Information and communications technology (ICT) has transformed the means by which we inform ourselves, remain up to date with world events and areas of personal interest, and further our learning. For many, books and journals are no longer the first or primary source of information or learning. We now regularly rely on images, video, animations and sound to acquire information and to learn. Increased and improved access to the Internet has accelerated this phenomenon. We now acquire and access information in ways fundamentally different from the pre-ICT era.
These new ways of acquiring and accessing information are also having an increasingly important impact on learning and teaching in Scotland. The potential to transform patterns and modes of learning and teaching is clear. Access to considerable quantities of up-to-date resources and materials by learners and teaching staff can be immediate and have powerful effects. Communication through e-mail, text messaging, blogs, podcasts, discussion groups and the like can lead to wider dialogue than has been possible before, including dialogue between learners at great distances. The use of non-textual approaches to presenting learning can lead to improved learner engagement and motivation. New classes of equipment and service are changing the way we interact: the convergence of technologies now found in mobile phones; the ubiquitous nature of digital cameras; and the opening up of the Internet through personal web space. Most powerfully, ICT has integrated all of these resources and services into a single box sitting on the user’s desktop. Today’s learner has the potential to exploit them all, through an interface that is mostly intuitive.
Great progress has been made in capacity building for use of ICT in Scottish education in recent years. Large investment, including in the national schools’ intranet, Glow, has provided Scottish education with great potential to enhance and enrich learning and teaching. Infrastructure and bandwidth have improved, more equipment and software is now available for learning and teaching, and learner and teacher confidence and competence have increased.
It is important that ICT is seen as a natural part of good learning and teaching. The challenge is to use it effectively to maximise learning and to enhance and enrich teaching and that means that the practice of the best needs to be widely embraced. Although fully effective practice in the use of ICT is not yet the norm, inspectors found many examples of it being used well to promote and enhance learning, especially in primary schools and for learners with additional support needs.
The findings outlined in this report confirm that Scotland is well placed to build on current strengths in order to realise the full potential of ICT to improve learning and achievement. The challenge is to make that happen.
Graham Donaldson
HM Senior Chief Inspector of Education
March 2007