There have been many books published in the last few years that pertain to information and communications technologies (ICT) and their impact on education. Indeed, the general topic of ICT in education has created a great deal of enthusiasm among educational researchers and practitioners. Interest is global and pervasive and is not confined to a particular sector or discipline or region. While many authors address global issues, few books integrate global perspectives on ICT in education in a systematic manner. Kluwer Academic Publishers has two recent volumes in circulation about ICT in education that offer a particularly international perspective: Communications and Networking in Education: Learning in a Networked Society, edited by Deryn Watson and Toni Downes (2000); and Information and Communication Technologies in Education: the School of the Future, edited by Harriet Taylor and Pieter Hogenbirk (2001).
These two volumes are outcomes of international conferences sponsored by the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP). The first volume (Watson & Downes, 2000) represents selected papers from the Open Conference on Communications and Networking in Education that was held in Aulanko, Finland in 1999. The second volume (Taylor & Hogenbirk, 2001) represents selected papers from the International Conference on the Bookmark of the School of the Future held in Viña del Mar, Chile in 2000. The variety of international perspectives gleaned from these conferences and represented in these two volumes make them worthwhile additions to any distance education collection. This review provides a brief description of each book and concludes with a few remarks intended to provide a proper context for evaluating their comparative contributions in the area of ICT and education.
Communications and Networking in Education: Learning in a Networked Society (Watson & Downes, 2000) resulted from a conference in 1999 sponsored by three IFIP working groups within IFIP's Technology Committee: WG 3.1 (Secondary Education), WG 3.5 (Primary Education), and WG 3.6 (Distance Education). More than 250 practitioners, evaluators, teachers, and researchers from 33 countries participated in that meeting. This book contains 26 chapters based on papers delivered at the conference. The volume is organized in six parts: the global context; networked learning in action; models and issues in networked learning; cognition and learning; national and system-wide programmes; and reflections on research in ICT and learning. A short index is provided to help the reader find selected topics of interest.
Olli-Pekka Heinonen, Finland's Minister of Transport and Communications and former Minister of Education, opened the conference; his remarks are included in the Preface to Communications and Networking in Education. Minister Heinonen mentioned the crucial role that ICT-based education would be required to play in the emerging information society. These remarks set the stage for a global look at ICT in education. Part 1 has three chapters devoted to clarifying the global context. In the first of these, the editors pose a series of questions to be addressed at the conference and in this book:
How are ICT and learning processes interrelated?
How can ICT support autonomous learning?
How is ICT changing the roles of teachers?
What is the impact of ICT on curricula and schools?
How will ICT change the nature of schooling?
How will ICT impact cultural and linguistic diversity and social values?
These questions represent the core issues with regard to ICT in education, from the level of individual learners to the level of social values. Readers interested in gaining international perspectives on these issues will benefit from reading this book.
Many of the 26 chapters are about projects and topics similar to others reported in the literature. For example, Part 3 (Models and Issues in Networked Learning) is the longest of the six parts, with eight chapters and a section that reflects outcomes of discussion groups on the major topics of the conference. The chapter titles are: “A Model for the Study and Design of Teaching Situations with ICT” (Kennewell, Tanner & Parkinson, “Modelling Online Education (Midoro), “Online University Degree Programmes” (Cannings & Talley), “The Teacher as a Mediator in a Networked Society” (Klein & Godinet), “Social Interactions and the Construction of Knowledge in Computer-mediated Environments” (Dowling), “ICT as a Tool for Learning to Learn” (Forcheri & Molfino), “Extending the Role of Glossaries in a Virtual Learning Environment” (Sinitsa & Manako), and “Virutal Environments in Educational Networks” (Bouras, Konidaris & Sevasti). While these chapter titles reflect topics that have been much discussed in other books and journal articles, several report research and development not reported elsewhere. Moreover, the discussion is nearly always from an international and multi-cultural perspective.
For example, the chapter by Klein & Godinet on “The Teacher as a Mediator in a Networked Society” explores a new role for teachers in the context of teacher worries about being replaced by computers and automated teaching systems. Klein & Godinet first review more familiar roles of teachers that are changed by ICT, such as teachers as designers or as subject experts or as tutors or as evaluators. Teachers have traditionally held these roles, although they are changed when ICT is introduced (Goodyear, Salmon, Spector, Steeples & Tickner, 2001; Spector & de la Teja, 2001). What is innovative in this chapter is the discussion of the teacher as a watchful mediator in a networked society. Klein & Godinet argue that teachers in a networked society not only mediate within a class setting among students but are beginning to mediate between what is happening in society and in schools. Many educators dutifully concern themselves with filtering information from the outside to be used within a classroom setting. This is a traditional role for a teacher with a new application–filtering ICT-based information for students. This is not the role of mediating between society and learning that Klein & Godinet envision as it continues to focus on individuals–in this case, the individual teacher as a mediating filter is the focus. The role of the teacher as a watchful mediator is to weave ICT into a learning community that involves students as contributors to society and fosters their participation in the larger social fabric outside the context of a classroom.
This holistic perspective on teaching and learning is echoed elsewhere in the book, notably in Kendall's chapter entitled “Schools as Partners in Creating a Learning City.” This chapter reports on the development of the Birmingham Grid for Learning–the largest school-based ICT infrastructure project in the UK. Passey's chapter on “Preparing Teachers for the Connected Learning Community” also reflects this socially-oriented systemic view of networked learning. Passey reports on the UK response to the European Commission's action plan for a European education initiative. Specifically, Passey focuses on new demands and roles for teachers in achieving UK goals for the integration of ICT in schools.
Many of the 26 chapters in Communications and Networking in Education resonate with familiar themes and report on efforts similar to those reported elsewhere. Nevertheless, there is value in this book when it is considered as a whole with its many contributions from such a wide variety of authors. Moreover, there are a few gems to be found for the reader willing to work through the various chapters.
Information and Communication Technologies in Education: the School of the Future, (Taylor & Hogenbirk, 2001) resulted from a conference in 2000 sponsored by IFIP's Technical Committee TC3 (Education) and its Working Group 3.1 (Secondary Education). This conference was the first IFIP event to be held in Chile and it attracted a wide variety of international experts in ICT and education from 19 different countries. This volume is organized in ten sections: perspectives for education in Latin America, the Internet in the school environment, school culture, teacher development, change and impact on learning, distance and online learning, cultural and historical perspectives, national examples, future perspectives, and focus group recommendations. A few of these chapters are by authors who also contributed to Communications and Networking in Education. Downes, Graf, Kendal, Midoro, Passey and Yokochi made contributions to both volumes. It is noteworthy that there is very little duplication in their contributions to these two books.
Information and Communication Technologies in Education is different from the former volume. The conference from which the papers were selected occurred in Latin American and the focus was on ICT in schools. The role of ICT in education is common to both books, and there are several chapters in this volume that have counterparts in Communications and Networking in Education as well as other books about ICT in education. The introduction by the editors, together with Sections 1 and 2, function together as an overall introduction to the themes and focus of the book. The introduction by the editors sets the overall theme—changes in education brought about by ICT. Section 1 (Machado) examines those changes in the context of education in Latin America. Section 2 (Collis) presents a familiar view of changes in education made possible by integrating Web-based resources and tools. Section 1 will be less familiar to many readers than will the discussion of the use and impact of TeleTOP, a Web-based course management system developed at the University of Twente in The Netherlands.
There are particularly interesting chapters in Section 5 (Change and Impact on Learning). For example, Passig presents a taxonomy of ICT-mediated thinking skills that need to be developed in learners. Downes and Zammit echo this theme with new literacies for connected learning in global classrooms. Isaac identifies educational core competencies for the information age. This focus on new competencies and literacies required of learners in the information age complements the new competencies in Section 4 and by the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (Spector & de la Teja, 2001).
The three chapters in Section 5 pertaining to changing requirements for learners make this book a worthwhile investment. Some of the chapters in the other sections report all-too-familiar examples of network-based learning environments. The strengths of this volume are twofold: the inclusion of Latin American cases, projects, and studies; and the emphasis on new literacies for learners. These topics are not well represented in the published literature, and this volume adds to the knowledge base in these areas.
The inclusion of an entire section devoted to reporting the outcomes of focus groups at the conference provides the reader with a sense of the discussions that took place at the conference. The value of this chapter is somewhat questionable, however. The focus group reports are generally less focused than the other chapters. A reader who desires to know how the discussions at the conference proceeded will gain some benefit from Section 10. However, there is little added insight or information in that concluding section other than adding a voice to the participants who did not contribute chapters.
It is becoming common to find edited volumes based on papers presented at conferences. Are such conference-based books as valuable as edited volumes organized around a set of themes or questions independently of a conference? Thanks in part to ICT, it is becoming all too easy to publish papers and collections of papers. Editors of conference-based books probably feel an obligation to publish papers that were accepted and presented at the conference, especially those presented by invited keynote speakers. doing so may reduce the overall quality of an edited volume. In the case of these two conference-based books, there is, in fact, some reduction of quality due to including so many of the conference papers. For example, the chapter by Collis on “The Internet in the School Environment” in Information and Communication Technologies in Education does not add much to the knowledge base or present new work. The editors could have summarized those remarks in their introduction and omitted that chapter. Similar reductions could have been made in Communications and Networking in Education. What is really valuable in these and other conference-based books about ICT in education?
There are recent volumes about ICT and education that are somewhat similar in content and coverage. Networked Learning: Perspective and Issues (Steeples & Jones, 2002) and Learning & Teaching with Technology: Principles and Practices (Naidu, 2003) are examples. The former (Steeples & Jones, 2002) is based on a conference of the Joint Information Systems Committee of the UK. In contrast with the two volumes reviewed, Networked Learning is predominantly based on UK contributors and perspectives. Moreover, Networked Learning reflects a primarily academic perspective with a stronger emphasis on research. Learning & Teaching with Technology is more international, but the majority of contributions are from Australian, British, and American researchers. It has an academic perspective that is obvious in several chapters that report research and development efforts.
The point in mentioning these last two volumes is to indicate that there are other good books in the area of ICT and education, but few are as broadly international as the two books reviewed above. While there is much published literature in this area, the volumes by Taylor & Hogenbirk (2001) and Watson & Downes (2000) are worthwhile because of the variety of international perspectives reflected by the contributing authors.
