ICT provides a profound potential to make the taught curriculum significantly more relevant, purposeful, creative and flexible and more widely accessible, supporting all learners at all stages throughout their lives and in ways that best suit their own particular learning style.Within our schools and educational establishments, ICT also presents a genuine opportunity to support all teachers in their planning, teaching and learning. The government also see the potential of ICT use beyond teachers and learners but include parents, support staff and governors. The government also highlights that ICT should also be used as a means of enabling learning to take place more easily beyond the bounds of the formal school organisation and outside the school day (Dfes; 2003: p14).
The Independent newspaper stated that the government wants parents to ‘have the right to check on their child’s progress on a day to day basis through logging onto the school’s computer’. Ministers have also called for ‘new technology that will enable parents to monitor how well children are doing in different subjects - and even whether they have turned in their homework in on time’ (The Independent, 18th May 2005).
These comments follow on from the governments Communication White Paper in 2000 (2000: p4), which outlined its vision and objectives for the UK. It said:
- We will make the UK home to the most dynamic and competitive communications and media market in the world.
- We will ensure universal access to a choice of diverse services of the highest quality.
- We will ensure that citizens and consumers are safeguarded.
Schools must form a major role in this revolution by ensuring the learning experience and curriculum offered reflects the vision. The position of schools (often as the centre of the community) will also need to be involved to ensure that there is universal access for all).
E-learning is likely to be a major area of growth in coming years. It is about embedding and exploiting technologies in everything we do, and addressing that ICT is embedded across the curriculum for all subjects and for teaching. E-learning has the power to transform the way we learn, and to bring high quality, accessible learning to everyone - so that every learner can achieve his or her full potential. New technologies are providing unprecedented access to ideas, information, people and organisations throughout the world as well as to cultural exchange and understanding, new ways of personal expression, new ways of getting things done and the removal of national boundaries.
E-learning is also about developing the skills we need for everyday life and work. In the changing world of the knowledge economy, a workforce that has good levels of ICT will help to boost this country’s productivity and competitiveness. Students need to be exposed to the latest technology as tomorrow this technology will be everyday technology.
Both academic and commercially-funded market research illustrates a consistent trend in home ownership of ICT amongst young people. Recent BBC research figures give around 80 per cent of households with children as having access to the internet (Sefton Green, 2004). Learning outside of school seems to be accelerating at a vast pace, formal education needs to catch up. Young people are very digitally aware. In many ways technology is the key to their environment, even to their sense of self and, when they come to school, it’s as if they are powered down. No wonder then that short attention spans, lack of motivation, disinterest and apathy are usual reproaches levelled at young people (particularly teenagers) within the education system.
There is pressure from a number of quarters to revolutionise the 14-19 curriculum, the need being highlighted in the Tomlinson Report (November 2004). A new system is important to prepare young adults for a future which is more likely to be varied than narrow and specialised. This must eventually lead to opportunity for more choice for 14-19s (Tomlinson, 2004). It will be through adoption and development of technology that will lead to both teachers and students being equipped to work within this proposed new system and get the most out of it.
It is clear that the education landscape is changing and technology is a major driver in this. A VLE is one of the tools that can facilitate decision-making, and intentional learning, and will cultivate collaboration amongst students and teachers that will be required in the future. The new landscape will promote study and investigation within authentic contexts with constructivist philosophies and theories (Garbinger and Dunlap, 1995).
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