Internet and school: Didactic aspects

If the computer is being used at school during lessons often depends on the teacher. Is the teacher up to date and familiar with computers, then it is likely that the children will work with computers during lessons. But if the teacher’s knowledge of computers doesn’t go further than some Windows and Word, then the computer will probably not be used as a didactic tool with its own function. In that case the computer wouldn’t contribute much to education.

So, how should it be? Well it’s not really important how it is done, but the school should make conscious choices and reveal them to the parents. So they can decide for themselves what choices are appealing to them.

Pedagogical-didactic vision

We can assume that a school does not make choices from ignorance, laziness or from a lack of money, but quite conscious from a pedagogical-didactic vision. That sounds quite high-flown, but it is in fact quite simple. Namely: what is it that the school has to offer the pupils and why. It is always good to round that vision (that of course reaches further then the ICT subject alone) when making a school-choice for your child. Each school makes assessments of its own and justifies that on paper, often in the school guide. There are schools that embrace every technological renewal, while others are quite reserved.

Computer schools

Each year the Foundation COS Awards Fund in Holland gives away a price to ‘the computer school of the year’

The theme of 2003 was: ‘ICT is quite common!’ The organizing foundation says: "[…] that the use of ICT in fact is nothing special anymore. ICT at school should be as common as a textbook or the blackboard." From this you can draw the conclusion that ICT isn’t yet quite common at al at school, otherwise there wouldn’t be a price to win.

Further it is good to know that there are also commercial interests with this price, as the main sponsor of the event is Microsoft.