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PROSPECTUS: Introduction (download file for the complete Prospectus)
Qualitative Studies of Innovative Pedagogical Practices Using Technology Research Design for the Second Information Technology in Education Study Module 2 (SITES M2)
 download the Study Prospectus (PDF file)
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The skyrocketing pace of inventions in new information and communications technology
(ICT), particularly applications of the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW), has prompted increased interest in information technology around the globe. Research has
established the potential that these new technologies have for improving education and changing schools. Recent reports issued by UNESCO and the World Bank advocate
the use of these technologies to promote international socioeconomic progress and educational change, both inside and outside the classroom. Multi-national organizations,
such as OECD and the European Parliament, have identified the need to prepare students for lifelong learning in the information society of the 21st century. Countries
from Chile to Finland and from Singapore to the United States have all set national goals and policies that identify a significant role for ICT in improving their education systems
and reforming their curricula. Major investments have been made to increase the numbers of computers in schools and the networking of classrooms.
Many countries are implementing educational objectives aimed toward preparing citizens for the information society. The pervasiveness of ICT is seen as both the genesis and a
potential facilitator of this goal. Many policy documents contain common speculations about potential directions of educational change to create the "School of Tomorrow."
These documents envision a future in which ICT is integrated throughout schools and society more generally, a future in which we have moved from the industrial age to the information age.
In this vision of the future, the increased flow of information is associated with more autonomous learning environments, environments rich with people and information that
support student learning. The distinction between the traditional educational paradigm and the emerging paradigm constitutes an overarching context for this study of innovative
pedagogical practices and students' learning processes. The distinction can be summarized as a shift from the teacher as initiator of instruction for the whole class to a
situation in which the teacher acts as a guide and helps students find their appropriate instructional path and evaluate their own learning; from a situation in which students are
passive individual learners to one in which students are active learners working in teams; a situation in which schools are isolated from society to one in which they are integrated
into society; and a situation in which parents are uninvolved in their students' schooling to one in which they are actively involved.
Most countries, however, have a relatively small number of schools and teachers who are taking the lead in using technology to make changes in pedagogical practices that
prepare students for the future. What are these innovative teachers doing, and how are they succeeding in their use of ICT to change the curriculum and what students learn?
What school organizational practices, national policies, and other contextual factors are contributing to their success? What can policy-makers and other teachers learn from these innovations?
These are the basic questions addressed by the Second International Technology in Education Study (SITES) Module 2. SITES Module 2 (M2) is a qualitative study of
innovative pedagogical practices that use technology (referred to as IPPUTs). In each participating country, national panels will use common selection criteria, modified by
national context, to identify innovative classrooms, as locally defined. National research teams will use a common set of methods to analyze the pedagogical practices of
teachers and learners, the role that ICT plays in these practices, and the contextual factors that support and influence them. Implications will be drawn for both improved policy and classroom practices.
Currently, countries from North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa have indicated an interest in participating in the study. At the project's first meeting of National Research
Coordinators (NRCs) in Copenhagen in October 1999, 25 countries were represented (see Appendix A for a list of countries). We are particularly interested in extending the
reach of this study to include developing countries, to work with them to develop their evaluation capacity, and to look at the unique role that ICT may be playing to advance their socioeconomic development.
(download file for the complete Prospectus)
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