Partnerships in ICT Learning Study: Report

Abstract

'Partnerships in ICT Learnin' (PICTL) was a project funded by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST). The tender was awarded to a consortium comprising the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE), the Australian Curriculum Studies Association (ACSA), and the National Centre of Science, ICT and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR) at the University of New England. The research program (Leonard, Schoo, Pegg & Reading, 2005) was designed to meet the objectives and deliverables of the tender. The purpose of the PICTL study was 'to demonstrate good-practice approaches to embedding Information and Communication Technology (ICT) throughout the educational experience of pre-service teachers, teachers and teacher educators'. To address this, the research program investigated ICT partnership approaches in a variety of Australian contexts through developing, trialling and evaluating forms of partnerships among universities, education authorities (government and non-government) and schools. The PICTL study involved eight small-scale Professional Development (PD) projects, one in each state and territory. These projects brought together pre-service teachers, teachers and teacher educators within partnership arrangements that sought to transform learning environments and teaching practices through more considered applications of ICT. This context also facilitated the exploration of approaches to professional learning that enabled strong links to be forged among pre-service teachers, teachers and tertiary educators. At the same time as working to achieve these outcomes, the PICTL study also focused on using the data from state and territory projects to have a broader national focus that would support new initiatives in embedding ICT in learning as well as offer potential pathways for Australia to follow in the future that would help achieve more global and sustainable reforms.