Compare and contrast Ed Smeets (2005) and John Robertson (2002). Make suggestions which would help us provide a more meaningful learning environment, based on your own experience of the use of ICT in the schools you have taught in.


Research on the use and importance of ICT in primary schools is the focus for both articles. There are two immediate differences however; the Smeets (2005) article looks at research conducted in Dutch primary schools while Robertson (2002) focuses on the use of ICT in British primary schools. Aside from this the findings reported in the articles are quite similar. Both find that ICT is not being used as much as it could be nor in the most appropriate ways.

Both Smeets and Robertson talk about drill and practice software and how this is not the most beneficial use of computer programmes in schools. Smeets comments:

teachers who adhered to traditional transmission approaches to instruction, tended to prefer skill-based software

and:

Teacher-centred teachers…tend to use traditional instructional methods, and to regard learning technologies mainly as basic sill reinforcers, motivators or ‘special treats’.

While Robertson quotes David Chandler who noted that:

some forms of ICT, drill and practice software in particular, enabled educational practice to take “a giant step backwards into the 19th Century”

I agree with the point they are both making here. For ICT to be truly effective it needs to be integrated entirely into daily teaching. While working in a year 1 class I saw computers used mainly as a treat for the children to use during golden time or if they finished their work early. The IWB was used mainly as a projector or for the children to use maths programmes during mental starters. Keeping ICT at this distance from the other aspects of teaching and learning must make the children see it as a completely separate tool which can be used only at certain points. ICT really needs to be integrated to such a degree that the children don’t really notice it is there.

Linking in with the drill and practice software, Robertson comments that the ICT which has been introduced so far has led to a lot of passive rather than active learning. Smeets’ article shows different results from the Dutch study in that the majority teachers who completed the questionnaires to provide the research data encouraged their pupils to use ICT independently. This independent work would be used for researching information although it was also found that working in this way was not beneficial for promoting collaborative working meaning that working with ICT would tend to mean that the pupils would be working alone. I have observed this in the year 1 class I worked in, where pupils would have access to individual computers but would be instructed to work alone. The pupils in the year 4 class however were encouraged to work together during their ICT lessons. I believe that it depends on the activity. If an activity is not designed for collaborative working then there is no reason to force it. The pupils will gain as much beneficial experience from working alone on activities as working together.

A point made by Robertson but not mentioned by Smeets is that ICT has not been fully embedded into classrooms which is due to the failure to train, to manage and to resource. Perhaps ICT training and funding in Holland is of such a level that it is not an issue, and it may be for that reason that Smeets did not mention it in his article. It could also be because it was not an area relevant to the research being conducted. I feel that we are heading in the right direction with regards to ICT training in England at least. Because many of today’s trainee teachers have grown up using ICT in one form or another I also believe that incorporating it successfully into everyday teaching will become more natural as tomorrow’s teachers will not be so apprehensive about using it. Smeets remarks that teachers are no longer the all-knowing classroom controllers that they were, but rather they are becoming facilitators of acquiring information and I think the teacher’s role will continue to develop in this way. It will no longer be necessary for teachers to provide fact-based information for pupils but instead equip them with the tools which will enable them to find information for themselves and I feel that this is far more beneficial.

To summarise then, the use of ICT in schools needs to continue to develop in the way it has been for the past few years. It is important that it becomes as integrated as possible and that pupils have continuous access to ICT equipment. Obviously this will depend largely on the finances available to schools but I believe that it is one of the most important areas of learning and so should be financed accordingly. Today’s pupils will need to be ICT literate and primary school is the best time for them to learn.