Extract from Applying New Technologies and Cost-Effective Delivery Systems in Basic Education (World Economic Forum, Dakar 2000)

It is worth distinguishing between various different rationales for using computers in education so that policy decisions can sensibly reflect educational purpose. An analysis by the Commonwealth Secretariat, which drew on reviews of Commonwealth-wide practice, usefully distinguished four rationales for introducing computers to education; the development of Internet communications means that we now need to add a fifth.

Rationale 1: To build a resource of people who are highly skilled in the use of information technology. Where governments see information technology as a means of strengthening the economy, and want to develop a workforce with vocational skills for computer-related activities, computer-education programmes have been set up to develop a cadre of people with specialist skills.

Rationale 2: To equip all students for a future in which technological awareness and basic computer skills will increasingly be important for greater numbers of citizens. Countries have adopted this approach as they see that, whether or not the country is likely to be a producer of computer hardware or software, their citizens need to be in a strong position to take advantage of technological developments as they arise.

Rationale 3: To use the technology to enhance the existing curriculum and to improve the way in which it is developed. Computer-assisted learning programs, in which the computer takes over some of the activity of the teacher, fall within this rationale.

Rationale 4: To promote change in education by moving towards a more relevant curriculum and a new definition of the teacher’s role. Some computer projects have been designed to shift the curriculum in the direction of practical learning of information-handling and communication skills rather than concentration on memory.

Rationale 5: To allow learners to seek information from databases, especially through the Internet, and use computer technology to communicate with other schools, colleges and learning communities. This rationale opens up new learner-initiated opportunities. This fifth rationale has been developed in the last five years.

(First four rationales adapted from Commonwealth Secretariat, 1991, pp. 8–12)

Of course the rationales overlap and national policies may embrace more than one but their curricular and cost implications are different. The first rationale leads to investment in courses at the upper end of secondary education, in vocational training and in tertiary education. Whole-hearted adoption of the second rationale, concerning the education of all future citizens, suggests that computer-related education should be at the upper end of the universal stage of education. It is likely, too, that educational content will rely on generic software – allowing children to develop basic skills in wordprocessing or the use of data-bases and spreadsheets for example – rather than the use of subject-specific computer-aided learning. The third rationale has been the subject of the most severe criticism; early computer-aided learning proved to have high unit costs and, in many cases, simply offered an expensive way of offering drill and practice, with keyboard and mouse instead of pen and paper. The fourth and fifth rationales both suggest that, if computers are to be used in school, it is necessary to think through their consequences for the curriculum; changes in the curriculum will not occur through technology alone. The fifth rationale presents new opportunities for reshaping the curriculum but demands not only that schools should have access to computers, but also have, and can pay for, access to the Internet.