This paper provides a comparative analysis of policies, strategies and programmes for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) integration in primary and post-primary education, that were active in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and in the Republic of Ireland in 2016. The analysis showed that while KSA was a relative newcomer to the integration of ICT in education, it was responsive in seeking to enhance the quality of education and support transitions to the knowledge economy through a range of initiatives, including: reform of the curriculum, provision of teacher professional development in ICT integration, and supply of computer technologies and infrastructure. However, as in the Irish context, the framing of the ICT in education’ policies, strategies and programmes needed to be strengthened through participatory partnerships with key stakeholders that endured throughout the life-cycle of ICT policy implementation in primary and post-primary settings. Furthermore, the review showed a need for governments in both jurisdictions to make better provision for financial and human resourcing to fully operationalize the teacher training and supports necessary for effective integration by teachers of ICT in primary and post-primary settings. Finally, the evaluation protocols within ICT in education’ policies, strategies and programmes in both countries needed to be re-casted to make evidence of their enactment publicly available in a timely manner. Moreover, the resultant evaluation reports further needed to be detailed at a level that made visible the national progress on ICT integration in schools, and the corresponding impact on learners’ ICT skills and broader competencies.

This study aims to explore kindergarten student teachers' readiness to integrate technology into their future classrooms and factors affect their integration. A mixedmethods, sequential explanatory design was utilized to achieve the research purposes. There were two phases. The first phase conducted a survey to assess technical and pedagogical readiness levels as well as participants' pedagogical attitude and opinion toward technology integration. The second phase conducted followup interviews to understand how participants intended to transfer their intentions into practice and factors affect their technology integration. The first-phase results showed that participants were ready to implement technologies while having positive attitudes toward technology integration. The second-phase results confirmed all participants were able to transfer their technical skills into professional practice. However, few were ready to practically apply their pedagogies. The results indicate three main factors, including technological resources, the school infrastructure, and the number of students in their classrooms. It is recommended to improve teacher preparation program to develop teacher technology readiness.

This meta-level review of the literature set-out to examine the impacts of game-based/ gamified learning on dispositions, cognitive abilities and behaviours of learners aged 6-12, and to identify the factors that contributed to these impacts. A total of seventeen relevant studies were identified that had been implemented across a range of disciplinary areas in the period under review (2005-2015). The results indicate that online gamified/ games-based learning has been shown to increase the level of academic performance of learners, and improve cognitive competencies in problem-solving, multiplicative reasoning ability, self-efficacy and critical thinking. Learners' intrinsic motivation has been shown to have been enhanced through motivational factors (confidence, satisfaction and enjoyment) promoted within the online game design, and this had a direct effect on increasing engagement and improving academic achievement.

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