Phased progression

Whether it is intentional or observed retrospectively to be so, the deployment model is in all cases phased. Recognising the complexity of the processes involved and/or subject to budgetary constraints, the Danish and Spanish education officials have intentionally implemented phased deployment models. Denmark has opted for a pragmatic, organic development model based mainly on demand from teachers and parents, supporting a platform created spontaneously by two teachers (SkoleIntra). The various uses have been developed in stages: communication among teachers was first implemented, then a digital educational resource portal was created, and finally a more and more integrated service – including parent involvement and sharing of information on schools in the same territory – has been made available. Andalusia and Catalonia have proceeded by tranches of schools. Andalusia has used a system of annual tenders, which supplied schools selected for the quality of their project with all the necessary equipment and technical and pedagogical support free of charge. Catalonia has kept pace with the growing enthusiasm of its teachers for MOODLE and chosen a version of MOODLE, called AGORA, for which the Region provides teachers and schools with pedagogic and technical support.

The United Kingdom has made major efforts in supplying hardware and connectivity, training teachers and librarians, and providing online educational resources and information sharing systems. These investments have been regularly assessed by BECTA and OFSTED 16, which has led to changes of emphasis along the way when necessary. Recent evaluation studies nonetheless show a deployment that is slower than expected and mainly benefiting secondary schools. The technical complexity and multiplicity of the necessary skills and the number of policy areas in which investment must be made more or less simultaneously are the reasons adduced for this situation.

16 BECTA is the Government agency dedicated to the integration of ICT into the British education system, and OFSTED is the inspectorate of the same system.