A proper policy in the permanent teacher’s training: Key impulse of the ICT Centre in Andalusia (Spain)

It is widely recognised that the teaching-learning process made up of both classes and IT facilities in the educational centres for all levels is something continually studied and developed in practically all countries worldwide.

It is not less true that until not long ago computers had entered in the educational centres in a punctual way or in specific classrooms. But we are contributing to an enormous political and economical effort to benefit the universal access to information technology and communication, which is based on numerous notifications, projects and programmes supported in most cases by authorities and institutions on an International, national and even regional and local level, aimed at the educational field.

Such investments in resources and maintenance of IT facilities – software and hardware -, besides being a relevant effort as regards the ability of teaching staff, often does not correspond with the necessary educational policy that processes in a coherent and sound way the resources that are available in the schools.
It is usual to detect problems as far as the adequate implementation and use of the facilities are concerned, as well as for the training in information and communication technologies of the own educational agents (above all for teachers), or for the evaluation of repercussions of equipping the classrooms with technology in the teaching-learning process.

In the last few decades the experiences and investigations related to the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) for different educational levels has proliferated, not only in the national field but also internationally with varying perspectives. Area (2005) shows the abundance of «empirical information about ICT in schools» distinguishing studies about quantitative indicators that describe and measure the situation of integrating computers into the educational system; about the effects of computers on the performance and learning process of the students, about the perspectives, opinions and attitudes of the external educative members (administrators, supervisors, support teams) and the teaching staff for the use and introduction of these technologies and studies about the use of computers in centres and developed classrooms in a real context.

Despite that, we are in agreement with the Area (2005) in that it exposes the lack of a theory about this particular phenomenon of the schooling reality that allows us to understand what happens when computers are introduced in schools, the reasons for teachers being reluctant to integrate these technologies into their teaching practice, or how to implement teaching incorporation strategies for the information and communications technologies successfully.

And this vision is that from which we follow our investigation that on the other hand belongs to the Plans of I+D in Spain¹.

The previously mentioned «ICT centres» suggested as a consequence to a political and social bet on behalf of the Andalucian government for the massive implementation of ICT schools, following other similar interventions within the country. And so, from the beginning of the academic term 2003/04, the plan for «ICT centres» is being developed with annual meetings in which centres are being increasingly accepted.
Our investigation has been centred on a significant show of primary promotion of Andalucian «ICT centres», from which the impact of long-distance learning techniques have been analysed together with the use of free software, not only on an institutional level as regards the organisation of centres, but also in terms of the classrooms, and therefore in terms of the direct repercussions of the teaching-learning process.
The claim of the study that we are dealing with is aimed at describing the current state of use of means of technology in ICT educational centres to analyse the global profitability of these programmes, obtaining contrasted information about the degree of implementation of new resources and its impact on teaching-learning processes directly created in the classrooms.
We are aiming to demonstrate in these pages, in a more specific way, the contributions and results surrounding the measurements accompanied that we estimate to be necessary, in light of the information that we report in this investigation, for an efficient action for this innovative educational policy.

The information that we will put forward is taken from the application of descriptive methodology to be able to analyse the phenomenon of the technological resources for Andalucian Primary and Secondary schools and its repercussions in the educational plan. With this objective, the instruments of the questionnaire have been used ², group interviews or target groups, analysis of organisation documents of centres and systematic observation, in a non participative way, driven by control lists and estimates amongst others.

¹ R+D Project SEC2004-01421, «Observatics»: “Implementing free software in Andalusian ICT Centres. Analysis of its repercussion in teaching-learning procedures”, included in the R+D National Announcement Plan 2004-2007, Spanish Science and Education Ministry. It was developed by «@gora» Research Group (PAI-HUM-648), under the direction of the main researcher, PhD. J. Ignacio Aguaded

² In appendix we attach questionnaire used to research.