Educational change and ICT - a new report from Becta says "concentrate on people not technology"

An outline of the eSIR research methodology

Last year Becta commissioned the Open University's Peter Twining, Roger Broadie, Deidre Cook, Karen Ford, David Morris, Alison Twiner, and Jean Underwood, to lead a review of Priorities 2 and 3 of the DfES e-Strategy, as they relate to schools and colleges. (3/12/2006 - not all the authors are OU employees. See Peter Twining's comment below for clarification.) These Priorities are (or rather were, at the time the report was commissioned; the six in the 2005 e-Strategy having since been boiled down to four): Priority 2. Integrated online personal support for children and learners, and  Priority 3. A collaborative approach to personalised learning activities.

The resulting "e-Strategy Implementation Review" (eSIR), which should be said with a northern accent to get the acronym's weak quip, has just been published as a 106 page, 2 MB PDF.

A short post like this cannot properly cover the content of the report, so all I am attempting here is to convey its breadth and depth.

The report firstly spans 14 inter-related topics, with, for each, an interesting mix of literature review, quotes from interviews, data, and insights. The topics are: Complexity and human factors / Evidence of impact / Learning platforms / Management information systems / Learning platform/MIS integration / Collaboration / Advice and support for learners / Support for assistive technologies / Mobile devices / Extending the curriculum / New pedagogy / New assessment (including e-portfolios) / Digital resources / Opening up access.

There is plenty of discussion of controversial questions, for example: the lack of empirical evidence that (in an institutional context) ICT benefits learners; whether or not there should be a single national learning platform.

Secondly the report examines seven "key implementation issues": Complexity / Focus on people / Buy-in / Leadership / Support / Shared understandings / Procurement, with the over-riding conclusion that "human factors" dominate each of the issues, none of which, the report notes drily, are newly discovered or original: "despite our having been aware of them for several decades, our interviewees still saw them as representing the most significant problems that we need to overcome....". As in the topic-based section of the report, there are useful supporting sections. Those on "Economies of scale and scope", and "Waste", particularly caught my eye, with the Government's E-learning credits scheme getting some sceptical attention.

Where does this report take Becta?  It probably adds fuel and water in roughly equal measure to the new Chair of Becta Andrew Pinder's call to organise industrially. But with its evidence that things need taking slowly and steadily if they are to work,  the report does read rather as a throwback to the era before Becta had been given the challice of actually implementing the e-Strategy.  Whilst Becta has not lost a remit  to commission research that will inform policy, its focus has become much more implementational.  With luck the report will provide a solid, research-informed backdrop for the implementation.

Comments

[Peter Twining]

Seb's analysis that the key message from the report is 'focus on people not technology' is spot on - this was the overwhelming message from all of the respondents - and one which we often seem to find it difficult to hear or take seriously enough.

Thought I should flag up that whilst Deirdre Cook and I are at the Open University the rest of the eSIR team are not from the OU and represent a number of other key stakeholder groups:

Roger Broadie is the Director of Broadie Associates Ltd and of Learning Markets Analysis Ltd. He is also Chief Executive for the European Education Partnership (http://www.eep-edu.org) and a member of the Naace Advisers and Consultants Community Working Group.

Karen Ford has extensive experience of working in the FE sector. She was the NLN ILT Subject Mentor for Key Skills and the NLN ILT Subject Mentor Co-ordinator.

David Morris is Professor of Business Education and the Director of eLearning at the University of Coventry, and was the founding Dean of Coventry Business School.

Alison Twiner was a research fellow working at Nottingham Trent University before moving to a research post at the OU in early 2006.

Jean Underwood is a professor at Nottingham Trent University and co-editor of Computers & Education.

Peter Twining