Using ICT in Cooperative Learning - Coursework Example

Introduction Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is the application of technology which can be used to enrich the standard of education. According to the International Technology Education Association, ICT-oriented education, where technology acts as a tool, is used to upgrade the teaching and learning process. Educators strongly believe that ICT integration in classrooms at all levels is an imperative tool, and that in order to succeed in the 21st century world, it is of due importance that the use of technology is effectively implemented. However, it has been widely debated that ICT in education functions as a process, not as a mere tool. It is defined as a combination of processes and tools engaged in concentrating on the educational demands and problems. It underlines the application of the most current tools (Orey, 2001). The goals of ICT in education have always had a large-scale and aspiring agenda. At times it pursues only increased efficiency or effectiveness of modern practice, but normally it focuses on pedagogical modification. (Cox and Web, 2004, p 235-236) Even though it can be regarded as a design science, in addition it deals with the underlying matters of teaching, learning, and social organization and hence draws on the full extent of contemporary social science and life sciences approach. For that reason ICT is both a tool and a stimulus to change. The coursework for this module has led me to critically review an educational initiative taken by King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia to bring about development of public education; a project known as Tatweer to launch the Kingdom’s most important educational revamp. The project involved an active usage of ICT and aimed toward equipping students’ with the latest technological learning methods to stay at par with the international standards as well as training teachers to update teaching models. The project’s agenda was “Laptop per Student” which reflected a strong ICT use in the Saudi Kingdom’s educational sector. I was one of the supervisors in the Ministry of Education and was actively involved in the planning and controlling phases of the project. The supervisors were responsible for providing the written layout for Tatweer, stating the physical spaces involved, the timing, and the projected budgets for the project. Since I practically participated in various steps of the reform, I believe I can conveniently produce a critical review of this program and how it was implemented step by step while bringing out the desired results. This paper critically reviews this educational initiative; describing the background of this project which contains the contextual rationales underlying this project, the actual implementation of this program which took place in several phases and careful steps, as well as the evaluation of the success of this initiative and how it was made better. Context/Background Around 50 schools were selected from 25 cities around the Kingdom (3i Solution, 2008), major cities including Jeddah, Riyadh, and Damam. The King’s Tatweer project for Public Education Development was to be implemented on these schools with the collaboration of supplier partners, namely 3i Solutions and Microsoft. The project started in 2008 and planned to be implemented over six years to ensure that the education development has had a deep impact on the teaching and learning experience for teachers and students respectively. The Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz was made the head supervisor of this project, which was based on creating a high-tech classroom environment founded on ICT in the Kingdom over the period of six years (Ministry of Education, 2008). The project involved the training of more than 400,000 teachers in preparation of the launch of this initiative, so as to enable them to handle classes in the high-tech style. According to the director general of the project, Naif Al-Rumi, students from the participant schools joined the orientation courses during the vacation, that is, before the actual academic year. Also, the curriculum was designed to ensure full development of students’ personalities with critical focus toward religious and family values (Ministry of Education, 2008). The supervisors, including me, were responsible to plan and prepare policies to develop high-tech classrooms and revise curricula based on ICT oriented learning which basically involved laptop use by every student. The plans and policies were carefully written and carried articulate implications for this project. We, the supervisors also planned out for students’ extracurricluar activities in order to develop their creative, intellectual, and communicative skills; these were all major goals of Tatweer. Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, the new minister of education gave strict instructions to us before the implementation of this initiative and said that no compromise and negligence would be tolerated in the education sector. “We need more efforts in strengthening Saudi Arabia’s position by building brains and investing in humans,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the minister as saying (Abdul Ghafour, 2009). He also stressed on technology to be effectively integrated in the teaching and learning process. During a meeting of the supervisors belonging to the Ministry of Education, as well as the deputy ministers, some important aspects of Saudi education were reviewed. Our efforts of bringing about this huge educational renaissance were praised by the King. The supervisors (including me) as well as other experts worked actively on the project’s executive plan. We mostly followed the program outline used by other countries for this or a similar ICT related project. The Microsoft’s “Notebook every Pupil” project in Slovakia gave us ample idea for the commencement and progress of Tatweer. The Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation (AALF) was also of great help, as it outlined for us, in great detail, the implementation of this particular ICT-oriented educational program. The primary aim that the authorities had provided us was to make use of ICT in the educational sector in such a way that instructors and learners get access to the information that was previously difficult or impossible for them to access, communication becomes easier between the two parties, and in fact ways of communication between the staff and learners become as such that was previously not possible. In this context we outlined our plan that included the use of emails and intranets by educational institutes for the purpose of, for example, student assignment submission, and conduction of test exams as well as exam marking/grading by students and teachers respectively. Besides this, we included in our plan, the use of some electronic websites and curricula designs for various subjects like Arts and Design, Business, Economics, English, Geography, History, Law, Mathematics, and Religious Education etc. We particularly highlighted the significant application of e-learning through this “Laptop per Student” project. For the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a reform in education in terms of enhancing student learning, curricula development, as well as developing teachers’ skills had a number of rationales underlying the Tatweer Project for Developing Public Education initiated by King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz. About his project, the King had said that education sector of his kingdom required some major investment and development, and that future generations are the real wealth so they need to be polished by providing them with the latest technological education so that they stay in par with the international community. The Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz said about this project that since Saudi Arabia has been participating in the international decision making, it is imperative for the kingdom to develop on technological and scientific areas, and the best area for implementation is the education sector which should be reviewed and the curricula should be developed so that it can become consistent with the society’s needs comparing with the international needs. This was primarily the social rationale for Saudi Arabia to pursue this project. Moreover, a vocational rationale was present, which encompassed the linking of computer education with future job prospects in the multinational companies operating in the Kingdom as well as worldwide. Furthermore, a pedagogical rationale was behind another basic pillar of this educational reform project which was to enable all students to use laptops in their learning process and produce better learning outcomes. Tatweer was all about helping students rise above the traditional learning methods as well as helping teachers to go beyond the typical teacher-centered instructional approach. The project, besides other rationales, was also standing on the catalytic rationale (Hawkridge, 1990). It aimed for the ICT-oriented devices to assist students to become less dependent on teachers, and learn more through collaborating. Furthermore, even though the project, for its major part, was student-oriented; it was also developed to assist the whole educational system. The system includes teachers as well as the education administration. Moreover, Tatweer, with its “Laptop per Student” project was also based on cost effectiveness rationale, building on teachers to be able to give more attention to every individual student as well as the administration to have lesser work or management load. Moreover, according to the new education minister, King Abdullah intended to improve the kingdom’s educational standard through Tatweer (before its commencement) to match with its position in the comity of nations (Abdul Ghafour, 2009). This also implies a symbolic rationale for this initiative. The policy implications for this ICT-oriented project addressed four areas of development, as also suggested by the Mackinsey Report (1997), under which Tatweer founded the basis of its educational reform. Curriculum development was planned to ensure the integration of ICT with the pedagogical models and to make the instructional process more student-oriented rather than follow the traditional teacher-centered models. The next development on Tatweer’s agenda was for the infrastructure in order to arrange for access and connectivity of the chosen resources as well as the availability, affordability, and appropriateness of the applied software. The goal toward staff development was very critical; it involved the teachers’ ideology and practice to change instruction methods after acquiring adequate training for ICT integration in classroom lessons. Moreover, the development of the change management policy was also a significant goal in the overall agenda of the project. The background of this educational initiative involving ICT entails the various benefits resulting from its proper integration into teaching and learning. The various underlying principles that applied to the development of ICT integration into the Saudi educational curricula included the development of student skills, the learning process, and the ease in learning curricular knowledge. The advantages of computer-mediated communication (CMC) through the “Laptop per Student” project were also considered. The context that CMC media includes audio, video, and text based media was intended to be utilized by Tatweer to encourage students in their learning areas of reading, writing as well as speaking and listening, and to support effective student learning environment. Implementation The project altogether consisted of four axes; namely developing curricula, developing teachers’ skills, enhancing schools’ extra curricular activities, and improving school environment. Four separate committees were established to work on these sides. (Ministry of Education, 2008). For the purpose of implementing Tatweer project with the “Laptop per Student” agenda, the program was divided into 3 phases. Each phase was then broken down to several easily carried out steps. The first phase comprised of Planning, under which, as the very first step, research was conducted in order to learn how national or international schools have implemented 1-to-1 programs in their reforms. The available research and case studies helped the project supervisors to gain a better understanding of the scope and complexity of successfully implementing quality to this program as well as prepare proactive responses to likely change resistance and uncertainty in different school communities. The project’s second step was to build a strong vision for its successful implementation and share it with all the participants involved, so as to provide them with the concrete purpose of improving student learning outcomes as well as give them a proper direction. The project’s vision statement also provided a standard against which it could be measured. The next (third) step of the project was very critical; it involved engaging students’ parents and school board in the implementation of this project. During this step, the paradigms of the engaged parties about learning were shifted and their active involvement was ensured. A strong communication strategy was built in the fourth step, which technically involved the project’s Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) committee, main staff, and other related people. A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis was done, and then the communication strategy was prepared by training the key participants on knowledge, courtesy, and responsiveness to questions from others. Under step five, a detailed readiness assessment was conducted in which the current resource position was assessed, for example, regarding ICT and infrastructure, facilities, and personnel etc. The number of students and teachers in the schools where the project was to be implemented was determined so that laptops could be arranged for accordingly. Plus, other facilities like internet and latest software were catered for and teachers were assessed for their knowledge of the equipment and technological aspects to student learning. A crucial element of budgeting came under step six; under which ICT expenditures for the participant schools were forecasted. First, the current expenditures were monitored and the future ones were planned. The forecasted costs for this project aiming for the development of public education totaled up to SR11.8 billion (US$3.1 billion), which have been distributed over the next five years (starting from 2007) to implement the aforementioned four programs as part of the overall project to improve the quality of education. The program to improve public education received the highest budget, amounting to SR4.2 billion (US$1.12 billion). Another SR3.58 billion (US$954.6 million) was allocated to extra-curricular activities whilst SR2.943 billion (US$784.8 million) was assigned to train the teachers. The curriculum development program was given a sum of SR980 million (US$261.3 million) ( Al Shemary, 2007). An operational plan for this project was prepared by the authorities. With the first phase taken care of, the second phase was commenced with addressing staff technology needs as the first step. Teachers were made sufficiently comfortable with ICT by Tatweer project providing them with laptop computers about 4 to 6 months before the students started using them. This was done so that teachers could adjust themselves to the technological learning requirements as aimed by Tatweer. A change management strategy was prepared under the second step for which a professional development framework was developed. This step was more critical than the project’s focus on the logistics of ICT integration. Teachers were the target during this step; this step worked towards the confidence and competence building of the participant teachers and fostered their commitment to this project. Concrete ICT goals, for the purpose of supporting and extending student learning, were communicated to the professionals under this framework, and clear expectations for teachers were stated. The third step under phase two was preparing physical learning spaces. In this step the traditional teacher-centered model was reported which most schools in Saudi Arabia follow. It was outlined how flexible, inspirational, and interesting learning spaces add to student learning experience; for instance, how laptop per student agenda will provide a brand new experience for every student and provide them with the ‘anywhere-anytime’ learning. In the fourth step, the project authorities selected software tools that would fit pedagogical goals. For this purpose the learning objectives for each class were determined and then the decisions of relevant software purchase were made. Tatweer project was able to list down the companies that are developing appropriate licenses for laptop initiatives. Additional expenditures were saved by deciding on making maximum use of applications like Google Earth, Flickr etc. as well as Adobe and Buzzword, which are free online word processors. They were enabled in students’ laptops to assist them in report writing and proposals etc. and to allow them access to work online. By enabling e-learning for the students, online learning was also allowed access to by the schools and speedy internet connections were made use of for that matter (discussed in next step). Online learning or e-learning has been considered to provide course materials and resources in the form of audio, video, text, simulations, presentations or electronic whiteboard etc. This method was also implemented to allow easy assessment methods for teachers use, for example in terms of both formative and summative assessment. The use of Computer-Mediated Communication was ensured by setting up discussion boards and chat rooms etc. Besides these, collaborative group work tools, student administration and student management and tracking systems were made functional. The fifth step involved the exploration of supplier partnership opportunities. For this purpose, Microsoft and 3i Solutions were asked for assistance. Microsoft had a reliable name; plus it had already participated in a number of ICT-oriented projects all over Europe before. Microsoft’s projects included “Notebook per Every Pupil”, for example in Slovakia, which was conducted to bring affordable, relevant, and accessible technology to the educational sector. With Microsoft’s commitment to latest technology, Tatweer partnered with Microsoft so that together they could work to transform education, and foster innovation so that the education and job sector of the Saudi Kingdom could sustain a continuous cycle of growth and expansion. During a supplier partner meeting session, the Microsoft Unlimited Potential Group discussed the research results that it had obtained from the researchers from the Faculty of Education of Comenius University. The research was done on the two schools of Slovakia; it was about laptop usage amongst students and teachers, and it highlighted the results that laptop usage in classrooms increases students’ motivation and creates an interest for them toward studying. The result also showed teachers’ motivation and their ease at preparing and conducting lessons, as well as building on new and innovative teaching strategies. Parents were also found to be more satisfied with their children’s learning process and performance with laptops usage in classrooms. The laptop computers provided by Microsoft were made sure to have a long life and fit the students’ as well as teachers’ needs. The pricing issue was not given importance above than that of student’s better learning experience and the reliability of Microsoft’s devices. On the other hand, 3i Solution, which is one of the Kingdom’s oldest solution providers, supported Tatweer by connecting the 50 participant schools to the Kingdom’s e-learning network. 3i Solution worked with its own network and cabling suppliers including MGE, Access Control Systems, and Molex Infrastructure etc. as well as Internet Service Provider Saudi Telecom and Awlnet to network the participant schools across the Kingdom. Fiber cables were laid in school buildings, and access controls as well as uninterruptible power supply (UPS) were also installed. Within a period of 45 days, 3i Solution worked hard to provide the 50 schools with high speed internet and e-learning (3i Solution, 2010). Having that done, Tatweer moved on to the third and last phase of its implementation, which was more practical than the last ones. The first step of this phase involved establishing an onsite service structure. It was made sure that technical staff and resources are arranged for to go with the newly introduced devices. The smooth functioning of the ICT-oriented program was ensured by dealing with Microsoft to provide training sessions to the technical support staff so that adequate service is available at the time laptops are finally introduced in classrooms. In the second step, Tatweer conducted parent and/or community sessions since their active support in this program was critical to affect students’ learning outcomes. A combination of communication tools were applied for one-to-one discussions, like written documents and parent meetings etc. The third step of this phase involved ordering of laptops and the consequent preparation for proper deployment. In this step, the required testing and imaging of the laptops was done and the number of laptops ordered was registered. Once all databases were made and managed, the final step of this phase was to distribute the laptops among students. This step was the most critical; formal agreements were set up with parents and guardians about the use of laptops by students. Also, the Tatweer supervisors managed the laptops’ deployment very well to make sure that all students receive laptops and the goal of this project is adequately achieved. Timing of the deployment was also carefully considered so that any disruptions to the functioning of laptops and to the classroom lessons could be minimized. Once this was successfully achieved, we, the supervisors of the Saudi Ministry of Education reviewed the progress of the implemented program. Responsible authorities made notes on building on progressing areas and improving on other stagnant or non-operating areas. Tatweer established a review group which oversaw progress and resolved problems. The success that was made by the whole Tatweer team in collaboration with Microsoft and 3i Solution was commendable. Evaluation The supervisors were asked to ensure if the implementation of Tatweer had been as it had been planned out in the policies on paper. It was a very critical step; to oversee the processes and resolve problems. We carried out a formative evaluation in which we followed up with all the 50 participant schools if the laptops and other technical assistance had been received on time. Two schools in Dammam and three schools in Abha had received lesser laptops than their students’ strength in the schools. We contacted Microsoft and 3i Solution to fix this insufficiency right away. Moreover, we checked whether or not teachers received professional development and learnt appropriate skills through it as planned. Another aim of our formative evaluation was to see if the equipment was being used in the classroom as planned or not. The second type of evaluation, which ran side by side with the formative evaluation, was the summative evaluation. In this we assessed the outcomes of Tatweer; how technology improved student motivation and performance over time, how teachers attitude towards this technological change improved, how their skills improved as a result of the professional development sessions. We also checked how the teachers’ comfort level with ICT use in their instruction increased. The details of this evaluation process are as under: In the initial stages we evaluated a strong resistance by both students and teachers toward laptop use. Both the parties did not initially felt comfortable while using laptops for a large number of activities; the entrenched habits and behaviors were greatly challenged. We have been conducting our intervention program for evaluation since one month after the project’s complete implementation. During the first month of our evaluation, we made use of qualitative evaluation approach in which we made participative observations and drew on checklists. We observed that activities were very slow. In order to make a one-page assignment on MS Word, students would take hours, due to slow typing. Besides curricula teaching, teachers first had to instruct students how to use MS Word, how to copy, edit, save, and print their work. A lot of time was invested in instruction other than the curricula. Also, some teachers were very resistant, and insisted on sticking to their implicit knowledge of what makes good teaching. This created a clash between the teachers’ pedagogical approaches and the ‘new’ approach; teachers thought this educational initiative to be a waste of time rather than anything innovative. Since the teachers all across the Saudi Kingdom had already developed their approaches to professional practice over many years, and had participated in school cultures that applied tried and tested pedagogical methods, they were not quite willing to use CMC tools, neither were they comfortable with the new online student assessment procedure. There was a strong need for adjustment by both the students and teachers. Paradigms needed to be shifted for the acceptance of this initiative, and considerable consensus among the participants for this change needed to be called for. The teachers’ tendency to be skeptical about ICT use and effectiveness in educational sector needed to be removed. For this purpose, the supervisors and other officials of the Ministry of education decided to hold a meeting with the schools’ administration and principals to come up with a solution to this pressing problem. A focus group was called for. The head of the Ministry of Education said that he was more than ready to deal with this problem, and stated that while the project was in its implementation phases, he knew that it would face some defiance and opposition by both the teachers and students. In the meeting he brought up the theory of diffusion of innovation by Rogers (1985) who describes it as “a process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system.” At the end of the meeting, we decided to disseminate this educational innovation through several sessions of formal training. Even though the King himself and his direct officials were the innovators of this initiative, it was anticipated that the Saudi schools do not turn out to be laggards, but in fact are early adopters. The policy that we made, in response to the critical matter which was hindering the successful integration of ICT into teaching and learning, underlined teacher development in a number of ways. Besides regular hardware and software training workshops, there were sessions conducted for teachers in order to instruct them to gain ownership of the innovation as well as personally commit themselves to ICT in teaching. During classroom lessons, ample time and support was given to them so that they find it easy to make themselves comfortable with the new system. The Ministry of Education worked very hard to monitor and evaluate teachers and students’ progress with ICT during lessons and was always prepared to respond to any problems faced. Keeping a sharp eye on the progress of 50 schools around the Kingdom was not an easy task, but the whole team made sure that this huge innovative initiative eventually becomes a success. As time passed, some progress was seen. Gradually the dynamics of the classroom were fundamentally changing. The report that the Ministry of Education received after six months of Tatweer implementation showed a lot of improvement. The results were obtained through quantitative evaluation methods in which different surveys were conducted by another department of the Ministry. Expert walkthroughs were also done. By using these students’ performance on academics was evaluated after the ICT integration into curricula, and it was found that the students’ keyboard skills had increased and they were developing on their communication and other abilities. Also, students had learnt to make use of the World Wide Web and search for topics of their interest that they wanted to learn about. But now, as students were beginning to learn more and more about how they could use ICT for different other purposes besides academia, this was rising apprehensions among parents and teachers who were concerned about younger children accessing undesirable and dangerous content through the internet. The Ministry of Education was asked to formulate some policy to ensure safe use of ICT by children possessing laptops. The issue was to restrict access of violent images, pornography, and terrorism issues from younger children. The Ministry of Education took a step forward and devised policies to provide all the Tatweer participant schools with technical security against undesirable content. 3i Solution was also asked to provide some sort of mechanism that would let parents and teachers to keep children from exposure to undesirable content. The internet provider (3i Solution) installed ‘content screening out’ options in the network software in order to allow parents to decide if the account should be limited in what it receives. Moreover, the Ministry of Education also conducted some information sessions across the participant schools in order to educate users about Internet safety and safe communications. Teachers and parents were also strongly advised to help their children stay safe online. With that taken care of, the next steps in our evaluation process was to make sure that the ICT tools within all participant educational environments were accessible and that the learners were making effective usage of the provided facilities and resources. Besides this we also made sure that the facilities were not only accessible but also inclusive, i.e. they did not exclude any users’ needs and preferences. Here, for example, it was ensured that the disabled students (like those having dyslexia, visual impairment, low vision, or physical difficulties) were completely catered for in the Tatweer project. As per the requirements, schools were provided with adequate hardware, software, and screen readers etc. to meet the needs of disabled students. On the teachers part, we evaluated how much progress have they attained in formulating ICT oriented lessons, and how much successful they have been in implementing Computer Assisted Assessment (CAA) methods. During the 9 month period, we found out (through the inquiry department) that teachers had started using CAA methods in assessing assignments and examinations etc. Assessment of student learning requires the use of a number of techniques for measuring student achievement (Linn & Gronlund, 1995). With time, teachers reported that the computer was facilitating teachers’ assessment procedure. The types of CAA being used with a years’ time in the Saudi participant schools were Online, Networked, and OMR (Optical Mark Reader) (Conole & Warburton, 2005). These CAA methods provided a lot of functions, which have also been described by Black (1998b) and Resnick and Resnick (1992), for example they were being used to record individual achievement for the purpose of certification, measure the achievements of groups, and also for the purpose of instructional management. Since “we cannot change the way we teach without changing the way we assess” (Young, 1995), hence teachers were encouraged to make use of CAA to enable them to gain insights into how students learn and how to grade them. In the evaluation sessions, teachers were informed of the rising costs of traditional assessment resources, and that CAA can give ‘productivity advantages’ (Conole & Warburton, 2005). Conclusion ICT used in cooperative learning can be very beneficial in the sense that it supports the use of multimedia, audiovisual aid, special- purpose databases and research projects using both the offline and online databases etc. Furthermore, the concept of ‘shared intelligence’ – which has led many educators to deem that the vast resources and methods that technology has made available are apt to influence and facilitate activity and are fully distributed between persons, circumstances, and tools rather than just residing in each person’s head – such a concept is expected to shape the goals of education in future. Moreover, the unique learning environments that ICT use supports – for instance, the connection of learners with information and education sources, and learning tools, plus enabling them to visualize problems and solutions while assessing their progress – is by far commendable. Also, imperative to note is how change in ICT has been so fast-paced that teachers, with so many demands on their time, are still required to go through special training implicated with supplementary elements of educational technology to the classroom. The required skills for an information age are crucial, and only with proper training would teachers and students be able to gain from devices which tend to upgrade the quality of education. The exact future prediction of ICT in education may not be possible, but one thing is for sure, and that is: it will be different from what it is in the present. Hence, educators are required to expect and accept the inevitability of change and mold themselves according to it. The brighter side to this of course leads us to the fact that through training in technology-based methods and easy and swift opportunity of using all the accurate information, teachers could find themselves offloaded from the growing paperwork. References 3i Solution (2008) 3i Solution Wins and Delivers: 50 School Technology Project for King Abdullah Project for Education Development [Online article] retrieved on February 8, 2009 from http://www.3isolution.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=101:3i-solution-wins-and-delivers-50-school-technology-project-for-king-abdullah-project-for-education-development-tatweer-&catid=39:projects&Itemid=57 Abdul Ghafour, P. K. (2009) “Saudi Education ‘passing through a historic phase’”, Ministry of Education, [Online article] retrieved on February 8, 2009 from http://www.moe.gov.sa/openshare/englishcon/e11_03_2009_140733.html Al Shemary, A. (2007) “The King Abdullah Project for the Development of Public Education”, Asharq Alawsat (The leading Arabic International Daily), [Online article] retrieved on February 10, 2009 from http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=7&id=8686 Banes, D. & Seale, J. (2002) “Accessibility and Inclusivity in Further and Higher Education: An Overview”, In Phipps, L., Sutherland, & Seale, J. Access All Areas: Disability, Technology and Learning. York, JISC, TechDis Service and ALT, pp.1_5.Chapter 1, [Online article] retrieved on February 10, 2009 from http://www.techdis.ac.uk/resources/files/AAA.pdf BECTa (2004) "ImpaCT2: The Impact of Information and Communications Technology on Pupil Learning and Attainment", Summary [Online article] retrieved on February 10, 2009 from http://publications.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=25841 Black, P. (1998a) “Formative Assessment: Raising Standards inside the Classroom”, School Science Review, 80(291), 39-46. Black, P. (1998b) Testing: Friend or Foe? London: Falmer Press Conole, G. and Warburton, W. (2005) “A review of computer-assisted assessment” ALT-J, Research in Learning Technology, 13(1), 17-31. Cox, Margaret and Webb, Mary (2004) “A review of pedagogy related to information and communications technology, Technology, Pedagogy and Education”, 13(3) 235 – 286 Hawkridge, D.G. (1990) “Who Needs Computers in Schools and Why” Computers and Education 15(1-3) 1-6 Kennedy, G.E. (2003) “An institutional approach to the evaluation of educational technology” Educational Media International Routledge 40(3-4) 187 – 199 Linn, R.L. and Gronlund, N.E. (1995) Measurement and Assessment in Teaching (7th ed.) New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc. McKinsey and Company (1997) “The Future of Information Technology in UK Schools” McKinsey and Company, London Ministry of Education (2008) “King Abdullah Project for General Education Development” [Online article] retrieved on February 8, 2009 from http://www.moe.gov.sa/openshare/englishcon/e13_09_2008_132008.html Orey, Michael (ed.) (2001-present). Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology. [Online article] retrieved on February 8, 2009 from http://www.coe.uga.edu/epltt/ Resnick, L.B. and Resnick, D.P. (1992) “Assessing the Thinking Curriculum: new tools for educational reform”. In Gifford, B.R. & OConnor, M.C. (eds.) Rogers, Everett. (1995). Diffusion of innovations. Fourth edition. New York, NY: The Free Press. Smith, R. and Payne, J. (2002) Developing the Home-School Partnership using ICT, [Online] retrieved on February 8, 2009 from http://www.mape.org.uk/curriculum/communications/pdf6.htm Young, M. (1995) “Assessment of Situated Learning using Computer Environments” Journal of Science Education and Technology, 4(1), 89-96 Read More