Keynote presentation

Researching Information Technology In Education

Professor Margaret Cox OBE

Emerita Professor of Information Technology in Education

King's College London, UK

Department of Education & Professional Studies

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Abstract

Researching IT (information technology/E-learning) in education started in the 1960s when IT was used by a very limited number of school and university teachers as an optional activity for individual learners to enhance their understanding or as a resource for learners following courses in computer science. Educational research then focussed on what direct impact IT might have on learners’ understanding. Even in those early days, evidence showed that specific IT software could have a positive impact on students’ learning. However, as IT has pervaded most aspects of society and in education has diversified and expanded over the last 50 years, the balance between teachers’ and learners’ roles has changed and as a consequence so have the educational research priorities and focii. Research methods have expanded to include measuring the organisation of the school, teachers’ beliefs, uptake and uses of IT, the motivation of the teachers and pupils, immersion in the technology and the differences between different nation’s uses of IT. Powerful graphics, a plethora of different devices and communications technologies such as the Internet have resulted in new forms of knowledge representations and more sophisticated human-computer interactions. Research into IT in various educational settings is often intertwined with the design of the IT tools themselves which in turn changes the nature of the teachers’ and pupils’ learning experiences.

In order to understand how these new multi-dimensional learning environments and experiences contribute to teaching, learning and the curriculum, researchers need to develop new ways and combinations of methods for their investigations. They also need to build on what is already known and use previous relevant educational theories and models so as to obtain new robust evidence which can progress our knowledge in this important area of IT in education. This keynote paper will present some of the evidence to date of what makes effective research into IT in education and will explain how research has diversified and expanded as a consequence of the relentless development of IT technologies.