426

Accepted 15 July 2002

Norwegian students using digital artifacts in project-based learning

O. Erstad, University of Oslo

Email: ola.erstad@itu.uio.no

Discussion about information and communication technologies in education are often conducted at a general level. To increase understanding about new technologies and learning it is necessary to be more specific about what kinds of tools are being used and how they are related to knowledge construction by students within specific subject domains. Three Norwegian cases studies are reported so that different school cultures on how the learning environments are implemented are exposed. One important conclusion from the cross-case analysis is the diversity among cases. What is the added value or changes that these technologies represent? Within a Norwegian context the paper shows how technology contributes to the design of new learning environments and how it might stimulate knowledge construction among students.

Keywords: Case study; Computer; ICT-use; Innovation; Knowledge construction; Multimedia; Norway; Pedagogy; Project; School; Secondary

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18, 4, 427-437

Accepted 3 July 2002

The role of ICT as a promoter of students’ cooperation

R.Schulz-Zander, A. Büchter & R. Dalmer, Institute for School Development Research (IFS), University of Dortmund

Email: schuza@ifs.uni-dortmund.de

The Second Information Technology in Education Study — Module 2 (SITES-M2) in Germany investigated 12 cases of innovative pedagogical practice using technology (IPPUT) in primary, lower and upper secondary schools. One theme that emerged from the analysis of these cases was students’ cooperation. It seems that the co-occurrence of ICT-use and students’ cooperation and collaboration is not accidental. The focus of this paper is an analysis and classification of the students’ cooperation identified in the IPPUTs.

Keywords: Case study; Change; Collaboration; Computer; Empirical; Germany; ICT-use; Pedagogy; Qualitative; School; Student-centred

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18, 4, 438-448

Accepted 10 September 2002

Innovative pedagogical practices using ICT in schools in England

S. Harris, National Foundation for Educational Research, UK

Email: s.harris@nfer.ac.uk

This paper presents information about the case studies carried out in three primary and three secondary schools in England, during the school year 2000–2001. Data were collected as part of the qualitative phase of a major international research project: the Second Information Technology in Education Study (SITES). The research focused on innovative pedagogical practices involving ICT. Interviews with Headteachers and other administrators, teachers, students and parents; observations of lessons; analysis of school documents and surveys of Headteachers and ICT coordinators provided rich sources. Themes common to the case studies in England are identified and discussed.

Keywords: Case study; Computer; ICT-use; Innovation; Pedagogy; Primary; Schools; Secondary; Student-centred

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18, 4, 449-458

Accepted 8 August 2002

Innovative uses of ICT in Chilean schools

J.E. Hinostroza, A. Guzmán & S. Isaacs,
Instituto de Informática Educativa, Universidad de La Frontera and Ministerio de Educación de Chile

Email: ehinost@iie.ufro.cl

This paper presents some of the results of the study of seven cases of innovative pedagogical practices using ICT. The study was performed in the framework of the application of SITES M2 in Chile. The results are divided in two sections. First is a summary of each case, highlighting its innovative characteristics that serve as models of ‘good practice’ for Chilean teachers. Second, the results of the analysis of what teachers did are outlined; the impact on students and the type of teaching and learning activities in use. Results show that these projects did not provide evidence of having impact on students’ learning as defined in the national curriculum. However, they show that students participating in these projects could learn other things, had the opportunity to develop abilities defined as cross-curricular and practised ICT related skills. The analysis of the teaching and learning activities highlights some deficiencies in the way that teachers implement new teaching strategies.

Keywords: Case study; Chile; Computer; ICT-use; Innovation; Learning; Pedagogy; Primary; Schools; Secondary; Teaching

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18, 4, 459-469

Accepted 2 September 2002

The role of local authorities in the integration of ICT in learning

I.M. Bryderup & K. Kowalski

Department of Educational Sociology, The Danish University of Education

Email: bryderup@dpu.dk

How does ICT integration in learning processes depend on the support or lack of support from local authorities? Data from the SITES M2 case studies sheds light on how Danish schools attempted to meet the ‘Act on the Folkeskole’ regarding the integration of ICT in all subjects. This paper draws on the school’s perspective based on interviews with the Principals, teachers and ICT coordinators, and the schools’ ICT plans and strategies. The schools’ perspective is then seen in relationship to the respective municipalities, ICT strategies and national ICT policy in a discussion of the implications of ICT integration on the decentralised Danish folkeskole system.

Keywords: Case study; Computer; Curriculum; Denmark; ICT-use; Innovation; Pedagogy; Policy; Primary; Schools; Secondary; Support

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18, 4, 470-479

Accepted 5 August 2002

Factors contributing to teachers’ successful implementation of IT

C.A. Granger, M.L. Morbey, H. Lotherington, R.D. Owston & H.H. Wideman,
Faculty of Education, York University, Toronto

Email: colette_granger@edu.yorku.ca

It has become increasingly important for educators to examine successful ICT implementations with the aim of understanding precisely what makes them successful in teaching and learning. In this study, an analysis of data from qualitative case studies of four Canadian schools illuminates factors that facilitate successful ICT implementation. Findings suggest that informal ICT education, such as ‘just-in-time’ learning, is most influential. Furthermore, supportive and collaborative relationships among teachers, a commitment to pedagogically sound implementation of new technologies, and Principals who encourage teachers to engage in their own learning are viewed as highly useful factors.

Keywords: Canada; Case study; Computer; Collaboration; Constructivist; ICT-use; Innovation; Pedagogy; Primary; Schools; Secondary; Qualitative

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18, 4, 480-488

Accepted 14 May 2002

Contributions of professional community to exemplary use of ICT

S. Dexter, K.R. Seashore & R.E. Anderson, University of Minnesota

Email: sdexter@tc.umn.edu

In these six case study sites, the commitment to teachers’ individual learning about technology as a support to instruction was very strong and was complemented by technology leadership, support staff and professional development programming dedicated towards this end. This paper describes some conclusions about how the presence of this need to learn and the supportive conditions to do so was reciprocal, or mutually supportive, of the development of professional community around technology use. The professional community deepened and refined the shared vision related to the purposes of instructional technology, and the technology support. The supposition is that effective use of technology and professional community are mutually supportive in that increases in one create conditions for increases in the other.

Keywords: Case study; Computer; ICT-use; Innovation; Pedagogy; Primary; Professional community; Schools; Secondary; Teachers

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18, 4, 489-497

Accepted 26 July 2002

Commentary
Comparative analysis on the roles of message, medium and communicative method in empowering learning

C. Dede, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Email: Chris_Dede@Harvard.edu

The preceding papers, presented in the SITES M2 Symposium at the 2002 AERA national conference, provide a unique, invaluable resource for education research. Each case study documents how the integration of learning technologies into instruction enabled a combination of deep content, sophisticated pedagogy, and interactive media that achieved impressive student outcomes. Together, the nearly two hundred cases form a rich repository for comparative analysis that can elucidate the relative roles of message, medium and communicative method in empowering learning. Collectively, these case studies can also inform an understanding of how conditions necessary for the successful integration of learning technologies vary — and are uniform — across subject areas, grade levels, teaching philosophies, cultures and other contextual factors in classroom settings.

Sophisticated computers and telecommunications have unique capabilities for enhancing learning (Dede, 2000). These include:

• centring the curriculum on ‘authentic’ problems parallel to those adults face in real-world settings
(Vanderbilt, 1997)

• involving students in virtual communities-of-practice, using advanced tools similar to those in today’s high-tech workplaces (Linn, 1997)

• facilitating guided, reflective inquiry through extended projects that inculcate sophisticated concepts and skills and generate complex products (Schank et al., 1994).

• using modeling and visualisation as powerful means of bridging between experience and abstraction (Gordin & Pea, 1995)

• enhancing students’ collaborative construction of meaning via different perspectives on shared experiences (Chan et al., 1997)

• including pupils as partners in developing learning experiences and generating knowledge (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1991)

• fostering success for all students through special measures to aid the disabled and the disenfranchised (Behrmann, 1998)

However, realising these capabilities requires a complex implementation process that includes sustained, large-scale, simultaneous innovations in curriculum; pedagogy; assessment; professional development; administration; organisational structures; strategies for equity; and partnerships for learning among schools, businesses, homes, and community settings (Dede, 1998).

The SITES M2 case studies document rich variations among all these themes, illustrating the ways that content, instructional process, and interactive media enhance learning. In some cases, telecommunications-based access to distant experts and archives is the central capability enabling exciting student outcomes. In other cases, computers make possible a shift from presentational instruction to guided learning-by-doing, collaborative learning, or mentoring that foster students’ mastery of curricular knowledge and skills, as well as their motivation to succeed. Sometimes, the capabilities of an interactive medium are the key driver for learning, such as the deep reflection enabled by asynchronous threaded discussions as opposed to fast-paced classroom dialogue. Mining these cases for comparative insights can provide this field with a much richer model of how all these factors shape learning, combining in ways that make their whole impact on education much greater than the sum of its parts.

Comparison among the SITES studies also makes possible a deeper understanding of the conditions necessary for the success of various types of technological innovations (Dede, 2000). Overall, evaluating the effectiveness of current and emerging learning technologies is complex, because such an assessment is possible only when the conditions for successful implementation are met. An analogy to medical technologies can be made, using the contrast between an immunisation and a controlled longitudinal administration of antibiotics. To be effective, the immunisation needs only to take place. In contrast, the antibiotics must be taken at the prescribed dosage, with the prescribed time intervals in-between, for the prescribed amount of time. If these conditions for success are not met, the antibiotics may well be ineffective, even though this medical technology is a powerful intervention when used properly.

The conditions for success of learning technologies in schools are much more complex than for the use of antibiotics in medicine. Moreover, the beliefs, attitudes, and values of users are vital to the effectiveness of learning technologies — as opposed to medical technologies such as immunisations and antibiotics. Education is more like public health than medicine and presents challenges similar to public health in moving basic research findings into everyday practice. One reason that frequent pronouncements are made about the ineffectiveness of learning technologies is that preparing schools and teachers to use learning technologies well is a challenging process. Many of the critics of educational technology are citing implementation methods equivalent to grinding up antibiotics and smearing them over one’s body, or taking the entire dose at once, or worshipping the pills rather than using them.

Had international business been discouraged by similar early ineffective applications of information technology in those organisational settings and given up on desktop computers and the Internet before learning to create their conditions for success in a corporate context, a vital component of the last decade’s economic prosperity would have been lost. Creating policy frameworks that foster the development of powerful learning technologies, the delineation of conditions for their successful implementation, and the preparation of teachers and schools for effective usage are all crucial for improving students’ educational outcomes and educators’ ability to innovate in response to the demands of 21st century civilisation. The SITES M2 cases form a rich archive for comparative analysis determining what alternative combinations of interventions foster successful transfer of innovations from one educational context to another. Thus, the SITES M2 study potentially empowers the evolution of two key factors in the usage of computers and telecommunications in education: models of technology-intensive learning and policy frameworks for successful adaptation.

References

Behrmann, M. (1998) Assistive technology for young children in special education. In Learning with Technology. 1998 Yearbook of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ed. C. Dede) pp. 73–93. ASCD, Alexandria, VA.

Chan, C., Burtis, J. & Bereiter, C. (1997) Knowledge building as a mediator of conflict in conceptual change. Cognition and Instruction, 15, 1, 1–40.

Dede, C. (1998) The scaling-up process for technology-based educational innovations. In Learning with Technology. 1998 Yearbook of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ed. C. Dede) pp. 199–215. ASCD, Alexandria, VA.

Dede, C. (2000) Emerging influences of information technology on school curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 32, 2, 281–303.

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Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18, 4, 498-500

Invited commentary

Commentary
SITES-module 2: one study, many perspectives

T. Plomp, University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands

Email: plomp@edte.utwente.nl

The papers in this Symposium were the first public reports from countries participating in Module 2 of the Second Information Technology in Education Study (SITES M2). The SITES study started in the autumn of 1997 with an indicators module (a limited school survey in November 1998). The second module of international comparative case studies of innovative practices supported by information and communication technology, SITES M2, started in 1999 and was the basis of these papers. A third module will include a survey and performance assessment of students.

SITES is conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). IEA’s mission is to contribute through its international comparative studies to enhancing the quality of education. SITES M2 is not a ‘typical’ IEA study as it is not a survey type of international comparative study, but a collection of 174 case studies from 28 countries. On the one hand the study will provide policy makers and educational practitioners with information about innovative pedagogical practices using technology (abbreviated as IPPUTs) from across the world, showing the richness of innovative pedagogical applications of ICT in education (‘what is possible with ICT’). On the other hand the analyses of the innovative cases will provide insights into factors and conditions that facilitate the realisation of such innovative practices (e.g. how can they be realised in other conditions?). On top of this, the set of cases allows countries, not only to study their own innovative cases within the perspective of their own national policies and developments on ICT in education, but the international comparative perspective allows countries also to study their innovative cases against similar cases from other countries.

SITES M2 allowed for analyses from a variety of national perspectives

These first reports from the SITES M2 study show that the study provides a very rich data set that clearly allows for addressing a great variety of national interests. This versatility is illustrated by the research questions addressed in the eight national papers, which took eight different perspectives.

• In what different ways does ICT influence teaching and learning processes in schools (Australia)?

• Is it possible to characterise differences in innovations that are theoretically derived and empirically confirmed for relevant ICT-supported cases? (Israel)

• Would innovative teaching practices using ICT contribute to the development of learning outcomes essential for preparing the younger generation for the challenges of the knowledge society of the 21st century (Hong Kong SAR)?

• How do different kinds of ICT uses create new conditions for learning and knowledge construction (Norway)?

• To what extent does ICT use promote students’ and teachers’ collaboration (Germany)?

• How are IPPUTs contributing to redefining the classroom, e.g. by promoting the involvement of others outside the physical classroom, or by changing interactions within the classroom (England)?

• Are factors accounting for successful ICT-supported innovation and reform within a country that is geographically and economically challenged, the same as those in countries without such disadvantages? (Chile)

• Does the level of ICT integration in the learning process depend on the (lack of) support from local authorities (Denmark)?

• Which factors (such as teacher characteristics and environmental factors) do educators perceive as the most significant in bringing about successful implementation of ICT in education (Canada)?

• What are the attributes of the school context that appear to be critical for successful implementation of innovative teaching practices using educational technology (USA)?

Each of these perspectives is in principle also an angle from which the database of international IPPUTs can be analysed. It is interesting to see that the papers find their starting point in the conceptual framework underlying the study. Each national perspective has one of the components of the frame as its main focus: curriculum goals and content (Hong Kong, Norway); a perspective of students and teachers (Germany, Canada); the ways of ICT use (Australia); the IPPUTs themselves and their influence on the teaching/learning processes (England), the school context — the meso level (USA) or the wider environment of the school (e.g. Denmark).

One may hope that as soon as the international database is made available by the IEA, researchers will widen their scope of analysis by including cases from other countries. National researchers may apply several criteria for selection: they may take cases from ‘relevant other’ countries, they may focus on a certain type of IPPUT, or they may focus on certain school types.

This Special Issue clearly illustrates that a collection of international case studies provides rich and promising possibilities for further analyses.

The international perspective.

The paper by Kozma and Anderson illustrates that the study will offer many opportunities for cross-national, cross-case analyses. The first step of the analysis resulting in the six clusters of IPPUTS invites the next step, namely analysing the commonalities of the clusters.

The international cross-case analyses in SITES M2 must provide important input for the next module, SITES M3. For that purpose it is hoped that this international analyses will address at least two important questions, namely: what are the characteristics of the different types of innovative pedagogical practices using ICT and what are the factors which make them sustainable? Cross-case analyses may result in identifying a number of characteristics of successful cases and strategies that provide input for SITES M3, especially the part that will assess the readiness of schools and teachers for innovative pedagogical practices needed in education for the future.

Concluding remarks

The SITES M2 study allows policy makers, practitioners and researchers interested in questions related to shaping and developing education in an information age to address important and highly relevant research questions, such as the ones already mentioned about the characteristics of successful IPPUTS and their sustainability. Other relevant research questions include transferability of technology use, the use of ‘non-cutting edge’ technology in realising innovative pedagogy and the embedding of IPPUTS in the curriculum.

In studying such questions, the contexts of the cases should be taken into account as a factor. Some IPPUTs could only be developed because they are part of special policy programmes providing resources in terms of hardware, software, extra manpower, or specialist input. Such IPPUTS are important, as these reveal what is, in principle and under certain conditions, possible. But scaling up from these special cases to ‘normal’ schools that have to implement such innovative practices within the ‘normal’ budgetary conditions presents another challenge and calls for specific research efforts. It is for that reason important that careful attention be given to those cases in the international database of schools realising such innovative pedagogical practices within the ‘normal’ operational conditions of the school.

To conclude, if the studies presented in this Special Issue (and others that will follow in the future) will be looked on as studies generating hypotheses on the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of IPPUTs, further cross-case analyses may have the character of confirmative case analyses that will test these hypotheses. Such an approach will in the end make SITES M2 a study contributing even more in important and meaningful ways to the body of knowledge on ICT in education.

Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 18, 4, 500-502

Invited commentary