A comprehensive synthesis of research into Information Technology in education

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• Professor NIKI DAVIS
• Director of the Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching
• Iowa State University
• Ames, Iowa 50011-3192, USA.

• Also : Professor of Information and Communication Technology
• School of Maths, Science and Technology
• Institute of Education, University of London
• 20 Bedford Way, London WC1 0AL, UK.

• e-mail : nedavis@iastate.edu and n.davis@ioe.ac.uk
• http://www.ctlt.iastate.edu and http://www.ioe.ac.uk/mst

Abstract

Views on the educational and social potential of new technologies are peppered with cyber-utopias and cyber-dystopias, but research evidence is hard to pin down. My contribution will pull multiple perspectives from a collection of reviews of research from around the world to synthesize a view for today’s information society. Threads will include the ways in which information technology appears to enhance traditional education ; and new modes of ’distance’ education made possible with communication technologies ; and the preparation of teachers to use information technology effectively. These will be woven across the phases of education and extended into education that reaches into the community to serve social and economic purposes. Perspectives will be interpreted using a variety of educational theories, curricula and change frameworks. We will see enormous challenges of research in the complex and rapidly changing contexts of education where new generations of information technology continue to permeate and influence new generations of learners and those who support them. Old issues also reemerge, including that of social justice and equity. The contribution will end with a call to increase systematic and purposeful research and its dissemination, including the identification of pressing questions for our information society in technology-rich and technology-poor communities of our world.

Curriculum Vitae

Niki Davis is Director of Iowa State University Center of Technology in Learning where she leads the graduate program in Curriculum and Instructional Technology that is well known for its emphasis in teacher education. She also holds a Chair in ICT in Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, where she is a member of the London Knowledge Lab. Before this she held a chair in Educational Telematics in the University of Exeter in the UK where she set up the Telematics Centre.

Niki has researched information technologies extensively, particularly in teacher education and in flexible and distance learning. She is currently the President of the international Society of Information Technology in Teacher Education and Chair of the International Federation of Information Processing Technical Committee 3 on Education’s Working Group on Research. She is also an invited expert of UNESCO on ICT teacher education.