National Policy on ICT in School Education

ISBN: 0-478-13605-6

Published by:
The Ministry of Education, on behalf of the education sector agencies and the National Library of New Zealand, November 2006

Design by:
FitzBeck Creative

WHY AN ICT STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR EDUCATION?

New Zealand has established goals, priorities and strategies for education. These include:

Government goals
Education priorities
Early childhood education strategy
Schooling strategy
Tertiary education strategy.

The integration of learning, teaching, research and administrative practices with information and communication technologies (ICT) will support the implementation and achievement of these goals, priorities and strategies.

Expenditure in ICT across early childhood, schooling, tertiary institutions, education organisations and government education agencies represents a significant investment to the education sector as a whole, and particularly the following central government agencies:

Career Services
Education Review Office
Ministry of Education
National Library
New Zealand Qualifications Authority
New Zealand Teachers Council
Tertiary Education Commission.

Education organisations and government agencies need to work in partnership if together we are to deliver improved education outcomes. Effective and integrated use of ICT across all parts of the education sector is critical to accomplish this.

The purpose of the ICT Strategic Framework for Education is to provide the mechanism to guide and co-ordinate ICT investment towards the government�s vision of improved education outcomes.

The Framework is aligned with, and supports, the government�s E-government and National Digital Strategies and provides the foundation for effective (e)learning practices to be integrated into New Zealand educational practices.

VISION
To improve learner achievement in an innovative education sector, fully connected and supported by the smart use of ICT.1

GOALS

The ICT Strategic Framework for Education seeks to deliver this vision through:

1. A more learner-centred education system transcending organisational boundaries.

2. More informed decision making within the education sector by learners, teachers, parents, communities, public, businesses, researchers, policy makers, and administrators.

3. Increased ease and opportunity of access and reduced compliance costs for all participants.

4. Increased confidence, capability and capacity from the use of ICT by all participants in the education sector.

5. Greater opportunities for the generation, application and sharing of new ideas and technologies.

6. More effective and efficient investment in ICT by education sector government agencies.

These goals will be achieved through:

Developing a more learner-centred service culture where education agencies and organisations focus on the outcome rather than the technology;
Recognising that successful design, development and implementation is as much about people as about technology;
Interoperability and ease of access to, and between, systems and information where learners can engage as and when required, and decision-making is better informed at all levels;
Balancing local choice and national direction;
Coherence through open standards rather than standardisation;
Achieving greater effectiveness and efficiency in the design, development, implementation and use of ICT in supporting education based on a user-focused approach;
Establishing and maintaining a cooperative culture and communities that support and nurture innovation, creativity and the sharing of ideas and practices;
Recognising and accommodating the considerable legacy2 investment and levels of ICT capability and resource across the Sector.

The ICT Strategic Framework for Education aims to deliver across the following National Digital Strategy components3:

Within these components the ICT Strategic Framework for Education will guide deliverables across the following dimensions4 of education:

Learning and teaching
Research
Administration and support.

The following table maps how ICT will enable each of the dimensions.

TARGETS

[As technology changes quickly these measures must be reviewed annually.]

We would know we have achieved the goals of the ICT Strategic Framework for Education when:

APPROACHES

In order to achieve the vision and goals of the ICT Strategic Framework for Education, the following approaches have been identified to inform decision making regarding the implementation and use of ICT-related initiatives within the sector.

1. Learner-centred

A �learner-centred� approach means striving to meet learners� differing needs rather than offering a �one-size-fits-all� system. Individual learner needs must be considered when making decisions about the content, structure, teaching methods, learning activities and support provisions associated with any learning activity.

2. Sector wide collaboration

Collaboration means sharing strategies, plans, ambitions, aspirations and information openly:

between and within organisations;
between New Zealand and appropriate international partners. Collaboration includes:
Interagency governance and management of education sector ICT projects;
Establishing agency and sector facing hosting of key infrastructure and support;
The development of a virtual education agency (i.e. all government education agencies working seamlessly together in the delivery of education outcomes).

3. Services oriented approach

A services oriented approach allows systems/applications to be developed as modules (and exposed as services via standards-based interfaces) which can be reused by other systems/applications.

4. International endorsed practice

Regular engagement with and monitoring of national and international organisations and strategic groups will ensure alignment with endorsed �best� practice.

Membership of selected groups and organisations will be important here to ensure that New Zealand is both contributing to, as well as drawing from, this pool of knowledge.

Experience and practice is communicated within and between national and international organisations.

5. End-user perspective

All initiatives will be tested against the end-users� perspective to provide assurance of quality, usefulness, timeliness, sustainability and security of resulting information and services.

6. Exhibit these key characteristics

NOTES

¹ The ICT Strategic Framework for Education will contribute to the goals, and in particular the Education Goal, of government�s National Digital Strategy.

² While new systems will need to work alongside legacy systems in the short to medium term, it is envisaged that legacy systems will (over time) be replaced or redeveloped in line with the ICT Strategic Framework for Education.

³ The National Digital Strategy was developed around the components of Connection, Content and Confidence (which includes Capability).

⁴ New Zealand is working with the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC, higher education ICT, UK) and the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training on an international e-Framework for Education & Research. The New Zealand ICT Strategic Framework for Education has been developed to align with the dimensions of Learning and Teaching, Research and Administration.

⁵ New Zealand interoperability standards will be managed by the Education Sector ICT Standing Committee.

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