Towards a strategy for the introduction of information and computer literacy (ICL) courses

An important goal of the national policy on computers in education in the Netherlands is the familiarization of all citizens with information technology. This policy was a plea for some basic education in information and computer literacy. In the beginning of the implementation of this basic education for all a national survey (about grassroots developments) in Dutch junior secondary education was executed (Spring, 1984) with the following objectives: (i) to collect information which can serve as a baseline for the evaluation of future developments and (ii) to perform a context analysis to provide policy makers, innovation planners and curriculum developers with information about the state-of-the-art on information and computer literacy in the schools. The survey instruments were partly developed with as underlying structure some of the factors which are influencing the implementation of educational changes. The instruments were submitted to a sample of 462 schools representing the different types of junior secondary schools. Variation between the schools was obtained by distinguishing different levels of involvements of schools in information and computer literacy. This paper analyses how far in the schools, which are experimenting with information and computer literacy on their own initiative, some of the implementation factors of Fullan are fulfilled. Based upon this analysis a recommendation for a policy strategy for introducing this new domain in the schools is formulated

Factors affecting the introduction of Information and Computer Literacy (ICL) courses

This paper summarizes a survey of Dutch junior secondary schools which was conducted to measure their adoption of the "information and computer literacy" (ICL) concept, and to investigate how far the implementation factors identified by Fullan (1982) are consistent with this innovation. The study's objectives were twofold: (1) to collect baseline information; and (2) to provide policy-makers, innovation planners, and curriculum developers with information about ICL state-of-the-art in the schools. The population consisted of a sample of 462 Dutch junior secondary schools stratified as follows: 202 general secondary education (GSE), 187 lower vocational education (LVE), 56 GSE/LVE schools, and 17 middle schools. Instruments included a general school questionnaire (38 items) and an ICL questionnaire, which covered various aspects of introducing this new topic into the school curriculum and requested information on the degree of ICL implementation. Analysis of the responses from 382 schools (83%) indicates that: 70 schools (18.3%) were not active at all with ICL; 107 schools (28%) were teaching ICL to their pupils; 205 schools (53.7%) were in an orientation phase; teachers were the main group for originating adoption decisions; and reasons for not being active with ICL included lack of hardware (76.8%) and lack of time/resources. It is concluded that factors necessary for successful implementation include support from the government and school, positive attitudes and motivation of those involved, and positive experiences with earlier innovations. In addition, factors important at the beginning of the implementation include knowledge about the innovation, contacts with other institutions, inservice training, and materials development. A list of references and 10 data tables are provided. (JB

The effects of technology-enriched school intervention: a multiple case study analysis

Technology-enriched school projects are initiatives in real school settings that infuse extra computer-related resources and teacher support and training into a school and then, over a period of years, stimulate and study the school's response to the technology. Such projects have occurred in many countries. Typically the projects include a research component, but synthesizing the effects of such long-term interventions in an institution is challenging. In this study, a multiple case-study approach was used to analyse experiences from nine such technology-enriched school projects, involving six countries, 19 schools, and more than 15,000 students, to extract the dominant outcomes of such long-term interventions. In this article, a summary of the main outcomes and experiences extracted from the analysis is given. A parallel focus of the analysis is the question of methodology for research in such environments. How can the effects of technology-enriched school interventions be measured and synthesized? What aspects of the experiences can be generalized to other technology-using schools? The study addresses these issues through the framework of seven research questions relating to technology-enriched schools and responds to the questions based on the nine case studies

Information technology in The Netherlands : from project initiation to total school commitment

In this session we will examine the process of implementation of technologies into school practice in The Netherlands. Inparticular, we focus on the progression from treating technology as a "special project" to the position in which technology becomesintegrated into the everyday life of the school and teacher. We examine this progression from different perspectives: that of thenational leadership to stimulate new technologies in education, that of the educational software developer, that of the teachertrainer, that of the curriculum developer, and a perspective involving one of the new technologies itself telecommunications. Ineach case we see an evolution from well-planned central support of a "special project" toward systemwide integration and school-based initiatives. The examples we consider include those mentioned briefly in the Spotlight Session, "Going Dutch, By Satellite." In that session, the intention was simply to give an overview of activities in The Netherlands. The purpose of this session is to lookmore reflectively on the evolution of our experiences