It used to be simple for parents to determine the amount of 'information and communication technology' in a school; a simple tour of the campus and a count of the computers was the main indicator. This could then be supplemented with questions to the only person who understood what the machines did, the ICT co-ordinator (this is back when the acronym ICT was in its infancy).
Today the reality is light years away. ICT is embedded across many, if not all, curriculum areas and the ICT co-ordinator is no longer the sole user and custodian of the hardware and software.
Fortunately, many parents are nowadays more familiar about ICT, but what indicators are available when evaluating the provision and use in a school? An excellent starting point is probably the school website. Most start off by taking the prospectus or parents' booklet and putting it statically online, where it stays until reviewed a year later. At the next level, the site becomes more dynamic and interactive, providing more regular information, possibly supplemented with e-mail newsletters.
Only after this does the website or online environment usually start to embrace learning and teaching; examples of students' work start to appear online, details of specific curriculum maps and plans, homework, teacher expectations. It's at this point that many schools build an online password-protected area (an 'intranet'), where individual students can save their work and access it securely from school or home, known as a content management system.
Next comes a full blown-virtual learning environment which not only allows teachers to set and monitor class and individual tasks online and store student work but also provides collaborative environments to allow teachers and students to work together. Laid on top of all this will be the path for individual assessment, recording and reporting so that parents can, securely, follow their children's progress in real time, not just when the paper reports arrive at the end of term.
