The use of ICT in school management and its influence on the teaching-learning activity

Abstract

Education and the Network Society (ENS) is a research group at the Open University of Catalonia, interested in the study of the educational phenomenon in contemporary society. During the last 4 years we have conducted research on the process of the incorporation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the Spanish educational system. The project “The integration of Internet in Spanish schools: present situation and future trends” has been carried out at a national level since January 2007. The aim is to better understand the use of ICT by the school community in educational practices, in and out of schools. Another objective is to describe the factors which influence the implementation of ICT in teaching and administative work. The holistic character of our research is based on the previous contributions by Chandra (2008), Özdemir (2007), Tondeur, Valcke, and van Braak (2008), Kay and Knaack (2008) or Ertmer (2005), Kozma (2003), and Zhao and Frank (2003). The authors try to grasp and understand the complex relationship between ICT and the processes that take place in the education field. The methodology is quantitative and has an empirical and analytical character based on a questionnaire survey on a national scale. 17.576 people have been interviewed: teachers, students and school managers from a representative sample of 809 Spanish primary and secondary schools. The data provided relevant information on trends in organizational practices and the environment of schools in Spain. Other results pointed to the effects that ICTs presence have on the various educational activities that students and teachers conduct. The results focus on the relationship between organisational aspects: the use of ICT in the management activities, the organisational culture, and the strategies promoted by the schools heads and the use of technology in the learning-teaching activity.