Effective use and management of ICT

Twenty-first century education integrates technologies, engaging students in ways not previously possible, creating new learning and teaching possibilities, enhancing achievement and extending interactions with local and global communities.

The Digital Education Revolution initiative will contribute sustainable and meaningful change to teaching and learning in Australian schools to prepare students for further education and training and for living and working in a digital world. Through the Council of Australian Governments, the Australian Government, in partnership with state and territory governments, has been working on a strategic vision for the Digital Education Revolution.

To realise the benefits of ICT, schools need to adopt effective methods for using and managing their ICT resources.

While this guide focuses on ICT infrastructure, including computer hardware and software, infrastructure is only one element of the effective integration of ICT in schools. Schools also need to focus on the way that they use and manage ICT, including:

  • enabling teaching and learning
  • supporting professional learning for teachers and school staff
  • improving administrative processes
  • supporting effective information management.

Planning frameworks

Some school systems and sectors have developed ICT planning frameworks that identify the different elements associated with the effective use and management of ICT. The frameworks provide guidance to schools on how they can progressively develop their capabilities.

The frameworks are powerful tools for planning and managing ICT within schools, and help schools to evaluate their levels of readiness.

 

Draft national framework

A draft framework of ten elements has been developed by the MCEETYA ICT in Schools Taskforce, with input from the Australian Government, states and territories, the independent and Catholic sectors, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Becta and the Australian Council for Educational Research. The framework complements resources and frameworks provided to schools by state and territory education departments and the non-government schools authorities.

The draft framework is described in Digital education—making change happen. The elements set out in the framework are:

No. Element Description
1 Personalising and extending student learning The school’s capacity to use ICT to extend and differentiate student learning opportunities, and to support students to manage and direct their learning.
2 Enabling leadership The ways in which school leadership establishes the ICT vision for the school and supports all aspects of implementation and change management across the school.
3 Supporting professional learning The school’s planning for and implementation of professional learning that contributes to improved teacher quality and the integration of ICT in curriculums, pedagogy and assessment administration.
4 Connecting learning beyond the school The school’s use of ICT to support communication and collaboration with the wider school community, and to connect students and staff to external knowledge and learning networks.
5 Improving student assessment and reporting The ways in which the school collects, collates and communicates student assessment data to feed into learning design and to report on student achievement.
6 Developing, measuring and monitoring student ICT capabilities How the schools collects data related to the students’ confidence, engagement and skill in using ICT, and uses this to improve learning programs.
7 Accessing and utilising student information The school’s use of ICT to manage all student information as a single, integrated, interoperable system across the school and for communicating efficiently with external bodies and institutions.
8 Providing, accessing and managing teaching and learning processes The school’s systems for planning for digital learning and teaching and how it selects, creates, stores, retrieves and makes use of those resources in all learning areas in the school.
9 Automating business processes The school’s planning for and implementation of ICT systems across the school and how those systems support and improve the school’s business processes.
10 Providing reliable infrastructure The school’s planning, implementation, ongoing maintenance and development of ICT infrastructure so that it meets the school’s learning, teaching and administrative needs.

For each of these elements, the framework provides a set of statements which describe progressive levels of readiness. The three levels are:

  • the developing school
  • the accomplished school
  • the leading school.

Some school systems and sectors have developed frameworks with up to five levels of readiness.

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