Zealand
Realising the importance of ICTs for better learning outcomes, in early 2000’s an ambitious project aimed to provide students with regular access to modern digital technologies was started in New Zealand. This project was called ‘digital opportunities
pilot projects’ (DigiOps) and conceived as a three-way partnership between the
ministry of education, participating schools, and supporting businesses to facilitate the best possible reach of modern digital technologies in schools. The DigiOps model was planned to be trialled through four different pilot projects called Generation XP, Far Net, Notebook Valley and Boosted Study Support centres. The model was based on the assumption that opportunity of technology usage and competent digital skills are the necessary components of a globally competitive 21st century ‘knowledge economy’ (Bolstad, 2004; Boyd, 2002). The objective of the initiative was to leverage
the opportunities offered by the use of ICT in schools, and to develop the digital and information literacy skills in students, which in turn would generate flow-on effects for improving technical proficiencies in the wider economy (Parr & Ward, 2005). Specific subject areas like mathematics, science and technology were selected as the target subjects because they are considered core subjects for a knowledge economy. Rivers and Rivers (2004) said the digital opportunity model was based on the understanding that introduction of ICTs has the scope to improve student learning and the model’s overall objective was to increase student engagement and retain the interest of students in the target subjects.
According to Rivers and Rivers (2004), while each of the projects operated differently and had specific goals, they all had the common focus. That included lessening the
32 impact of the digital divide, improving student engagement and retention in science, mathematics and technology and providing an opportunity for trialling a government/industry/schools partnership model, aiming to bridge the digital divide through the introduction of an ICT initiative in schools. Boyd (2002) stated that the concept of the digital divide was assumed here, since it was presumed that a lack of access to technological resources would contribute to a social divide between those who were ‘knowledge’ and ‘information’ rich and those who were not. The digital opportunity model, therefore, focused on schools in remote areas or areas of lower socio-economic status, with the aim of reducing barriers to access, ability and attitude to ICTs by providing hardware, software, high-quality internet connection and providing training opportunities for teachers. The digital opportunities model assumed that ICTs can transform and improve teaching practices, over and above developing teachers’ skills in the use of ICT and that this, in turn, would have a positive effect on student learning (Bolstad, 2004).
However, despite a good strategy and infrastructural support, the evaluation of the
DigiOps model and its four projects showed that the expected goals were hardly
achieved through the implementation of the pilot projects (Bolstad, 2004; Parr & Ward, 2005; Winter, 2004a, 2004b). The evaluation of the digital opportunities pilot projects revealed that there was a need to rethink the educational aims underpinning the concept of ICT initiatives and the process by which such concepts are translated into practice in schools (Rivers & Rivers, 2004). The results and experiences of the
DigiOps raised several implications for future projects for ICT interventions and
integration of ICTs in the learning process. These are
• Identify the need for starting of an initiative and then to ensure that the proposed project is the best means to meet the need.
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• Establish clear and achievable goals. The focus should be on how innovative technologies can help to enhance academic results and help to achieve course or curriculum objectives, rather than merely on the provision of technologies as an end in itself.
• Identify in advance how outcomes of the project will be evaluated. The factors based on which outcomes will be evaluated should be clearly stated.
• Projects should include a strong pedagogical component; that is, focus on how to effectively use ICT to improve academic outcomes.
• All stakeholders should be involved early in the planning and need to have clear understanding of their responsibilities
Further, the evaluation of the digital opportunities pilot project model has been categorised into different groups, namely students, teachers, management, implementation, ICT infrastructure and sustainability. Table 2.1 shows the different group categories, their outcome measurement factors and brief analysis of the findings. As is evident from the table, DigiOps did not have a significant positive impact on students’ attitudes towards mathematics, science and technology with ICTs and revealed a very small improvement with regard to teachers’ attitudes. Teachers, who are the main facilitators for such initiatives were not consulted by management leading to their discontent. Moreover, management teams did not share information between schools where the DigiOps projects were rolled out leading to lack of collaboration and cooperation. The DigiOps project faced some infrastructure problems at the start, but these were eventually resolved. The project took a long time to roll out and eventually, the DigiOps project was not found to be sustainable without external funding support.
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Table 2.1: Evaluation of categories, factors and analysis of findings in the digital opportunities pilot project.
Categories Based on Findings
Student Achievements,
retention, use of and attitude to ICT, access to
computers
Evaluation of the projects indicated that none of the digital opportunities pilot projects were successful on either retention of students in the target subject area of mathematics, science and technology or contribute to lower the school dropout rates (Rivers & Rivers, 2004).
Teacher Professional
development, attitudes to ICT, teacher’s use of ICT
Based on the evaluation of projects, considerable variation has been found in the attitude to ICT and teacher’s usage of ICT within and across different projects, and only minimal improvement has been found.
Management and Implementation Roll out, collaboration and cooperation, wider school and community use of ICT, staffing, partnership, external factors
The roll out of the projects delayed and could not start on time. The most important stakeholders into such projects, i.e. teachers were often not consulted or included in the planning phase (Rivers & Rivers, 2004). There was also very little collaboration between schools within projects.
ICT
infrastructure Hardware, Internet connections, and the integration of the ICT
with existing networks
According to (Rivers & Rivers, 2004), all projects were having ICT infrastructure problems with hardware, internet connections, and the integration of the ICT with existing networks, but were resolved.
Sustainability Financially and
35 One of the lessons learned from the evaluation of the digital opportunities pilot projects is the understanding that the challenge of this information age is not just the material integration of ICTs. The bigger challenge is to integrate ICTs into teaching and learning to harness the opportunities offered by those ICTs to improve the academic outcomes of the learner, as well as to accelerate the rate at which knowledge is distributed so that positive changes in learning activities and learning outcomes are equalised through society.