Running head: Country Case Report 1

Country Case Synthesis Report

Aves Ruffin-Justis

EDTC 645

University of Maryland University College

Dr. LeAnn Derby

Country Case Report 2

Introduction

Information communications technology(ICT) is the transferring of information from one

person or entity to another using technology (ICT, 2010). With the synthesizing of these two

articles: Introducing ICT in schools in England: Rationale and Consequences (Hammond, 2014)

and The Acceptance and Use of a Virtual Learning Environment in Higher Education: An

Empirical study in Turkey and the UK (Kurt & Tingoy, 2017), I will be focusing on the use of

technology for blended learning in the k-12 classroom and in the secondary classroom. Mr.

Tony Blair, Prime Minister of England said, students cannot be ready for the future if what they

are learning is from the past (Hammond, 2014). I feel to prepare students for the future work-

world, technology must be introduced and used in all subject areas.

The two articles I synthesized have two different opinions on getting students prepared

for the future work-world when using information communications technology. One perspective

comes from the k-12 environment and other perspective comes from a secondary environment.

Information Communications Technology in K-12

Hammond mentions (2014) millions of British students are not prepared for jobs in the

world of technology (Gove, 2012). This is his argument for ICT to be used in vocational classes

and not married in to all subject areas. Vocational classes are referred to Further Education (Kurt

and Tingoy, 2017). What are the standards for further education? Are these standards different

from the k-12 standards?

This article mentions how using ICT in British schools cannot have an impact on the

standards. I researched the standards for teachers and students in the U.K. The standards say
Country Case Report 3

teachers should develop an environment that is stimulating and motivating for all their students.

It also says the curriculum should challenge students (Department for Education, 2013). In my

opinion, blended learning will stimulate students. Using applications, programs and online tools,

will help teachers make their lesson implementation time more effectively; which is another

teaching standard (Department for Education, 2013).

Teachers also must prepare their students for further education (Department for

Education, 2013). Further education, is vocational training. Using technology with traditional

methods of teaching would prepare students for further education and for the job market.

Missing from this article is the data about professional developments for teachers. Is the

reason why teachers don’t see technology as relevant in the k-12 classroom the fact they are not

properly trained to use technology in every subject area. After viewing the teaching and learning

standards, using technology in the classroom would be a great use of class time and would

stimulate students and challenge students.

ICT in Secondary Education

The article The Acceptance and Use of a Virtual Learning Environment in Higher

Education: An Empirical study in Turkey and the UK poses the question, are students graduating

from high school and entering college ready to navigate through a virtual learning environment

(Kurt and Tingoy, 2017)? The article states the secondary student is willing to use technology in

the classroom but in the k-12 environment, it is not relevant.

The data in this article has some discrepancies. One, is out of the 510 college students

that participated in this project, 99 of them did not have access to the internet (Kurt and Tingoy,
Country Case Report 4

2017). If they were college students living on campus, why didn’t all of them have access to the

internet? That is a piece of data that is missing from this article and to me is crucial to the

findings of this paper. Did the 99 not have internet because they were commuters or were they

all commuters and the 411 had internet at home? The reason why I think this data is important is

because in Introducing ICT in schools in England: Rationale and Consequences the use of

technology wasn’t relevant in the classroom. This raises the question, was the internet not easily

accessible at home and that’s why it wasn’t feasible to use in the classroom because the students

would not be able to continue the use of technology at home?

Conclusion

In both articles I find a few issues. One of the issues is are there are not any professional

developments for teachers to use ICT in a blended learning environment. Hammond (2014)

stated, introducing ICT in the classroom may be impactful on vocational standards.

Unfortunately, throughout the article, there was not any indication of what standards that can be

impacted or how they can be impacted (Hammond, 2014). The same article says technology has

no impact on learning or teaching standards. According to the standards, teachers must have

lesson plans that are challenging to students and lesson plans that expose students to other

cultures (Department for Education, 2013).

The CTE standards in the U.S. are compatible to the Future Education standards in the

U.K. CTE stands for Career Technical Education. One of the practices of the CTE standard is

students should use technology to become career workforce and ready students should have

experiences with students of other cultures (CTE, 2018). Having exposure to other cultures, will

give our students skills to be globally competitive for jobs.

Country Case Report 5

Hammond (2014) states ICT in the Future Education environment is to learn the technology.
The CTE standards promote using technology to teach a subject matter and not just to teach the
technology. Looking at ICT to promote skills globally and domestically is a concept that is
stated in the CTE standards for the U.S.
Using ICT in other subject matters and being globally ready is in the ISTE Standards for
the U.S. as well. ISTE stands for International Society for Technology Education. The standard
indicator states technology should be used to teach students global citizenship and to enhance
subject matter (ISTE, 2014) Students should not be restricted to using technology only in the
Future Education or CTE classes but technology should be used to enhance all subjects.
I agree with Mr. Tony Blair, if you teach students in the K-12 environment what has been

taught in the past, they will not be prepared for the further education (vocational training) or for

secondary education (Hammond, 2014). I feel to prepare our students for the future work force,

technology must be introduced and used in all subject areas. Students must be technologically

ready to compete globally in the workforce.

Country Case Report 6

References

CTE Standards (2018). Retrieved from: https://careertech.org/cte

Department for Education (June, 2013). Teacher’s Standards Guidance for School Leaders,

School Staff and Governing Bodies. Retrieved from:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/665520/Te

achers__Standards.pdf

Hammond, M. (2014). Introducing ICT in schools in England: Rationale and Consequences.

British Journal of Educational Technology 45(2) 191-201.

ISTE Standards (2014). Retrieved from: https://www.iste.org/standards/for-students

Kurt, O. & Tingoy, O. (2017). The Acceptance and Use of a Virtual Learning Environment in

Higher Education: An Empirical study in Turkey and the UK. International Journal of

Educational Technology in Higher Education, http://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0064-z.