Hello guys) Let's go on our topic about ICT. Do you find this information useful for broadening your mind? If yes, I have some more stuff for you. Read the article about ICT of access and equity.

There can be no doubt as to the importance of ICT to English. However its integration into the curriculum raises serious questions concerning access and equity and the following issues must be addressed:

• access to ICT within and amongst schools
• access to ICT in students’ own homes
• access to effective models of ICT teaching and learning
• skilling teachers in ICT

The Board of Studies in its cross curriculum content requirements for English states that:

The ICT content has been incorporated into the content of this syllabus to ensure that all students have the opportunity to become competent, discriminating and creative users of ICT and are better able to demonstrate the syllabus outcomes of English through the effective use of ICT. (7-10 Syllabus, p9)

It is patently obvious at this point in time, that not all students have the same opportunity to access technology and achieve these outcomes. There is inequitable access within and amongst public schools, between public and private schools, and in access to ICT in our students’ homes.

Within schools, the question of actual physical access to ICT must be addressed:

..Despite government rollouts no school has computers in every classroom. For security reasons alone most schools have moved to a "computer laboratory" approach so questions of physical access to computers to teach these competencies are very real. (Leete, 2005)

In addition the differences in resource levels which exists amongst public schools and between the public and private sector schools raise serious concerns. It is self evident that wealthier schools will have higher levels and intensities of ICT resources (Anderson, 2005, p147) and reports from countries around the world including Australia establish beyond question that schools in economically disadvantaged areas do not have the same levels of ICT resources as schools serving higher socio-economic groups.(Anderson, 2005, p148).

Likewise students in economically disadvantaged areas have correspondingly lower levels of home ownership of computers and associated technologies such as the internet (Anderson, 2005, p148) and this places them at further disadvantage.

Increasingly too concern is being expressed about access to effective ICT models since new evidence clearly shows that the ways computers are used has a profound effect on student outcomes. (Wenglinski, 1998 cited in Anderson, 2005, p148). In particular effective models have been identified as those which encourage students to engage with ICTs for higher order learning and provide students with what Jonassen (2000) describes as mindtools or cognitive tools. (Anderson, 2005, p145). According to Papert (2004), it is this aspect of technology, its potential to extend the ability of humans to solve problems creatively, that is most beneficial, especially to socio-economically disadvantaged students. (Anderson, 2005, p145).

The discussion of access and equity, therefore, must be broadened to include a debate about access to effective models of ICT for teaching and learning. Such an approach moves the debate from counting computers, examining the technology budget, and calculating the number of hours which students spend on computers to a consideration of differentiating between the different ways in which the technology is used (Anderson, 2005,p146)

This is particularly important for students who are affected by socio-economic disadvantage. These students have only one” shot” at using ICT to enhance their educational development, and that one “shot” is at school. If the school adopts a less beneficial model of ICT as identified by Wenglinski’s study (1998) then the gap between disadvantaged students and the rest of the student population can be exacerbated. (Anderson, 2005. p148)

Finally in order to address the issue of access and equity, there is still much work to be done to skill teachers in the new technology. Research indicates that teachers need to have adequate ICT skills, regular use of ICT equipment, and access to reliable technical support if they are to use ICT effectively in the English classroom. (Moseley et al 1999).

Until concerns about equity and access are addressed and more is done to skill teachers in technology, the mandatory inclusion of ICT in the curriculum remains a contentious issue and requirements that students… learn about forms of digital communication such as video conferencing (Syllabus 7-10, p9) are meaningless for the great majority of students who do not have access to even basic technology on an ongoing daily basis.