There are a large number of possible reasons for the lack of impact of ICT on education. Read almost any literature on the management of educational change in relation to ICT and it will list reasons why computers are not being used effectively. For example, Pelgrum (2001) provides provides a ranked list of the major obstacles that respondents in lower secondary schools identified from a list of 38 possibilities. The top ten major obstacles were:

Adapted from Pelgrum (2001 p173)

Whilst I would agree that these are important factors impacting on the uptake and use of ICT in schools I do not think that they constitute the main problems. The issues identified here are the day to day practical issues of using computers. However stepping back and looking at the broader picture there are other problems that I would argue make these practical considerations pale into insignificance.

The first of the higher order problems - or reasons why ICT is not having the impact that one might expect - relates to ambiguities within the literature, which lead to it being misinterpreted and misused. This is partly because there is a lack of clarity in the literature about what is meant by the terms that are used. For example, the term 'computer use' is littered throughout the literature but is seldon explicitly defined. Where definitions are provided, or can be implied, they vary considerably, ranging from 'talking about using computers' (ref??) through to ??

If you have views on the reasons for the lack of impact of ICT that please email me (PeterT@meD8.info) with your thoughts.

References (See Literature for a full list of references)