I appreciate the opportunity to talk to the committee about our activities in the past four to five years. I have already given the committee a submission on our work and it should provide a quick overview of our activities against the background of our remit. I do not propose to read it word for word, but to discuss the progress we have made and what role we see ICT playing in furthering and enhancing education in the future.
Our centre was established on foot of the policy statement of the Department on Education and Science in November 1997 when the ICT framework policy was developed. It delineated a three to four year policy on ICT. The key features behind our establishment were to provide money infrastructures in schools, training for teachers, coming up with a level of interactive resources and materials which would facilitate teachers to use ICT and supporting innovative practices. Those are the key functions of the National Centre for Technology in Education and will remain so. The overall aim of this initiative is to integrate ICT into learning and teaching and make it a more exciting, fulfilling, self-directed and individualistic activity in schools.
I also wish to discuss the preliminary findings of a national census of ICT in schools. In 1998 we undertook a national census when the initiative started. This gave us a clear and comprehensive picture of where ICT was within schools, the level of technology and its utilisation. We did another one in 2000 and have just completed a more recent one. The final results from the schools came to us in February and early March. We are being assisted in this census by Mr. AidanMulkeen from NUI Maynooth. We have a range of preliminary findings that the committee has in the submission. I apologise for all the figures and graphs in the submission. When I was looking at what I would leave in and out, I knew many of the Members are professional educators so I felt it might be wise to leave everything in. As a focus, I wish to highlight some of the key findings in each of the different graphs.
There are now 84,000 to 85,000 computers in schools. That figure does not mean much until it is analysed. The key issue is that when the initiative started in 1998, there was a ratio of 37 pupils to every computer in primary school; 16 pupils to every computer at post-primary. The situation now is that the average is 11.8 pupils to every computer at primary school and 9.4 pupils to every computer at post-primary schools.
What is interesting in the table on computers and pupil ratio is that it tells the story of how schools, principals, communities and parents feel about the role of ICT. In addition to direct State funding for ICT, which was approximately €145 million, other resources to the tune of €13.6 million were used in ICT over the past two years. That is a large amount of money, giving an average of €4,300 every primary school spent in addition to its ICT allocation. In post-primary, it was an average of €21,500 spent on ICT purchase in one form or another. At primary school, this was primarily achieved through fund raising activities; at post-primary, it was through the reallocation of other funding. The majority of this money would have been spent improving infrastructure facilities, the provision of software, etc. It would not include training as this is provided through education centres at national level.
We asked a particular question in the census about disadvantaged schools as there is a worry that in some ways they cannot fund raise or they have a lower level of technology. However, the average ratio of pupils to computers in schools in disadvantaged areas was less than at national level. That is a good sign. I believe this is due to a whole range of other initiatives which themselves would attract certain levels of funding for ICT. This would include such examples as leaving certificate applied, leaving certificate vocational and transition year studies that attract independent funding for computers. The willingness of the school to divert money into this area is another factor.
The breakdown of computer locations in schools tells another story. The majority of computers are in classrooms in primary schools. At post-primary level, the majority are in computer rooms. This is something we want to change from the point of view that we want to see more computers in classrooms in post-primary schools. This is the only way we can facilitate teachers in using computers on an easy basis. The only way to integrate ICT in classrooms is if teachers are pushed because of the exigencies of the examination system. In primary, it is obvious that they do not have individualised computer rooms because the curriculum is interdisciplinary and the same teacher is usually with the class for the entire day. This makes it much easier to have computers in the classroom.
There has been a rise of computers in laboratories. The importance of that vis-à-vis science is most important. We want to see more technology in science based or practically orientated subjects. The number of classrooms with Internet connections is low. We have much work to raise the level of connectivity within classrooms. The statistics we have collated show that the majority of computers in primary schools are in classrooms, a third of them are networked and connected to the Internet. In post-primary schools, the majority are in computer rooms, they are networked and connected to the Internet.
In terms of broadband connectivity, this is an area where much work needs to be completed. The overwhelming majority of post-primary schools are using ISDN lines which is not looked at by the industry or technologists as broadband. It is not approaching broadband in terms of speed, so there is a problem on that score. A significant minority of schools at primary level have broadband. There is an issue around the provision of broadband in schools. The figures show that 26.8% of primary schools have ISDN while it is 85% of post-primary schools. There is little or no DSL, wireless or satellite connectivity.
In terms of usage per month, the average has gone up over two years. There is a large number of pupils using the Internet for e-mail. I will also highlight the figures for acceptable use policy for safe use of the Internet. There has been much work done in making sure that schools have such policies for access to the Internet. I believe that the greatest risk to the dangers of contacting people on the Internet does not reside at school due to supervision and increased awareness. The dangers are more apparent in the home and at cyber cafes. The percentage of pupils using e-mail in schools is obviously very low, and that has to do with decisions by teachers, with access levels and so on. The ways in which the Internet is used, as shown in one of the graphs, is encouraging. Teachers are using it for teaching resources and pupils are using it for research. These are the kinds of creative, intelligent uses that we want to see for the Internet.
When schools and teachers were asked what they thought were the most important facility or priority, they said, as the graph indicates, that pupils should leave with a basic level of ICT skills. That is a fundamental objective. The other is more broad based - to integrate ICT into the curriculum. There are implications for that in all subject areas. Paradoxically, it is being used more in the liberal science areas than in the hard science areas. English teachers, for example, use it more. One would not have expected that a few years ago. I would have thought it would have been used more in science subjects where one can get visual graphs and where it easier to see virtual laboratories for example. The science task force did note that the creative use of ICT would certainly enhance the teaching of science and I believe that.
The integration need is clearly demonstrated in another of the graphs supplied. Some 85% of post-primary teachers and nearly 70% of primary teachers said they wanted more computers in classrooms. That emphasises the point I made at the beginning, that if we truly want to integrate ICT as a seamless activity to which one can come and go, and allow children to come and go to throughout a class, one has to have Internet connectivity and a range of computers in every classroom. Otherwise goals will not be achieved.
In terms of priorities, we have issues around technical support and maintenance. There is a clear need for much higher levels of financial support for schools to maintain the levels of equipment they have. We are working on a paper which we will present to the Department of Education and Science as to how we will go about providing the level of support which schools now need because of the value of the equipment they now have - and the fact that it is aging.
The need for faster Internet access is also stressed, along with the need for ongoing training and the provision of more resources.
In relation to the international comparisons for connectivity, we are currently well beyond the average in terms of ratios of pupils to computers. Unfortunately, we are at the bottom of the international league, of the Eurobarometer, which goes back to 2002, in terms of broadband connectivity. That is a major issue. That is true not merely in the area of education. There is a huge problem throughout the country in relation to access to broadband connectivity. If one were to go to any telco tomorrow morning with a cheque for €35 million and ask for broadband, for two megs in all the big schools in the country, and a half meg in all the small ones, one would not be able to get that. Unfortunately, it is not available. The only way for it to be provided is by satellite. One could have broadband in every school in September if one were to spend a hell of a lot more money with the satellite companies. They can provide 100% cover straightaway, but ADSL is not available except in some of the key urban areas. Leased lines are much more expensive than in any other part of Europe, including Northern Ireland. The problem is not so much about funding, though that has to be found, but about availability of broadband.
For broadband, it is not enough to put a computer in a school. If one is to provide the kinds of learning experiences and the rich learning environment which would be a hallmark of what we would see as a digital literacy emphasis in education nowadays, one must have access to broadband. It enables video-conferencing. There is a European initiative regarding e-twinning, which is seen as one of the ways forward in terms of sharing information and doing joint project work.
The overall development of collaborative e-Community activity demands broadband. If one wants to utilise some of the rich resources on the Internet, fast access is essential. The idea of a teacher taking a group of children to a room, spending a quarter of an hour trying to turn on the machines, cranking up the Internet like starting a car with the old starting handles, is a waste of time. The 40 minutes are quickly gone. Teachers will not do that, nor can one expect them to do it. The Internet must be permanently switched on, with instant access to sharply targeted resources. The other element is that we continue to provide the types of very targeted, integrative training so that teachers know how to manage resources and identify them. They are not easily provided. We are engaged in working with RTE on a major initiative in providing science material, which is totally targeted at particular minute areas of the curriculum. These are the issues we must look at.
I will say a little about digital literacy and our view of it. Not a subject as such, it goes right across the curriculum. It is more an approach, being about the teacher guiding intelligent applications of the Internet resources so that even at a very young age children can learn at their own pace the skills of judging relevance, along with editorial skills, and can above all be active creators of a lot of their own material. The committee members have heard all these phrases before, and it is hard to come up with new ones when people talk about digital literacy, but it is about young people taking control of their own learning, of developing a methodology for learning for life. That starts at a very early age. The idea of a dictatorial handing down of big chunks of information to be memorised and spewed out during examinations, and of this leading to one being called "educated", is totally antiquated.
If our teachers utilise ICT and ICT enabled resources, we will in the true sense of the word liberate learning and education to be what they are meant to be. Digital literacy means an integrated approach throughout every subject on the curriculum. For this to happen, one must have broadband technology. This is the sort of argument we are making to the Department of Education and Science.
The digital divide, which committee members have also heard about, is a key issue. It is not about access but about how to use technology. The information society is no longer about knowing how to find material. It is much more active. It is about creating, composing, editing and producing. We have to utilise equipment properly. It is not enough for disadvantaged children to be able to use the technology, even if they could get free access in their schools or in the cyber café. One is still supporting and maintaining a digital divide. It is where there is intelligent utilisation of technology for creating one's own content, doing one's own assignments and projects which becomes part of one's examination entry. That is where one will have resolved aspects of the digital divide.
I have supplied the committee with some material on the Liberties learning initiative, because it addresses many of the issues regarding that active participative use of ICT in a very creative way. It is also useful in that it shows that industry is putting a lot of money into that area. We can learn many lessons from this initiative about how to motivate young children - fewer than 1% of whom will complete the leaving certificate in the 12 schools in the Liberties area. If we can use ICT to first motivate children to come to school and engage with exciting learning, hopefully a higher level of educational achievement will be gained in the end.
Our key challenge is to facilitate the innovative use of technologies in the future, and provide opportunities for creativity, collaboration and expression, individually or in groups. This technology has the power to assist in developing the unique individual abilities which every student has, and will help to facilitate independent learning.
