According to Debande[1], there are four reasons to use ICT in education: social, vocational, pedagogical, and catalytic. This essay looks deeper into one of these reasons: Vocational ‘...driven by the requisite of ensuring that the system is preparing students for jobs which require skills in technology.’
To illustrate the vocational reasons for introducing ICT in education, we look at a particular programme designed and implemented in the UK to provide young people with a means of increasing their skills in using ICT as a part of their life, with a view to increasing the uptake of further ICT qualifications, and preparing the individual with the necessary skills for the future of employment. Offered to girls in primary and secondary schools, CC4G (Computer Clubs for Girls) was designed as an extra-curricular resource (i.e. to be used outside classroom time), and as such usage and membership is voluntary. This essay highlights the benefits and drawbacks of e-learning using the example to analyse its necessity and impact.
CC4G was developed by e-skills UK[2] as a tool to be delivered securely through the web, designed specifically for girls aged 10-14, an age where they traditionally lose interest in ICT, owing to its ‘geeky, nerdish and boring’[3] image. The programme’s aim is to dispel this myth and encourage more girls to participate in, and raise their confidence and skills in ICT through a set of exciting and relevant topics (such as fashion, music, celebrity).[4] But also to fill a skills gap in IT professional employment, in which the number of women working ‘...fell from 27% in 1997 to 21% in 2004, and it is continuing to decline, while just 17% of students starting computer science degrees are women’[5]. The project was initially funded by the South East regional development agency in 2003 as a pilot project, and further national funding from the Department for Education and Skills[6] in 2005 (£8.4m) enabled the programme to be rolled out nationally for three more years.
The ‘Courseware’, the 12 topics with over 150 hours of learning content, provides girls with the enthusiasm for IT and knowledge that many desirable jobs require the use of ICT skills. The soft and technical skills that are learned were developed in dialogue with IT employers and ICT curriculum employers, to ensure the fit-for-purpose nature of the programme. The employer input is invaluable when looking at the vocational reasons for using the resource.
Using interactive flash-based activities, the topics are introduced to the girls in a fun, game-like manner. This enables them to learn whilst having fun. James Paul Gee calls this ‘stealth learning’: ‘when the learners are so caught up in their goals that they don't realise they are learning or how much they are learning or where they actively seek new learning.’[7] This aspect of the resource is an innovative and exciting way for girls to learn, as computer games are often associated with boys.
There has been no conclusive proof that the CC4G members go on to become employed in the IT industry, but this is because the first tranche of members (aged 10-14 in 2003) may still not yet be seeking employment, especially if they are attending higher education. This is not to say that the programme has been unsuccessful. Over 3000 schools and 150,000 members have been involved in CC4G and feedback has shown that members are more likely to aspire to a job in IT because of their involvement in the programme. Feedback has also shown that girls find the single sex environment for the clubs to be beneficial to them. Other benefits to learners include cross-curricular skills and others skills that reach into social and family environments.
The context in which the resource is delivered is an important factor. A club environment is less formal than a classroom, and children have the choice to work independently or within groups, enabling them to make choices and decisions leading to them discovering and exploring answers, making their own mistakes and rectifying them, themselves. The teacher simply facilitates the girls’ learning. This gives the learner a basic skill-set that is both looked for in employers and is very useful in the social context. Teachers can also find it more rewarding to facilitate a group / club, as opposed to teaching a class, noticing differences in the children’s behaviour and willingness to learn, perhaps owing to leaving the boundaries of the prescriptive format of a lesson.
However, this club-style teaching could also hinder the programme’s success, as many children are unable to, or don’t want to stay after school to take part in extra-curricular activities. This could be down to transport to and from school, other extra-curricular commitments such as sport, or simply disinterest towards the subject.
Teachers can find it difficult to get to grips with directing learning via a website, especially when the children of today are so technically-minded themselves. This issue may have been a barrier for schools to sign up to CC4G, coupled with the free-time that teachers would have to give up to run the club. To counteract this second problem, many schools run clubs as lunchtime sessions.
Fulfilling the desire of the IT industry, to increase the number of female professionals, is a long way off, but initial findings[8] show that 67% of girls surveyed had the propensity to find a career involving technology..
As findings have shown, the benefits of the CC4G programme lead to more rounded individuals with regard to their social and IT skills, as well as cross-curricular applications of skills learned. This in turn is positive for their development into the kind of employees the IT industry is looking for in the future. E-learning provides a suitable platform for delivering this programme as it gives the girls, however old, the feeling of directing their own learning and creating a team / club atmosphere in which it is healthy to work.
[1] Debande, O., ICTs and the Development of eLearning in Europe: the role of the public and private sectors, European Journal of Education, 39 (2) , 191–208, 2004
[2] e-skills UK are the sector skills council for IT and Telecoms, and have a remit to work closely with large and small employers in the IT industry, with education and with government.
[3] MORI research in, Thomas, K., The IT Girls: A report on Computer Clubs for Girls, http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications_reports_articles/web_articles/Web_Article531, July 2005
[5] Savaas, A., Cut IT skills shortage by closing gender gap, say female IT professionals, Computer Weekly, Nov 05
[6] Now known as the Department for Children, Families and Schools – DCFS
[7] Gee, J.P., What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007
[8] e-skills UK CC4G evaluation, 2006
