ICT for education: a conceptual framework for the sustainable adoption of technology-enhanced learning environments in schools

Abstract

Currently, the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education does not conclusively demonstrate significant effects on learning. However, not all ICT usage models are designed to affect student outcomes. Therefore, to accurately study the impact of ICT, the concept of an educational programme supported by ICT must first be defined. The authors propose the ICT for Education (ICT4E) programme, an evidence-based framework to determine a model’s ability to produce improvements before having to evaluate its results. The framework has four components: implementation, intervention, transference and total cost. Based on an explicit definition of the outcomes pursued by a given programme, this framework supports the design of its activities to promote sustainable changes in pedagogical practices in schools and calculate the programme’s total cost. The authors illustrate this with a programme implemented in six countries. In Chile, the ICT4E programme forms part of the policy for educational technology, evaluating the effectiveness and scalability of such initiatives.

Keywords:

• technology-enhanced learning
• pedagogic model
• ICT effects
• scalability
• sustainability
• ICT integration

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Chilean Ministry of Education through the Enlaces Center for Educational Technology, and CONICYT under grants FONDECYT 11110424, CIE-05 CIAE and CIE-01 CEPPE. Special thanks go to Claudia Morchio and Goryet Pandorfa from Enlaces, and Eugenio Severin from the Inter-American Development Bank. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Dr Gerardo Moenne, from the Instituto de Informática Educativa, Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco, Chile.