New Perspectives
for Learning - Briefing Paper 39
Impact
of ICT-supported learning innovations
Context
A large number of information and
communication technology (ICT) -supported learning innovations have been funded
by regional, national and European-based bodies over the last few years
including some funded by the European Commission DG for Research under the
Targeted Socio-Economic Research Programme (TSER) and the Joint Multimedia Call
with a TSER component. However, little research appears to have been conducted
on assessing the overall impact of these individual projects.
This project has aimed to optimise the
results of these ICT-based learning projects by monitoring and reviewing the
projects in order to identify key qualitative indicators of innovation and a new
research agenda for future actions. This has been looked at from the following
perspectives: -
-
New methodological approaches to
learning in technology-based learning scenarios and their efficiency.
-
Institutional/organisational
consequences, including cross-cultural issues to be solved.
-
Contribution of ICT to lifelong learning.
Key Conclusions
The following conclusions were reached:
-
- Engagement of ICT in
learning alters traditional teacher-student relationships, and, as a result,
there are changes in the roles of the principle educational actors.
- Information management
strategies take a more central role in learning that affect both knowledge
building and the organisation of the classroom environment.
- Change of organisation
in the classroom appears to be caused by the combined effect of the media
being used and the teaching approach being applied that of placing emphasis
on the learning processes rather than the outcomes, and on social learning
rather than individual learning.
- Strategies are oriented towards: -
a)
Collaborative learning;
b)
Project-based learning;
c)
Self learning;
d)
Communicative
strategies to learning.
- Teachers’ attitudes
towards ICT are connected to socio-cultural, professional and technological
barriers.
- Effective
implementation of ICT in learning requires that institutional changes to be
addressed by all responsible actors. It is necessary to consider the
following: -
a)
Development of a culture of collaboration amongst all actors (teachers,
students, administrators);
b)
Flexibility of curriculum;
c)
The perception of ICT as a window of opportunities for institutional
development;
d)
Cost-effectiveness,
e)
Wider access of educational opportunities offered by ICT,
f) Organisational factors such as
institutional barriers need to be
considered.
- A fully embedded
innovation within on-going institutional interventions is most likely to be
successful and staff training is crucial to the success of innovations.
- Parameters for
designing teacher-training schemes are more conducive to the ICT-based
learning innovations’ requirements.
- ICT-based innovation
in learning: -
a)
Enhances student-centred learning approaches;
b)
Facilitates the transformation of teachers traditional roles and
functions;
c)
Shifts towards more collaborative and participative forms of learning;
d)
Promotes new competencies required for improving teaching and learning.
- An
agenda for policy articulation in the field of learning innovations with ICT
ought to focus in the areas of:
a)
Equal access to educational opportunities;
b)
Cross institutional cooperation;
c)
Institutional transformation;
d)
Organisation issues regarding the educational praxis;
e)
Knowledge sharing and knowledge negotiation mechanisms;
f)
School organisation and curricula development;
g)
Provisions for learning on demand;
h)
Teacher’s professional development;
i)
Provisions for support to the educational actors;
j)
Knowledge dependencies and gender issues;
k)
Lifelong learning policies
Key Recommendations
The
following recommendations were made for future research: -
- Support studies for developing pedagogies for
learning in the knowledge society, with the focus on the management of
cross-cultural and linguistic issues in the framework of a European
education space (e.g. transregional/transnational joint courses and/or
learning materials development, transnational joint-student support,
transnational collaborative learning, layered approaches of learning
platforms).
- Support research that pays attention to the
emotional aspects of learning in ICT-based environments, like the extent
to which social and learning skills, self-managing skills, and other
meta-cognitive capabilities are developed.
- There should be studies in emerging new
competencies, skills and meta-skills of teachers, tutors and other
academic staff (as well as managers) for e-learning.
- There is a need for in-depth study of people’s
information seeking strategies in ICT-based learning situations and its
relation to the building of knowledge.
- At the strategic level, there should be
longitudinal studies to investigate the sustainability and scalability
of the recently introduced learning innovations, like the learning
effects arising from learning with ICT (such as learning in new
scenarios combining face-to-face and virtual learning), changing habits
of study, new assessment components, long-term teaching effects, and
promotion of the notion of “classroom observatory” type of
activities.
- There is need to address the lack of rich
evidence on the issues of equity, exclusion and gender. Some fundamental
questions are related to how we can handle new forms of exclusion as a
consequence of the level of education and limited access to technologies
of electronic transmission information; and to what the pedagogical
factors are that inhibit /promote social exclusion.
- The rhetoric of European lifelong learning needs
to be made more concrete by: -
a)
Bridging the gap between theory and practice across the different sectors
(and different ‘learning patrimonies’) of learning;
b)
Developing a knowledge base on ‘what works, for whom and under what
conditions’, with particular regard to the use of virtual learning
(e-learning) in education and training.
Further Information
Full
title of study - “Monitoring and evaluation of research in learning
innovations (MERLIN)” completed in August 2002
Full
final report,
Project
website
Contact Person
Dr. Mario Barajas
University of Barcelona
Department of Didactics&Educational Organisation
Passeig Vall Hebron, 171
08035 Barcelona
Tel +34-934037223
Fax: +34-934035014
Email mbarajas@ub.edu
http://www.ub.es/euelearning/
Visit http://www.pjb.co.uk/npl/index.htm
for more information about other Briefing Papers on “New Perspectives for
Learning” or contact pjb Associates pjb@pjb.co.uk
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Last updated
28 June 2007