An Examination of ICT Planning Maturity in Schools

2020

Copy right Idea Grou p Inc. Copy right Idea Grou p Inc. ABSTRACT This paper reports on a study that examines ICT planning in schools and proposes a four-stage model that seeks to explain the evolution of ICT planning maturity in schools. The model emerges from case studies conducted among eight New Zealand primary schools and provides insight into the nature of ICT planning in schools and the factors that contribute to growth in planning maturity. Development Of A Stage Theory For ICT Planning In Schools

British Journal of Educational …

Schools are more and more encouraged to write a school-based information and communication technology (ICT) policy plan. In such a plan, a school describes its expectations, goals, content and actions related to the future role of ICT in teaching and learning. Although this is encouraged by researchers and policy makers, the literature on ICT policy plans and ICT policy planning is rather general and underdeveloped. In this study, the content of school-based ICT policy plans and underlying policy processes is explored. Data were gathered in 31 primary schools in Flanders: the schools' ICT policy plan was submitted to a content analysis, and a semi-structured interview was administered to the school leader or the ICT coordinator. Using a framework of ICT leadership practices to guide the analysis (setting direction, developing people and making the organization work), we identified three types of ICT policy plans: (1) an ICT policy plan as a vision blueprint, (2) a technical inventory and (3) a comprehensive ICT policy plan. Although the last type takes into account all ICT leadership practices, we found a variety of different approaches in the processes used to create and execute such plans, such as the support of ICT training activities, data-driven decision-making processes and monitoring activities.

Educational Technology Society, 2013

This article describes an ICT-based and capability-driven model for assessing ICT in education capabilities and maturity of schools. The proposed model, called ICTE-MM (ICT in School Education Maturity Model), has three elements supporting educational processes: information criteria, ICT resources, and leverage domains. Changing the traditional and exclusive focus on ICT, five Leverage Domains are defined: Educational Management, Infrastructure, Administrators, Teachers and Students. The Leverage Domains generate a hierarchical structure with a second level named Key Domain Areas. These areas should be measurable and controllable, so they are related to a third hierarchical level, called Critical Variables, allowing the model's elements to be assessed qualitatively and quantitatively. The capability and maturity of these variables associated with the intersection with the other two elements establish five levels of capability. The proposed model is strongly supported by the international standards and best practices for ICT management. It has been validated through data collection instruments and its associated web-support tool was also refined with a small pilot study. In summary, the proposed ICTE-MM model provides a basis for self-assessment and improvement planning. It is not just a diagnostic tool but has also been found to be useful for guiding the principals in ICT investment.

Planning and Changing, 2004

Computers & Education, 2007

Retrieved May, 2002

Background ICT is becoming increasingly used in schools and educational institutions, and established in professional and classroom practice. As a consequence, research activity looking at developing and established practices is increasing and becoming more diversified. However, although head teachers, LEAs, companies and policy makers continue to take increasing interest in the scope of this field, relatively little research work is being undertaken which considers aspects of ICT and school management. This claim was supported by feedback at the research conference that Becta organised in the summer of 2001, at which one discussion group considered the scope of research outcomes available in this field to inform practice currently. Although wide interest in the field was apparent in the discussion group, there was little awareness of any extent of research being carried out at that time. As a consequence participants at the conference put forward a number of areas which they considered worthy of future investigation. Areas for further investigation which were suggested at the conference included: the nature of effective support for senior managers; the differences in managing ICT as compared to non-ICT facilities; the link between training and effective leadership; the role of project management; the applicability of findings generated from research in secondary schools to the primary sector; the quality and skill levels of senior management teams; and appropriate measures for evaluating ICT in school management. Following the conference, it was agreed that Becta should commission a series of research reviews into a number of fields concerned with ICT and education. This report results from that intention, and is an initial review into this field.

Over the last three decades many models explain the processes involved in the adoption and use of ICT in education. Based on this literature, a three-tiered framework and associated instruments were developed to use with Western Australian teachers to measure and support change in using ICT. This framework can be used to support, describe and promote good practice in the use of ICT in learning and teaching in schools and is multi- faceted and flexible enough to be used by individuals, groups, schools or educational organizations. The aims and purposes of the framework were to describe quality pedagogy in the use of ICT to effectively support student learning in schools; to assist teachers in planning to integrate ICT into learning environments; to describe progress by teachers as they move towards the integration of ICT in quality pedagogy; to assist teachers in the development of their own practice in the use of ICT to support student learning; and to provide a tool for teacher dia...

Researchers and policy makers around the world are increasingly acknowledging the importance of developing a school-based ICT policy plan to facilitate the integration of information and communication technology (ICT) in education. Despite this interest, not much is known about how schools can develop their local ICT policy capacity and how to establish an ICT policy plan. In order to fill the gap in research on ICT policy planning, a multiple case study analysis with a mixed-method design was carried out with three Flemish primary schools. Primary schools in Flanders are encouraged by the government to develop local ICT policy planning in a context of ICT curriculum reform. Data from multiple sources (e.g. interviews with school leaders and ICT coordinators, focus group interviews with teachers, school policy document analysis, and a teacher questionnaire) were gathered and analyzed. The results indicate that ICT policy planning in schools should be considered as a multifaceted phenomenon grounded in school culture. ICT policy consists of different policy domains: vision development, financial policy, infrastructural policy, continuing professional development policy, and curriculum policy. Each policy domain can be described in terms of policy artifacts (tools, routines, and structures), and differences exist between schools concerning the involvement of teachers in the policy planning process and in the distribution of management tasks. As such, the study illustrates a distributed leadership perspective on ICT school policy planning. The results are of particular importance for school leaders, ICT coordinators and professional development trainers, and illustrates that ICT school policy is as much about developing shared meanings among stakeholders for ICT, and coordinating their relations and interactions in keeping with the school’s culture as it is about content related decisions.

An important step towards the successful integration of information and communication technology (ICT) in schools is to facilitate their capacity to develop a school-based ICT policy resulting in an ICT policy plan. Such a plan can be defined as a school document containing strategic and operational elements concerning the integration of ICT in education. To write such a plan in an efficient way is challenging for schools. Therefore, an online tool [Planning for ICT in Schools (pICTos)] has been developed to guide schools in this process. A multiple case study research project was conducted with three Flemish primary schools to explore the process of developing a school-based ICT policy plan and the supportive role of pICTos within this process. Data from multiple sources (i.e. interviews with school leaders and ICT coordinators, school policy documents analysis and a teacher questionnaire) were collected and analysed. The results indicate that schools shape their ICT policy based on specific school data collected and presented by the pICTos environment. School teams learned about the actual and future place of ICT in teaching and learning. Consequently, different policy decisions were made according to each school’s vision on ‘good’ education and ICT integration.