Harnessing Technology Review 2010

The role of technology in primary and secondary schools

Published by stevedavies1st

(http://stevedavies1st.blogspot.com)
Introduction

Technology has become part of all our lives. The last decade has seen
technology spread from being the realm of specialists to being almost universal
in our workplaces, homes and schools. Learners need to be prepared for this
changing world and those who support them should use the technology at their
disposal to achieve the best possible outcomes.

This review is the last of a series begun in 2005, and brings together a range of
recent research evidence from England that looks at what has been achieved in
implementing technology to support learning. Most of the data presented here
was collected in late 2009 and early 2010.

Online information for parents and the use of learning platforms have increased
markedly in schools. Teachers across all sectors report benefits from using
technology, including time savings and a positive impact on attainment.

Technology does not stand still. It now falls to managers and teachers to face the
challenges reported in the next section, and more yet to emerge.

The broad questions covered in this Review are:

Technology-confident effective providers. Can education and training providers

make effective use of technology to achieve the best outcomes for learners?

Engaged and empowered learners. Are learners and parents able to access
technology and gain the skills and support to use it to best effect, both inside
and outside formal learning?

Confident system leadership and innovation. Do education leaders use

technology to support their priorities and deploy innovative solutions to improve
services?

Enabling infrastructure and processes. Does the technology infrastructure offer

learners and practitioners access to high-quality, integrated tools and resources.

Improved personalised learning experiences. Do technology-enabled

improvements to learning and teaching meet the needs of learners?

Impact of technology. To what extent does technology impact on the broader

aims of raising achievement, supporting the vulnerable and improving quality
and efficiency?
Challenges and issues identified from the research

Progress, but some institutions still slow to develop

Across a range of areas there has been a considerable increase in the integration
of technology to support learning, teaching and management. For example,
learning platforms are now in use across a clear majority of all schools. Online
reporting to parents has been adopted by over three quarters of secondary
schools and around a quarter of primary schools. There have been significant
increases in the use of technology to support assessment and big improvements
to the integration of management information and learner systems. These and
many more examples offer evidence of a genuine change in the approach to
technology within schools. There is related evidence of increased benefits from
technology, particularly the proportion of teachers reporting time-saving
benefits.

More mature schools continue to progress. Secondary schools have shown the
greater progress, with around two fifths now being classed as mature in their use
of technology. E-maturity in primary schools remains at about the same level as
last year. There remains, however, a core of ‘late adopter’ institutions of all
types of provider where progress is slow.

It is interesting to observe variations within the different sectors. Primary

teachers’ use of technology in the classroom is relatively mature compared to
other sectors, yet overall, primary schools tend to lag behind. It may be that the
relatively small size of primary schools means that issues like infrastructure
development are more difficult than in secondary schools or colleges. Many of
those that have reached a good level of technological maturity have drawn on
Becta’s self-review tools to support them.

Online reporting to parents

This year has seen continuing growth in online reporting. Some 77 per cert of
secondary schools now have some means of communicating to parents through
technology. Just under half of these (35 per cent of schools) do so via their
learning platform. Primary schools have further to go, with nearly a quarter using
technology (23 per cent) and 13 per cent doing so via their learning platform.

Though this represents good change over one year, it needs to be set in the
context of parents’ and learners’ uses of technology more generally and
expectations based on their experience of other sectors and services.

An increasing range of both commercial and public services are supported

online, offering access to personal and other information when and where it is
required by users and supporting customer transactions. Developments of this
kind in the primary school sector will be critical to improving home-school links
and supporting parents’ and pupils’ decisions and choices. So this remains an
important area for development. Routine access to online pupil information for
all parents of primary-aged children will take some time and will require support
and help from others who work with the primary sector. Smaller institutions face
particular challenges in implementing institution-wide technology-based change,
as they often lack specialist expertise. So finding ways for primary schools to
ease the path of introducing and integrating online information systems will be
important over the next couple of years.

Access to management information

Over several years Becta has identified challenges in relation to MIS

(Management Information Systems) and the use of and access to management
and learner information for practitioners. Successful integration of and access to
information represents probably the most important step towards realising
significant benefits from technology-based systems, both in terms of
administrative streamlining and supporting learning.

In schools, the picture is different. Here, the integration of MIS is indicated by the
extent to which teachers can gain access through a non-administrative network.
This situation has changed slightly over the last few years. Access to MIS seems
to be moving away from a separate network, and towards dedicated
workstations.

Learning and teaching: the problem of transition

One of the most notable findings in this review is the evidence of some stark
differences in the use of technology to support learning and teaching. Put in the
context of young people’s transitions from primary school to secondary school,
and from school into FE, there are interesting patterns.

In the context of what children and young people tell us about how they learn
and how they prefer to learn, this is significant. We know, for example, that
young people increasingly cite using computers as a preferred way of learning.

Yet practice within and between sectors is highly variable. In secondary schools,
fewer than 10 per cent of students are offered the opportunity to use technology
in core subjects at least once a week. Overall there is an increasing need to
reflect on and address learners’ experience of technology in the context of
transition between stages and sectors.

Realising the efficiency premium

Over several years this review has identified efficiency benefits in relation to the
use of practitioner time. These benefits have been coming through more strongly
every year as the maturity of providers and their technology systems improves.
Among many other processes, technology can support large improvements to
the efficiency and effectiveness of institution-based information and assessment
processes, including setting, submission and return of work and all aspects of
recording and reporting of information. It has never been more important for
leaders and managers in these more mature technology contexts to focus
attention on the changes in practice required to achieve benefit.

It is encouraging that leaders increasingly see technology as critical to enabling

improvement and improving effectiveness. However, as yet the issue of
technology-related cashable efficiencies is not high on the agenda of most
institutional leadership teams.

Thus it is likely, where there is a good degree of technological maturity, that

opportunities are being missed to reduce energy and printing costs, save on
space, reduce administrative overheads and realise efficiencies in delivering
learning.

Conclusion

It is heartening to see a developing technology maturity in schools and similarly

heartening to find greater benefits being realised where a level of maturity has
been reached. This review tells us that across much of further education and
skills we are at a stage where there are significant opportunities to realise
further benefits from this maturity. The opportunity to achieve considerable
service improvement and efficiency benefits is there for the taking. What is
required is informed and focused leadership to make it happen.
The role of technology in primary and secondary schools.

1.1 Technology-confident, effective providers

Overall e-enablement

The last few years have seen steady improvement in schools’ e-

enablement. The term ‘e-enablement’ indicates integration of technology
across the school, and is in effect a ‘low hurdle’ version of broader e-
maturity. To genuinely support improvement, technology must play its
part across a range of school activities, so these measures combine
survey data to give a composite, overall picture for each school. School e-
maturity measures are derived from twelve responses to the Harnessing
Technology schools survey (Smith et al 2008, Teeman et al 2009,
ORC/Infogroup 2010a) by heads and ICT coordinators. These are
measures of technology infrastructure, school capability, leadership and
uses of ICT for learning, measures that reflect the range of institutional
challenges identified in the Harnessing Technology strategy. While they
do not offer an exhaustive description of e-maturity, they act as a good
set of indicators of the overall level of development and embedding of
technology in a school.

In the academic year 2009-10, the average level of e-maturity of primary

schools showed some slight improvement on the previous two years.
Secondary schools however did show progress, with around four in ten
schools being classed as e-mature. As we have noted previously, there
continues to be a sizeable number of schools in the lower, ambivalent and
late-adopter categories, especially among primary schools. Some 32 per
cent of primary schools were in these lower categories compared to 21
per cent of secondary schools.
Becta has looked at the factors which best predict whether a school is e-
mature, looking at a range of questions asked in the annual Harnessing
Technology Schools survey and other data such as school type and size.
Participation in the Becta SRF as part of the school’s technology strategy
is the biggest predictor of e-maturity, demonstrating that co-ordinated
planning, integrated into school improvement, is important to achieving
change. A far greater proportion of e-mature schools do this compared to
those in the late adopter category.
CPD is a further important predictor of e-maturity. If leaders have
confidence in funding for ICT CPD or CPD for teachers is in the technology
strategy, schools are far more likely to have integrated technology than if
this is not the case.
Personalised learning being a school priority for ICT is a further key
factor. Some 63per cent of e-mature primary schools state this, as
opposed to 17 per cent of ambivalent and late adopter schools.

The use of a learning platform seems to be particularly important for

primary schools’ e-maturity and is likely to be a key aspect of integrating
technology across the school. Some 88 per cent of e-mature primary
schools as opposed to 25 per cent of ambivalent and late-adopter schools
have a learning platform. Learning platform use has increased
considerably in schools with higher e-maturity over the last year.

Parental reporting and learning platforms

During the last few years schools have made considerable progress in the
adoption of learning platforms – more than has been seen in previous
years. Integration of learning platforms appear to be high on the list of
concerns for school leaders, particularly in the secondary sector. Some
93 per cent of secondary schools had a learning platform in 2009-10. This
has risen steadily from 46 per cent in 2006-7. A lower percentage of
primary schools reported that they support a learning platform, 67 per
cent in 2008-9. However this has been achieved from a low base of 11per
cent in 2006-7. (ORC/Infogroup 2010a)

However, having a learning platform is just the first step, and is not
necessarily an indicator of use. Teachers most commonly use their
learning platform for uploading and storing digital resources. Some 86 per
cent of secondary teachers and 74 per cent of primary teachers do this.
When it comes to using a learning platform to deliver lessons, these
percentages drop to 62 per cent of secondary teachers and 53 per cent of
primary teachers. (ORC/Infogroup 2010a).

Just over half of primary teachers (53%) use their learning platform for
learners to download and upload homework, while a large majority (81%)
of secondary teachers do this. This is likely to reflect the increased
homework load in secondary schools.

Similarly schools have made progress in providing online reporting to

parents. Over three quarters of secondary schools (77%) and under a
quarter of primary schools (23%) make some use of technology for
reporting to parents. Schools have opted to use many different
technologies to do this. Learning platforms, websites imformation
management systems, email and text-messaging are all used by schools.
Many schools use more than one technology. The steady increase in this
use is shown by looking at the number of schools reporting that parents
use the school’s learning platform to access pupil information.

Workforce competence and confidence

Increasing numbers of teachers are making use of ICT resources in their

lessons. Interactive whiteboards and other display technologies have
been in wide use for some time now. Some 84 per cent of primary
teachers use these at least once a day, compared to 72 per cent of
secondary teachers. Other types of technology resources are also heavily
used by teachers. Around half of teachers in both sectors make daily use
of the internet in their work, for example. (ORC/Infogroup 2010a)

A study of learning platform use found that this technology promoted

consistency in areas such as lesson planning and lesson delivery, and
helped with sharing ideas among staff. These in turn helped to encourage
resource development by staff. In the schools studied this helped build
teacher confidence and skills, and enabled the schools to develop a
repository of materials that could be adapted each year to suit new
groups of learners. (Jewitt et al 2010)
1.2 Engaged and empowered learners

Digital inclusion
Ofsted recently commented on the benefits gained by learners through
using ICT. It concluded that technology was contributing positively to the
personal development and future economic well-being of pupils and
students. It developed their skills of working both independently and
cooperatively and was in most cases motivating and engaging. (Ofsted
2009)

Trends in the consumer market have ensured that, on the whole, children
and young people have good access to technology and connectivity at
home relative to the population as a whole. While home internet access
has increased for households with children aged 5-15, the proportion of
children who do not use the internet at all has remained consistent since
2007, accounting for one in four 5-7 year-oldds (25%), around one in
fifteen 8-11 year-olds (7%) and a very small proportion of 12-15 year olds
(1%). (Ofcom 2010)

These figures do mask some significant differences between groups. For

school-aged learners, not having access to the internet at home is still
strongly related to social class. Children in DE households are less likely
than UK children as a whole to have access to the internet, digital
television, games consoles and digital video recorders at home. With
lower levels of internet access in the home, 14 per cent of children in DE
households only use the internet at school, compared to 9 per cent of
others.
A computer or laptop is the equipment most likely to be used to access
the internet at home. However, one in seven (14%) parents of a child
aged 5-15 with a games console state that their child uses their games
console to access the internet. This figure was substantially higher for 12-
15 year olds (21%). Some 12 per cent of parents of a child aged 5-15 who
had their own mobile phone (12%) stated that their child uses a mobile
phone to access the internet. However, accessing the internet through a
mobile phone or games console does not appear to be replacing access
through a PC or laptop, but rather is in addition to this form of access.

Internet use and engagement with other technologies also increases with
age. Other factors often associated with digital divides (ethnicity,
religiousness, disability, having a first language that is not English) were
found not to be significant in the use or non-use of technology by young
people. The use of technology is not just explained by socio-economic
factors. Attitudes towards technology and friends’ engagement with
technology is also important. A child’s age, and their friends’ engagement
in technology were the only significant predictors of use or non-use across
all technology types. (Davies et al, 2009).

Differences between young people

In general, young people hold positive attitudes about technology and

tend to view the Internet, books and magazines and visual and auditory
tools as important for learning. Age and gender are important in
understanding young people’s attitudes towards technology. For example,
girls tend to see print media as more important for learning than boys;
and 8 year olds rated computers and the Internet as less important for
learning new things compared to 12, 14 and 17-19 year olds. (Davies et
al, 2009)

Young people generally rate themselves highly in their ability to use

technologies, although there are gender and age differences. In general,
those from older age groups were more likely to report their technology
skills as higher than they younger groups. There was little difference in
the use of technology between boys and girls in primary school. However,
in secondary school, there was a more marked difference. Boys tend to
use games consoles and handheld computers more than girls, whereas
girls use DVD, webcams, digital music players, cameras, mobile phones
and computers more than boys. (ORC/Infogroup 2010b)

Use of technology at home

Around half (49%) of 5-7 year-olds have a TV in their bedroom, compared

to two-thirds of 8-11 year-olds (67%) and three-quarters of 12-15 year-
olds (77%). Older children are also more likely to have internet access and
a games console (either fixed or portable) in their bedroom. One in eight
children aged 8-11 (12%) and three in ten 12-15s (31%) have internet
access in their bedroom. Seven in ten 8-11s (71%) and three in four 12-
15s (74%) have a games console in their bedroom. Children aged 12-15
are more likely than younger children to use media away from the living
room and without an adult present. Around half of children in each age
group who ever play games, say they mostly play on their own. One in
eight (13%) of 12-15s says they mostly play games with other people over
the internet. (Ofcom 2010)

Most primary and secondary learners stated that doing homework was
one of the most frequent uses of a home computer. Some 67 per cent of
primary learners had done this in the last week, as did 78 per cent of year
8 learners and 73 per cent of those in year 10. A similarly large number
of secondary learners (80% of year 8 and 82% of year 10) used computers
to find information online. Lower numbers used computers to revise for
tests. Around half of secondary learners had done this in the last week
(48% of year 8 and 54% of year 10) as opposed to about a quarter (24%)
of primary pupils. This may reflect the less frequent timetabling of tests as
compared to other homework. (ORC/Infogroup 2010b)
Over half of secondary students reported that they had been set
homework in the last week that couldn’t have been done without a
computer. Some 57 per cent of year 8 students and 55 percent of year 10
students claimed this. (ORC/Infogroup 2010b) This experience is borne out
by the frequency with which teachers set homework requiring computers
or the internet. Some 10 per cent of primary school teachers compared to
40 per cent of secondary school teachers set homework that requires
internet access at least a few times a week. These figures increase
considerably to 45 per cent and 85 per cent if we include teachers who set
homework requiring the internet a few times a month. (ORC/Infogroup
2010a)

Secondary learners with a computer in their bedroom made more

frequent use of it than those who had access elsewhere in the home. Also
these learners used the computer for a different pattern of tasks, being
more likely to use it for leisure purposes; sending email to friends,
downloading video clips and using CD-ROMs or DVDs. (Keating et al 2009)

Learners’ e-safety

Some 89 per cent of primary school learners said their teachers had
helped them understand how to use technology safely. This figure
decreases through secondary school, with 82 per cent of year 8 pupils
saying this and 76 per cent of year 10. (ORC/Infogroup 2010b)
Parents of primary-age children were more likely to block websites (31%),
than those of secondary school children (19% of year 8, and 13% of year
10). Learners in secondary school were also more likely to report that
their school had blocked websites they needed for work. Some 82 per cent
of year 10 learners and 70 per cent of year 8 learners reported this,
compared to 54 per cent of primary school learners.
However, learners’ responses to questions on a number of ethical and
safety issues suggest that there is scope for such provision to be
improved by schools. Gender, e-access at home, e-skills, and attitudes
towards school, learning, and using technologies for learning can
influence e-safety behaviours. Among primary level learners, socio-
economic status and exposure to using technologies for learning may also
play an important role. For example, across both primary and secondary
schools, girls were better aware and more informed than boys.

The majority of the schools visited by Ofsted taught their pupils and
students about the risks associated with using the internet. However,
Ofsted noted that few schools evaluated the effectiveness of this (Ofsted
2009).
1.3 Confident system leadership and innovation

Leaders’ priorities

Headteachers in around two thirds of schools (67%) placed the use of

learning platforms among their top three immediate priorities from areas
addressed in their technology strategy. Other priority areas included the
replacement of equipment (47%), teacher CPD (40%) and investments in
ICT infrastructure (42%). All these items were prioritised by considerably
more headteachers than in the previous year. (ORC/Infogroup 2010a)

There are differences in the priorities of primary and secondary school

leaders. A higher proportion of secondary school leaders said that the use
of learning platforms was a priority. Some 72 per cent of secondary
school leaders said this was a priority, around the same proportion as the
previous year. However, 66 per cent of primary leaders said this was a
priority, as opposed to 42 per cent in the previous year. Also around half
(52%) of secondary leaders placed online reporting to improve parental
engagement among their top priorities, nearly double the previous year’s
figure of 28 per cent. On the other hand, this was a top-three priority for
only 18 per cent of primary schools, but this was again a considerable
increase on the previous figure of 7 per cent. These findings are not
surprising given the recent emphasis placed on these policy areas,
especially for secondary schools.

School leaders were also asked to identify uses of technology for teaching
and learning that were a high priority. The proportion of leaders
identifying each of these areas as a high priority either remained the
same or has fallen since 2008. Here the proportion of leaders that
prioritised using technology to improve communication with parents fell
for both secondary and primary schools. In 2010, 48 per cent of
secondary leaders and 20 per cent of primary leaders prioritised this, as
opposed 48 per cent and 33 per cent in 2008. Also the proportion of
leaders identifying using technology for remote access study also fell.
Some 36 per cent of secondary leaders and 11 per cent of primary leaders
said this was a high priority in 2009. In 2008 these percentages were 55
per cent and 15 per cent.
These figures should also be set against the number of schools that are
already doing these things. In the area of providing remote access to
study, some 9 per cent of primaries and 28 per cent of secondaries
already do this. However, whereas this is not a priority for only 6 per cent
of secondary schools, 35 per cent of primary schools state that this is not
a priority.

Some 23 per cent of primary schools and 15 per cent of secondary schools
say they are already using technology to improve communication with
parents. For a small number of schools (10 per cent of primaries and 3 per
cent of secondaries), this is not a priority. Online reporting to parents was
expected to be implemented in all secondary schools by 2010 and primary
schools between 2010 and 2012. However, while we can assume that this
policy priority still has a limited profile at some primary schools, there are
still around one fifth of secondary schools for whom this is a more remote
priority.

Collaboration with other schools

Using technology to collaborate with other schools was one of the lowest
priorities for schools. Fewer that ten per cent of both primary and
secondary schools prioritise this. Even in areas that would be expected to
be a priority, technology does not seem to be part of the solution in more
than a minority of cases. For example, 17 per cent of secondary schools
use technology to collaborate with other schools for tracking the
attendance and progress of 14-19 year olds, and only 19 per cent
collaborate with FE colleges on this. A sizeable minority of schools
collaborate with other schools on curriculum and resource development.
However fewer secondary schools seem to be involved in these types of
partnership than in 2008-9. (ORC/Infogroup 2010a)
1.4 Enabling infrastructure and processes

Access to technology

The average number of pupils per computer in schools has changed little
over the past few years. The median number of learners for each
computer in primary schools 6.9 and in secondary schools is 3.4.
(ORC/Infogroup 2010a).

Desktop and laptop computers, digital cameras and interactive

whiteboards are extensively available in schools, especially primary
schools. Teachers and ICT coordinators broadly agree about this extent.
Most teachers however do not have access to handheld devices (PDAs),
netbooks or mobile phones within their schools.

While managers had the most widespread access to school networks, a

majority of secondary schools (59%) gave teaching staff access to their
administration network. A small minority of schools in both sectors (11%
of primaries and 15% of secondaries) gave parents or carers access to the
school curriculum network.

Purchasing

Some 59 per cent of primary schools and 40 per cent of secondary schools
plan to use their local authority (LA) purchasing framework. This is by far
the dominant route for schools wishing to use aggregated purchasing.
Fewer than 30 per cent of schools were planning to use any other single
aggregating framework. (ORC/Infogroup 2010a)

Management information systems

Almost all secondary schools use a management information system

(MIS), as do around 90 per cent of primary and special schools. However,
many schools offer access to their MIS via a separate admin network only,
indicating that integration of management information across staff groups
is at an early stage. In around half of secondary schools (54%) access is
restricted to specific workstations. On the other hand well over half of
primary schools (60%) restrict access to a separate administration
network. These percentages have changed slightly over the last few
years. Access to MIS seems to be moving away from a separate network,
and towards dedicated workstations. (ORC/Infogroup 2010a)

In a minority of schools, teachers were able to access their schools’

management information system remotely. Some 22 per cent of primary,
39 per cent of secondary school teachers reported being able to access
school Management Information Systems from home. This is an increase
on the previous year of nine per cent of primary teachers and 29 per cent
of secondary teachers. All but one ICT coordinator reported that their
school’s Management Information Systems had some access restrictions
in place.
Digital resources

School teachers’ use of digital resources has grown over recent years.
Around three quarters of secondary teachers (73%) use self-created
resources, compared to around half in 2007-8. In primary schools around
half of teachers (53%) create their own resources, compared to about a
third in 2007-8. They use digital resources created by colleagues less
frequently. Primary school teachers adapt learning resources from other
people more frequently than other teachers.

Teachers also appear reasonably satisfied with the fitness for purpose of
curriculum-related software. Some 83 per cent of primary teachers and
60 per cent of secondary teachers rated curriculum software as quite
good or very good. While six per cent of secondary teachers rated these
resources as poor or very poor, none of the primary teachers surveyed
rated them less than average. (ORC/Infogroup 2010a)
1.5 Improved personalised learning experiences

Range of use
There has been progress in teachers’ use of technology-based tools to
support learning and teaching over the years. Technology is widely used
for whole-class work in schools. While the most common use with
learners is for research and information gathering, increasing numbers of
both primary and secondary teachers are making broader use of
technology with learners, with an increasing proportion using technology
to support learners being creative and solving problems. (ORC/Infogroup
2010a)

Subject use
The use of technology in the core subjects of English, mathematics and
science falls off markedly between primary and secondary schools. There
are a number of likely explanations for these differences. Core subject
lessons in primary schools are likely to be daily, whereas this will not be
the case in secondary schools. The reduced number of lessons per subject
in secondary schools may also partly explain some of the apparent
declines in technology use. Also, it is likely that secondary learners will
receive core subject lessons from discrete teachers (maybe even more
than one per subject) whereas primary learners are likely to have one
class teacher for all the core subjects. Therefore, in order for the high
levels of technology use to be replicated at secondary level it would be
necessary for many more individual teachers to have personally
embraced and encouraged the use of the technologies. (Keating et al
2009)

Also in secondary schools there are a larger number of discrete subjects

taught. The subject area where technology is used most frequently by
learners was unsurprisingly ICT. Some 98 per cent of secondary learners
used technology in this subject at least once a week. Technology use was
also high among Business Studies learners. Technology use was especially
low in secondary PE and RE lessons: 70 per cent of learners reported that
they never used technology in these lessons. (Keating et al 2009)

Secondary learners were also asked if they felt enough technology was
used in the subjects they studied. For 10 of the 15 subjects listed, over 50
per cent of learners felt that technology could be used more. Those
subjects where fewer than 50 per cent of students suggested that
technology use could increase were the two subjects which already had
the most frequent use of technology: ICT and Business Studies, and the
creative subjects of Music, Art and Design and Design Technology.

Value in supporting learning

Teachers were largely positive about the contribution of technology to
learning in the classroom. For example, 85 per cent of primary teachers
and 71 per cent of secondary teachers either agreed or strongly agreed
that technology is particularly useful in helping to support the diverse
learning needs of learners. Similar numbers either agreed or strongly
agreed that technology makes learning more effective, with those who
strongly agree steadily increasing over the last few years. (ORC/Infogroup
2010a)

A study of learning platform use found that teachers across all the
participating schools reported that their learning platform had helped
make their teaching more effective. Successful learning platforms were
seen as a “one stop shop” where teachers could store, archive, manage
and share their resources. (Jewitt et al 2010)

Over the last decade, the popularity of learning through doing practical
things has increased dramatically among young people. Some 56 per
cent of 11-16 year-olds stated this in 2008, compared to 35 per cent in
1998. Over a third (37%) of young people liked to learn using computers,
as opposed to 18 per cent preferring to learn by seeing things done and
17 per cent from a teacher. (Campaign for learning, 2009)

However, most new learning continues to happen in the classroom. Some

80 per cent of young people said they learn most about new things in
class at school. This percentage has remained more-or-less the same
since 1998, when it was 78 per cent, as has the percentage who say they
learn new things at home. This was 29 per cent in 2008, compared to 30
per cent in 1998. Unsurprisingly, computers and the internet have grown
considerably as sources of new learning. Some 45 per cent learned about
new things on the internet in 2008, as opposed to 12 per cent in 1998.
There was a smaller increase in those who learned on a computer. In
2008, 34 per cent learned about new things on a computer, compared to
27 per cent in 1998.

Use for assessment

Over half of secondary and primary school teachers agreed that
technology helped them to use a wider range of assessment
tasks. Some 57 per cent of secondary teachers agreed or
strongly agreed with this compared to 59 per cent of primary
teachers. Undera half (44 per cent) of primary school teachers
agreed that technology helped give individualised feedback to
learners, whereas nearly two thirds (63 per cent) of secondary
schools teachers agreed with this statement. Teachers in special
schools were more likely than their primary and secondary
counterparts to strongly agree that technology helps them to
personalise the learning of each learner. (38 per cent compared
to 19 per cent in primary schools and 21 per cent in secondary
schools). (ORC/Infogroup 2010a)

Teachers in secondary schools use technology more frequently for

assessment purposes than teachers in primary schools. For instance, 38
per cent of teachers in secondary schools compared to 18 per cent of
teachers in primary schools reported using technology to give feedback to
learners at least a few times a week. Secondary school teachers also
reported using electronically stored learner assessment data more often
than primary school teachers. For example, around a third of secondary
school teachers (36 per cent) reported using electronically stored
information to share information with other staff at least ‘a few times a
week’, compared with only 16 per cent of primary school teachers.

Ofsted judged that assessment was the weakest aspect of ICT teaching
and was inadequate in one fifth of schools inspected. The schools visited
rarely tracked the progress of individuals in ICT, established their
attainment on entry to secondary school or took into account their
achievement outside school. Although the use of ICT in other subjects was
increasing in secondary schools, the skills were rarely assessed. As a
result, ICT teachers rarely knew how well students applied their ICT skills
elsewhere. (Ofsted 2009)
1.6 Impact of technology

Over the last few of years, independent studies have analysed the
relationship between technology and learning outcomes for school-age
learners. These have included interactive whiteboard evaluation studies
in primary (Somekh et al 2007a) and secondary schools (Moss et al 2007),
the ICT Test Bed evaluation (Somekh et al 2007b), and the 2002 Impact2
study (Harrison et al., 2002). The relationship is not a simple one. Time
taken to embed the use of technology, school-level planning and learners’
skills and models of learning are all important in mediating the impact of
technology on outcomes. Some new findings add more positive evidence
of the benefits of technology for learning.

A recent study identified two major ways that ICT had changed classroom
practice. It did this by making new forms of practice available and
secondly by creating a wider variety of practices. The first change was
apparent in the ways it enabled classrooms to be reorganised; ways in
which activities could be organised and monitored; and in ways that
technology created a different “virtual” world. The second change was
apparent in the use of richer images and videos; in the use of the internet
for independent research; and in using readily-available software and
tools to create new work. (Crook et al, 2010)

An analysis from the Institute of Fiscal Studies has analysed data from the
DCSF Longitudinal Survey of Young People in England (LSYPE), looking at
both attainment and behaviour differences between socioeconomic
groups. The model used data from 15,000 teenagers born in 1989 and
1990. The analysis found that computer and internet access at home is
important in explaining the achievement gap, and plays a role in some
behaviour outcomes. (Chowdry et al 2009)

After controlling for KS3 results, the availability of a computer at home is

significantly positively associated with Key Stage 4 test scores. This
association amounts to around 14 GCSE points (equivalent to 2 GCSE
grades in a single subject). Losing access to a computer is associated with
a reduction of 20 GCSE points, even after controlling for prior attainment.
Gaining access to the internet is associated with 10 GCSE points, again
controlling for achievement at KS3. Young people with a computer at
home are also less likely to play truant at ages 14 and 16 than those
without computer access.
The most readily-measured general impact of technology across
education relates to improvements in efficiency, notably impact on the
use of teachers’ and practitioners’ time. Studies have demonstrated that
practitioners generally re-invest time they save into core tasks (PwC,
2004), thus quality benefits arise from this. Technology has delivered
significant benefits to teachers in the use of their time. Teachers reported
saving most time on reporting on pupil progress. Around 60 per cent of
secondary teachers report saving time on reporting, compared to around
70 per cent of primary teachers. Primary teachers were also less likely to
report losing time on this, two per ceent, compared to 11 per cent of
secondary teachers. (ORC/Infogroup 2010a)

The second largest savings were in lesson planning. Some 53 per cent of
primary teachers and 43 per cent of secondary teachers report saving at
least an hour a week on lesson planning through using technology.
Secondary school teachers were more likely to save over one hour by
using technology for marking and assessment compared to their primary
school counterparts. On the other hand primary school teachers were
more likely to save more than two hours by using technology for report
writing (32 per cent compared to 22 per cent in secondary schools).
Comparison of primary and secondary schools

Primary Schools Secondary

Schools
E-mature providers: 2009 2010 2009 2010
e-enabled 29% 32% 35% 42%
Enthusiastic 33% 37% 33% 36%
Ambivalent/late adopters 38% 32% 31% 21%

Learners per computer 6.6 6.9 4.2 3.4

(median)
Has a learning platform 40% 67% 79% 93%

Teaching staff have access

to:
Learning platform 39% 60% 69% 68%
MIS 46% 26% 85% 39%
Electronic whiteboard 96% 100% 84% 92%

Teachers use ICT most

days for:
Lesson delivery 91% 96% 87% 87%
Learner assessment 69% 60% 76% 56%
Personalised learning 51% 54% 61% 48%

Organisation has a
strategy that addresses:
Teacher CPD 67% 91% 72% 81%
Online reporting to parents 15% 31% 58% 74%
(employers for WBL)
e-safety/security 57% 96% 65% 94%

Leaders place high priority

on:
Improving communication 21% 19% 43% 46%
with parents
Providing remote access to 10% 10% 47% 46%
study

Parents can access learner 10% 13% 29% 35%

information online
Teachers regularly access 17% 19% 32% 53%
learner information
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