I’ve come across a website run by a government office known as the Australian Agency for International Development. On their site, here, there are quite a few links to articles concerned with the implementation of ICT in education. The articles vary in their focus from how lesser developed countries can deliver ICT based lessons using larger class sizes and fewer computers to the article which I’m writing this post about, which is a list of things that should be kept in mind when implementing ICT based educational programmes. The article may be accessed here. In this article the department details 14 lessons which they have learnt through their own research into ICT programmes and implementation in Australian schools. Some of the more poignant points to me were, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13. The other points are still valid, I just found them either a little too obvious in nature or a little too lofty in their ideal. Points 3 & 8 inform us that for collaborative online communities to be truly successful it helps if the collaborators have physical contact and/or a history of collaboration in a physical environment. I found this interesting as I know there are interest groups on the internet that have enormous amounts of collaboration from people who’ve never met before or had any prior dealings with each other. It does make sense, however, that if people have met and have an intrest in each other, the motivation to collaborate online will be stronger. Points 4 & 5 warn against the use of ICT by teachers who have only moderate computer skills and mentions that ICT programmes work best when implemented by teachers who use ICT for simulation or applications that are associated with higher learning. This is an interesting contrast to an article I commented on in a previous post in which the author mentioned her concern for ICT making students skim the surface of the world and not digging deeper into topics. I agree with this site that higher order thinking is an area of education which ICT can really enhance and believe this should be a focus for teachers wishing ot use ICT in their lessons. The other points relate to time constraints on using computers across schools and windows of opportunity due to schedule differences between the schools, the fact that teachers who are pressured for time by examinations will not be able to implement ICT effectively and that a collaborative, group-working focus should be adopted for ICT, something like a wiki where the students can co-author the online work.

Overall I think the article gives some practical points to keep in mind when thinking of using ICT or implementing an ICT programme in schools. I think the mother site has some great links relating to ICT that I’d like to explore and find more about.