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Second Information Technology in Education Study Module 1

SITES-M1 (1997–1999)

The aim of SITES-M1 was to help countries estimate their current position relative to other countries in the educational use of information and communication technology (ICT). The study was designed as a survey of school principals and technology coordinators from the representative sample of computer-using schools from at least one of the following educational levels: primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary. Four major questions addressed by SITES-M1 were:

  • To what extent does the school management offer a supportive climate for the use of ICT in schools?
  • What ICT infrastructure (equipment, software, access to the Internet, and the like) is available in schools?
  • To what extent have schools adopted objectives and practices that reflect a focus on autonomous learning strategies?

To answer those questions, the study examined, among other considerations, the ratio of students to computers used for instruction, the extent to which schools had access to the Internet for instructional purposes, and the extent to which ICT was contributing to changes in approaches to pedagogy.

The data were collected between November 1998 and February 1999.

Participating Educational Systems

Belgium (French), Bulgaria, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong (SAR), Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Thailand.

England, the Netherlands, and the United States did not participate in the data collection for SITES-M1, but comparative statistics from their national studies conducted at the same time were included in the SITES-M1 report.

Key Findings

  1. School principals had a positive attitude toward ICT usage in their schools. A majority of school principals also reported that they had adopted ICT policies of various sorts in their schools, such as plans for equipment replacement, staff development, software acquisition, equity of access, and Internet use.
  2. While the student: computer ratio differed substantially across the countries (for example, on the lower secondary level it was 9:1 in Canada and 12:1 in Denmark and Singapore in comparison to 133:1 in Lithuania and 210:1 in Cyprus), this ratio had declined substantially over recent years.
  3. Many schools in economically developed countries had access to the Internet (for example, in Singapore and Iceland 100 percent of lower secondary schools had access while the corresponding figure was 98 percent in Canada and 96 percent in Finland). However, the use of this medium by students was still low.
  4. The majority of schools reported that they had a policy goal of training all teachers in the use of ICT, but that this goal had been achieved in only a minority of schools in most countries. The adequate training of teachers was still a major problem.
  5. In some schools in some countries, teachers had begun to use ICT to change toward a more student-centered pedagogical approach with the aim of making students more active in and responsible for their own learning. This change was confirmed by 62 percent of lower secondary school principals in Denmark, 58 percent in Israel, and 56 percent in Canada, Hungary, and Slovenia.

Major Publication

Pelgrum, W. J., & Anderson, R. E. (Eds.). (1999, 2001).

ICT and the Emerging Paradigm for Life Long Learning: An IEA Educational Assessment of Infrastructure, Goals, and Practices in Twenty-six Countries.

Amsterdam: IEA

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For more information, please contact

http://www.mscp.edte.utwente.nl/sitesm1/

 

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