Heppell presents four stages that the use of computers in educational institutions (schools) progresses through:

• Stage 1: Topicality - Focus is on learning about the technology
• Stage 2: Surrogacy - The computer is used as a 'surrogate teacher'
• Stage 3: Progression - Focus on use of generic tools
• Stage 4: Pedagogic Evolution - Computers alter the learning environment and the learners. This stage involved radical change

Heppell links these four stages of evolution of the use of computers to his taxonomy of multimedia use.

The framework as a whole
This framework is explicitly evolutionary. Heppell presents it as stages of development that the use of computers progresses through, with each new stage building upon, rather than replacing, the stage before. This progression is not seen as being sequential, in the sense that Heppell identifies that new technologies often start back at Stage 1. He illustrates this with reference to the introduction of CD-ROM technology, where much of the focus was on the technology itself (ie topicality). He argues that this then progressed on to looking at how CD-ROM (alias multimedia) could be used in a surrogacy role to generate financial savings (for example in the first phase of the Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) in UK higher education).

Stage 1: Topicality
The focus at this stage is on learning about the technology. Heppell says that this was the first stage that computer use went through and that "the learner was seen as deficient, unfamiliar, and indeed relatively few children typically had any experience of using a computer." (Heppell 1993b p230)

Stage 2: Surrogacy
"This stage characterised the computer as a surrogate teacher, containing a discrete and relatively small body of expertise which could be trickle fed to the 'empty vessel' learner." (Heppell 1993b p231)

Heppell identified, in 1993, that most multimedia in education is at the narrative or interactive level within his taxonomy of multimedia use, which places it in this surrogacy stage of the evolution of educational computing.

Stage 3: Progression
The focus at this stage is on the use of generic tools. Heppell identifies that at first this involved the use of 'useful little programs' and then content free applications developed initially for business, such as word processors.

Stage 4: Pedagogic Evolution
Heppell identified this stage as involving radical change - that takes into account the new skills and opportunities that ICT makes available - and that children are taking advantage of in their out of school lives (particularly in the context of playing computer games). He argues (in 1993) that we have generally not reached this pedagogic evolution stage and that:

"Stage Four will occur only when the new information capabilities of the 'information generation' are implicitly recognised and pedagogy begins to reflect the radical changes in traditional methods and assumptions that are on offer from rapid hardware and software evolution."
                                                      (Heppell 1993b p235)

This, he argues, will also entail a move to the use of participative media as defined in his taxonomy of multimedia use.

This is another useful framework for thinking about the embedding of computer use in education. This value is enhanced by the way in which Heppell links his stages of evolution of computer use with his taxonomy of multimedia use.

The fact that Heppel superimposes value judgements over the top of this model does not prevent the model being used to help locate and describe the way in which computers are being used in a wide range of contexts - one could superimpose other value judgements upon the framework and it would still apply.

The main difficulty I have with the model is that each of the four stages does not appear to deal with similar dimensions of practice. Stage 1 revolves around a dimension relating to where the focus of attention in using computer resides (ie on the technology itself or on something else). Stages 2 and 3 are based on a classification of the role that the technology plays (from surrogate teacher, which equates to Taylor's Tutor, through to generic tool, which equates to Taylor's Tool). Stage 4 is based on a dimension that deals with the degree of change or impact that computer use has on the content and processes of learning. These differences between the dimensions that underpin the stages within this framework seems to me to be problematic - and have influenced the development of the Computer Practice Framework (CPF).

It would be interesting to hear your views on and/or experiences of using Heppell's 4 stage model of the evolution of computer use (or on my reporting of it) - why not email me (PeterT@meD8.info)?

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This page is maintained by Peter Twining (PeterT@meD8.info)
Last updated 7th January 2002