Using technology as an educational tool

Using technology as an educational tool

16 October 2005
Dr Kevin Marshall, academic programme manager with Microsoft, is the chairman of the ICT Ireland Education Committee. The group focuses on raising the profile of ICT within education, thereby encouraging more students to opt for a career within the sector.

“There are representatives on the committee from Intel, Riverdeep, Apple, IBM, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, the HEA, Discover Science and Engineering (Forfas) and Future Kids,” said Marshall. We have two primary objectives, namely to facilitate the establishment of a farseeing ICT policy within Irish classrooms, as we see this as being essential for Ireland's successful participation in the knowledge economy.



“Our second objective is to guarantee the availability of a workforce of excellence for the ICT sector, by ensuring that the government addresses the decline in uptake in maths and science subjects at second level and the uptake of IT subjects at third level.”

Marshall believes that, in general, over the past number of years the profile of ICT in the education system has been raised significantly. However, day-to-day use of ICT in the classroom continues to be disappointing. Marshall quoted a recent OECD report that found Ireland languishing in the bottom three of its table on professional development for teachers and the use of computers in the classroom.

These OECD findings don't inspire confidence in government measures to counteract the impending ICT ski l ls shortages. For its part, the ICT Ireland education committee sees its main work being in the areas of advocacy and outreach. But, said Marshall, “while a lot of the focus of our work has attempted to engage with the Department of Education on these issues, the big gap as we see it, is that the department does not have a clear, articulate vision or implementation plan for the use of technology within the classroom for the next ten years.

From our perspective this is significant because it is difficult to engage with the department when there isn't a platform on which to engage.

“We know there isn't enough digital content available, we know that for the technology to be effectively used in schools there has to be ongoing professional development with teachers. But the real issue is how schools integrate ICT into the curriculum. Teachers need to understand the mode and stages of ICT development.”

There is a difference between teaching about ICT and teaching with ICT, we need to facilitate the latter. We need to have teachers using ICT in an efficient way that supports their core teaching practice.

ICT Ireland has launched a number of specific initiatives that involve outreach, for instance the ICT Champions Programme. “With this programme we as an industry take it upon ourselves to go into schools and basically address anyone who will listen, from career guidance teachers, to regular staff, parents and most importantly the students themselves,” said Marshall.

“We discuss our experience of having studied IT, engineering and science and we discuss our career and the career options available to those who go on to take ICT-related subjects at third level. We explain the depth of opportunities in the sector, that you can start off as a programmer, from there, move into product development and maybe end up in marketing and sales.

“At the same time we are also lobbying government to look at ways to improve the maths situation in Irish schools. It's now recognised that Irish post-primary students are falling behind their international peers in maths and this situation needs to be reversed. We need to identify the gaps and decide on a course of action to address the situation. Considering that incubation of any new plans could take four to five years, the Department of Education needs to commit itself to a plan of action now.

“Other countries have turned around similar problems with maths, for example Singapore, so we could learn from their experience.

“The fact is, demand for skilled IT professionals will be greater than supply within the ICT sector by the end of 2006.

“Consequently there is an onus on the Irish government, and specifically the Department of Education, to encourage higher standards and take-up in key subjects in order to create the necessary skilled workforce