Teaching and learning with ICT: new technology, new pedagogy

Abstract

This paper has two broad aims: first, to provide a brief introduction to the InterActive Education Project from which the papers in this special edition derive; and second, to draw out some of the overarching themes and threads that have emerged from the set of articles presented. The evidence suggests that a number of tensions surface when subject teachers engage with information communication technology (ICT) in their classrooms, for instance, the tension between teaching about and teaching through ICT; the tension between information accretion and information discernment; and the tension between subject and technological culture. The findings also suggest that the use of ICT by subject teachers is being embraced but not imposed. This is in part due to the collaborative nature of the InterActive Project but it is also due to a genuine desire by the participants to concentrate on the creation of rich ICT environments in which their students can engage their minds with the resources of their disciplines. The paper ends with some suggestions for taking the ICT and learning venture forward within the current curriculum context.