in Action
EDUsummIT 2009
Ann Thompson, co-editor of ISTE’s
Journal of Computing in Teacher Education,
reports on the International Summit
on ICT in Education
ISTE helped support an international conference in June in The Hague, Netherlands, called the EDUsummIT 2009. Approximately 70 leading ed tech researchers,
policy makers, and practitioners gathered to define action
steps following the publication of the Handbook on ICT
in Primary and Secondary Education. The handbook, released in 2008 by Springer, provides a broad international
synthesis on major research in the field.
Summarizing 40–50 years of research on information
and communication technologies (ICT), the handbook
provides a useful summary of what we know about ICT
and thus an ideal starting point for defining directions
in the areas of policy, research, and leadership.
Editors Joke Voogt and Gerald Knezek orchestrated
the international summit to provide a platform to use
the comprehensive handbook to help move the field of
ICT in primary and secondary education forward. ISTE’s
CEO, Don Knezek, provided leadership for the summit,
and the British Communications and Technology Agency
(BECTA) and Kennisnet, a public ICT support organization in the Netherlands, also supported the realization of
the conference.
Chris Dede, the Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies in the Technology, Innovation, and
Education department at Harvard University, opened the
conference with an inspiring keynote address. He indicated that he felt more positive about the potential impact
of technology in education than at any previous time in
his career. Dede pointed out three factors that suggest the
time is right for action:
•;Students’;out-of-school;lives;are;richer;in;ICT;than
their in-school lives.
•;Schools;are;currently;still;operating;under;an;industrial
model for education and not responding to the need for
producing students with skills necessary for life in a 21st -
century, global economy.
•;New;and;powerful;technology;tools;are;available;to
support changing roles for schools.
Summit participants accepted the challenges of discussing and defining what we know as well as setting goals for
the future and actions to achieve these goals.
The reports from each of the groups (research, leadership,
and policy) revealed some strong overlapping themes in
terms of a call to action. These actions included a challenge
for researchers, leaders, and policy makers to:
•;Use;findings;presented;in;the;handbook;to;inform
research, policy, and leadership for ICT in schools
•;Radically;restructure;schools;around;the;need;for;multi-ple technology-enhanced pedagogies to address students’
individual needs
•;Work;to;use;student;technology;experience;in;informal;learn-ing environments to inform work in formal environments
•;Actively;study;both;research;and;development;on;ICT
applications in classrooms
•;Nurture;an;international;community;of;ICT;scholars;who
continually build upon our knowledge base
•;Develop;new;assessments;designed;to;measure;outcomes
from technology-enriched learning experiences
•;Develop;and;use;distributed;leadership;models;for;tech-nology use in schools and teacher education programs
•;Adopt;an;ecological;perspective;to;study;ICT;use;in
classrooms to help explain and influence the complex
interactions and events
Participants departed The Hague with a renewed mission
to better connect ICT research with ICT policy and action
plans for primary and secondary education.
Learn more about EDUsummIt at http://edusummit.nl.
