TECHNOLOGY ENRICHED SCHOOL PROJECT - THE IMPACT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON CHILDRENS LEARNING

The purpose of this paper is to consider what level of technology enrichment in schools is required to achieve an enhancement of pupils' learning. This question relates to one aspect of the 3-yr ImpacT project[1] commissioned by the U.K. Department for Education to evaluate the impact of information technology on children's achievements in English, mathematics, science and geography, for pupils aged 8-10, 12-14 and 14-16 years. The focus of this paper is on the level and use of Information Technology (IT) in 70 of the 87 ImpacT classes which returned data from both the class teachers and each of the individual 2300 pupils, providing termly records of the nature and use of IT in their lessons. The summarized quantitative pre- and post-tests for all four subjects are discussed and the primary results are related to the level of IT use analysed through a rating scheme for frequency of pupils' IT use, developed by the project, together with the analysed data from the teachers' own records. The results show that those classes of pupils which had the highest regular use of information technology in a subject, experienced an improvement in learning compared with low or non users. Significantly, this use was possible within the current level of resourcing available in U.K. schools, although it is clear from the evidence that how the software was used and integrated within the subject was entirely dependent upon the enthusiasm and skills of the teacher and was an important contributory factor to the pupils' learning.