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• Department of Education Science and Training Database on ICT Policies for Education and Training
• Learning for the knowledge society: An education and training action plan for the information economy

 

Australia’s Experience in Transistion to a Knowledge Society

Australia with its vast territories and dispersed population has long been known for its successful distance education programmes to provide education to those who live in remote places in the outback. More recently, Australia has become a pioneer in using ICT for educational purposes.

In 1999, National Goals were released in The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century, providing the framework for reporting on student achievement and for public accountability by schools and school systems.

Under the Adelaide Declaration, the key national goal framing Australia's ICT programmes in schools specifies that:

When students leave school, they should…….be confident, creative and productive users of new technologies, particularly information and communication technologies, and understand the impact of those technologies on society.

Here is the far-reaching vision of MCEETYA, the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs in Australia, the key body responsible for formulating national school education policy, including developing and implementing ICT policy and plans in education.

This national action plan for schools was further developed in 2000 by the Education Network Australia (EdNA) Schools Advisory group and endorsed by MCEETYA, released in the paper Learning in an Online World, which specifies the vision, the objectives and a framework which all stakeholders can use to initiate positive changes.

In addition to the above mentioned vision for students, schools will seek to integrate ICTs into their education systems to improve student learning, to offer flexible opportunities and to improve efficiency in business. All state governments share responsibility for making this vision become a reality, in terms of funding and ensuring that public funds are spent effectively and efficiently. The Commonwealth will help in terms of policy development and pre-service teacher training, while the States and Territories have responsibility for school infrastructure, teacher professional development and the development of curricula.

Five key action areas concerning the manner of ICT introduction are specified:

People: Improved learning outcomes for students, supported by educational leaders, teachers and administration staff with the skills and motivation to use ICTs effectively.

Infrastructure: Access to an advanced ICT infrastructure that supports teaching and learning.

Content and Services: Access to, and application of online resources and services that support continuous improvement in curricula, in classroom and distance learning and in school administration.

Supporting Policies: Policies that support the integration of ICTs in schools.

Enabling Regulation: A legal framework in Australia that supports rather than inhibits the use of new ICTs to enhance learning.

Within these key areas, the highest priorities identified are ensuring that sufficient bandwidth is available to all schools at affordable rates, providing both pre-service and ongoing professional development for all teachers and that all teachers and students must have access to quality digital resources that support the curricula.

Further details of these goals are provided in the Commonwealth Government's document Learning for the knowledge society: An education and training action plan for the information economy.

To achieve this, strategies include strengthening programmes for schools to adopt new paradigms of learning using ICTs and committing resources to the three key areas of professional development, infrastructure and curriculum content in a balanced and integrated way. A number of professional development projects are underway, focusing on student outcomes and on the most effective use of ICT to improve them, while EdNA Online will support access by educators and students to high quality public domain online resources and services relevant to Australian curricula. Furthermore, research will be undertaken and disseminated related to the links between the use of ICTs and learning outcomes.

Currently focused on developing a strategic framework to facilitate Australia’s transition to a knowledge society, MCEETYA established a new taskforce, the National Education Performance Monitoring Taskforce (NEPMT) to develop key performance measures that could be used to monitor and report on the achievement of these National Goals for Schooling. All State and Territory education authorities are monitoring progress in terms of student outcomes.