Evaluating Cultural and Technical Obstacles in School-Based ICT Programs: An Analysis of Two Case Studies

Miriam Judge

Department of Communications, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland.

DOI: 10.4236/ce.2013.49B006                

Abstract

The emergence of a knowledge-based economy has been identified as a central trend in modern economies as a result of the increasingly important role of information technology and learning in economic performance. In recognition of this most governments throughout the developed world have responded with a series of policy initiatives since the late 1990’s to either introduce or significantly increase information technology provision in schools to prepare students for life in the twenty first century. Ireland, with its growing reliance on the knowledge economy sector for employment and continued economic prosperity, developed its own policy initiative for computerizing the nations’ schools known as“Schools IT 2000: A Policy Framework for the New Millennium”. It was an ambitious programme with high expectations for the integration of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) in education. This paper examines two longitudinal educational ICT projects in Ireland in the first decade of the new millennium to query how far schools have travelled along the information superhighway and to ponder how well the catalytic capabilities of ICT have become embedded in the realities of classroom life and teachers pedagogic practices, with attendant implications for Ireland’s economic development.

Keywords

Knowledge Economy; ICT Infrastructure; ICT Integration; Change in Schools; Thin Clients

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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