What is Information Communications Technology

My study initially arose from comments made by Ofsted in their 2004, 2005, 2006 reports relating to how ICT was used in mathematics teaching in schools. In these they were reporting that ICT was not used well in mathematics classrooms as part of the teaching and learning experience. As a head of both ICT and Mathematics in a rural middle school at the time of the National Opportunities Funding (NOF) between 1999 and 2003 I was aware that much money (£200 million) was spent in training teachers in an effort to remedy this. Although some reports suggest that this was a successful project (Preston C, 2004) however, other research suggests that there were shortcomings (Harris, 2003, Ofsted, 2002) and that this has not appeared to have a lasting effect as the later Ofsted (2008) reports indicate. In order to develop a discussion about what teachers are, and are not, doing in the classroom I needed to have a definitive definition of ICT. I have tried to discover what Ofsted’s definition is, with little success. In the guidance to Ofsted inspectors conducting surveys, the document refers to ICT rather than being explicit. If this is indeed so it means that schools cannot be sure where the goal posts are placed and subjectivity is introduced into the judgement on how schools are performing.

The RM Link 480z, which had an optional single or double disc drive and 56k of memory, superseded the 380z. It also came with a colour monitor and it was now possible to create a network. However, software was still limited but it was possible to word process, form a spreadsheet or a database. In 1982, under a scheme from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) (Govier, 1997), primary schools were offered half price computers. Many schools opted for the BBC B machines at this time rather than the Research Machines models Moore, 1986). To distinguish them from the huge mainframes they were called microcomputers. The introduction of microcomputers into a school depended very much on the attitude of the head teacher, for example: wanting to be at the forefront of IT development had a personal interest, received encouragement and support from staff, governors and parents. Unbeknown to many teachers, the purpose of the offer was to boost the computer industry and not to stimulate new approaches to learning, hence the lack of funding for educational software development. The LEA often purchased the machines and then gave them to schools. Frequently these had colour monitors with loading via cassette, rather than monochrome monitors and disc loading. This caused great frustration for teachers as loading was unreliable and took several minutes and damage frequently happened to the tapes. Software was not freely available commercially at this time, being often written by enthusiasts and distributed within their local area. In association with the DTI initiative, the Department of Education and Science subsequently set up the Microelectronics Program (MEP) (which ran to 1986) to support schools with hardware purchases, software development and training. As part of the agreement, two teachers were to be trained and it was expected that they would ‘cascade’ to the rest of the staff. This was not effective as the course covered much of the technicalities of having a computer and little on how to use it effectively for teaching and learning. There was a supposition that any person receiving the training was confident enough to teach their colleagues. This was a poor introduction to the use of computers and put many teachers off developing IT skills further.

The programs were cheap but centred on teaching limited skills, such as finding rhinos on a grid rather than tools such as word processors, databases and paint programs that are now common in schools. One of the first pieces of mathematics software was Logo developed by Papert (1980) in the United States of America. Training in using Logo was not offered to all teachers so tended to be primarily adopted by teachers who were interested in using computers within their lessons. At this time this was frequently one machine per class which arrived on a trolley before being given to another class the following lesson.

In the next stage (1985), there was financial support to enable schools to move towards getting newer machines. Many schools opted for the BBC B/Master, the Acorn Archimedes or the RM Nimbus series. The County, where I was working, chose the Nimbus 186 model as preferred machine. The operating system was loaded onto the machine via a three-inch floppy disc, before the programs could be loaded. At this point, there was no whole class computing facility in many schools, so the computers were often wheeled from one room to another, and locked away in a cupboard overnight for safekeeping. (Harris & Preston, 1993 p.25, p.32)

The next big event was the introduction of the National Curriculum in 1988, and after the Dearing review (1994) IT became a subject in its own right. Harris and Preston (1993) show some interesting figures on IT expenditure from the schools own budgets in both primary and secondary schools at that time.

The large amounts (i.e. in excess of £2000 primary and £20,000 secondary) represent about 5% of each group. At the lower end about 20% of primary were under £100 and 17% of secondary schools were under £500. At this time there were also other funding streams (such as LEA and GEST) to assist in the purchase of hardware and software.

Stevenson recommended several initiatives to remedy this lack of impact. The idea was to remove barriers to learning and access. These initiatives included setting up the National Grid for Learning (NGfL) in 1997, with £200m coming from the National Opportunities Fund (NOF) for training teachers and Computers for Teachers scheme to help them buy their own computer. This scheme was not open to all teachers, as there were qualifying rules and only a limited number of teachers could apply from any one school. There were other initiatives included those which enabled more rural schools to connect to the internet, access to which was still mainly in urban areas and via telephone lines.

In May 1999 David Blunket, (the then Secretary of State for Education), announced proposed changes to the National Curriculum for England for implementation from 2000. In this document IT was renamed ICT to take into account the growing significance of communications technology, including email, internet access and video conferencing. This suggested that the subject was to be much broader than just computing and included new elements such as broadcasting, and telecommunications. The intention was that the division between IT and ICT should be clarified by this action. Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) (1999) stated that:

The new curriculum for ICT proposes that information is at the heart of students’ study, of IT skills, knowledge and understanding. This new focus suggests that students might start with using IT to find things out, develop their ideas and make things happen. ..... The result should be more emphasis on IT as a tool for learning, rather than merely using applications.

IT and ICT in the National Curriculum, QCA Newsletter, Issue 2, May 1999
The 2000 National Curriculum also stated that ICT should be embedded into the whole curriculum with the emphasis on it being used as a tool and being able to use ICT at home and work then and in the future. The document also stated that ICT promotes initiative and independent learning with students finding, exploring, analysing and presenting information. Teachers who had qualified before May 1999 received NOF training, between 1999 and 2003, but one of the findings of the MirandaNet’s evaluation team was that the providers and policy makers had not realised that many participants did not know enough about computers to follow suggestions about classroom use.
In spite of this, discussions with a variety of people today (2011) are suggesting that there is not a widely accepted definition of the term information communications technology, in spite of the intentions of QCA and Lord Stevenson. If the term is taken literally, in its broadest sense, one could argue that writing implements such as pens (a technological development) which are used to communicate information should be included. Before the advent of electronic systems these would have been the manner for communicating at an individual level. In the broadest sense anything from the advent of communicating using instruments such as those found in the seventh century to produce illustrated manuscripts, i.e. pre-Gutenberg’s printing press (in around 1440), onwards would fit the definition. At the time of their development they would have been (in current terminology) ‘new technology’.
References

Byres, R 1994 The Dearing Review of the National Curriculum British Journal of Special Education, v21 n3 p92-96 Sep 1994

Govier H, 1997 IT in The Primary School - What Governors Need to Know. Naace First published in MicroScope issue 49, Spring 1997 http://primary.naace.co.uk/curriculum/management/management1.htm accessed 26/10/10

http://research.becta.org.uk/upload-dir/downloads/page_documents/research/wtrs_cpds.pdf

Research, Slough, UK.

Ofsted, 2002. ICT in schools: effect of government initiatives. Progress report April 2002. London: The Stationary Office

Ofsted (2002) ICT in Schools: Effect of government initiatives: Secondary Mathematics

June 2002 London: The Stationary Office

Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) (2004). 2004 report: ICT in schools – the impact of Government Initiatives Secondary Mathematics: A Report from the Office of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools retrieved 03/07/2010 from http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Publications-and-research/Browse-all-by/Education/Curriculum/Information-and-communication-technology/Primary/ICT-in-schools-2004-the-impact-of-government-initiatives-five-years-on

Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), (2005) Embedding ICT in Schools – a dual evaluation exercise. London: The Stationary Office

Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), (2006) Evaluating mathematics provisions for 14-19 year olds. London: The Stationary Office

Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), (2008) Mathematics- understanding the score. London: E-Publication accessed 09/09/09

Ofsted (2010) Mathematics Survey Visits: Generic grade descriptors and supplementary subject-specific guidance for inspectors on making judgements during visits to schools.

downloaded from http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Forms-and-guidance/Browse-all-by/Other/General/Generic-grade-descriptors-and-supplementary-subject-specific-guidance-for-inspectors-on-making-judgements-during-subject-survey-visits-to-schools accessed 26/10/10

Stevenson D, (1997) Information and Communications Technology in UK schools An Independent Enquiry The Independent ICT in Schools Commission London accessed 26/10/10 from http://web.archive.org/web/20070104225121/http://rubble.ultralab.anglia.ac.uk/stevenson/ICT.pdf