In response to the entry on Monty's blog, Oct 30, I would like to reflect on the way schools have picked up on the importance of ICT in Primary schools.

While it has been claimed that schools have been slow to adopt new technologies and are "ignoring the exciting new Information and Knowledge Societies which prevail outside the school gate" (primaryblog, 2008) we perhaps have to consider what we are expecting our students to learn.  Do we want them to become fervent ICT users, absorbed in a cyberspace where they don't need social skills? Do we want to give them the necessary skills to master ICT and keep on top of this dynamic industry? (I'd argue that those who want to do this will do so outside of a school environment) Or do we merely want our students to understand and be able to read new technologies and question everything they encounter?  The last point is crucial , as Evans (2004) suggests, “children must be challenged to respond to texts in a critical manner, to use critical literacy as a tool for asking questions such as who makes rules, who controls and holds power, who devises justice and who creates and writes knowledge.” I would suggest therefore that children need to have some form of Media education as early as possible to create a society which has a greater understanding of reading multimedia texts and are aware of growing problems associated with ICT such as cyber-bullying and internet fraud.

There is inevitably an age old problem of lack of time in the curriculum to squeeze in media education and ICT lessons and therefore, according to some, the use of ICT in education has suffered.  Another contributing factor is that "effective change requires a critical mass of teachers who really understand the potential of ICT as an educational tool to force change." (primaryblog, 2008) While there may be a lack of teachers who feel confident and have the skills to use ICT, this could be said of any subject.  In any school, there are specialists in English, Art, Science and all areas, the key arguably comes with a broad and balanced curriculum.  Children will always be one step ahead in terms of ICT use.  Our current school system which sees the teacher as the sole source of knowledge and power in the classroom is detrimental to student's progression in ICT.  We need to accept that our students probably know more than us when it comes to ICT, so we should harness their knowledge and use it to progress every body's learning.  

In my observations during my SBT, the use of ICT was at an adequate level.  Of course, we would love to give students more opportunities to use cutting edge technology just as we would like to read all our favourite books to our students, cover all areas of science and get our students to be mathematical prodigies, but all we can do is give our students the base and tools to develop by themselves.

References;

Primary blog, October 30 2008

Evans, Janet; Literacy Moves On; Using popular culture, new technologies and critical literacy in the primary classroom, 2004, David Fulton Publishers,