Ways to use ICT in schools to optimize the impact on teaching and learning

The European eLearning Forum for Education 2 (ELFE2) is a project initiated by the ETUCE (European Trade Union Committee on Education) and builds on the conclusion of its predecessor ELFE1. ELFE2 aims, as ELFE1, to contribute to a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of using ICT in education. It identifies ways used to optimize the benefits of ICT in education. To explore how ICT can be used to support teaching and learning two schools each in Denmark, England, Latvia, Poland, and Slovenia were selected based on information that indicated that they were regarded nationally as schools with an advanced ICT practice. The idea behind this selection is that by studying schools with what is experienced as an advance practice it will be possible to get some hints about problems and challenges other schools will be faced with. ELFE2 indicates that a number of ways are used in the schools to optimize the positive impact of ICT. Most of these ways are perceived by teachers and students as positive, but there are also factors that make the picture more complex. Some factors seem to be an obstacle for the introduction of ICT in the schools