Considerable claims have been made for the development of e-learning, either as stand-alone programmes or alongside more traditional approaches to teaching and learning, for students across school and tertiary education. National initiatives have improved the position of schools in terms of access to hardware and electronic networking, software and educational resources, and staff development. The potential of e-learning to improve learning and teaching, and in turn, attainment, may be contested by academics but the policy makers are generally positive. Many countries across Europe and North America have adopted information and communication technology (ICT) as a central plank in school improvement and effectiveness planning. At the centre, however, remain the teacher and the learner. The impact of ICT on the learning experience will depend upon the roles adopted by each, the model of the learner held by the teacher and the pedagogy adopted. This paper considers the ways in which teachers and students responded to the implementation of one particular online programme and considers the approaches adopted and the attitudes to its use. The SCHOLAR programme is designed to complement rather than replace traditional teaching and learning approaches within schools and is aimed at students in the post-compulsory years of secondary school working towards external certification. It has a number of features including course materials, revision exercises, self-assessment facilities and a discussion forum. The independent evaluation of SCHOLAR looked at the impact that its use made on learning and teaching in the post-16 classroom and the differing ways in which teachers and students used the various elements of the programme. While it did appear to have a positive impact on attainment, the evidence indicates that this might have been greater had the teachers modified their practice, blending learning through SCHOLAR with more traditional methods.

At the beginning of a series of ICT initiatives in Scottish schools by the Scottish Executive and again, two years later, a survey of teachers and pupils provided evidence of the impact that these strategic investments had made on the classroom. The findings indicate that while there are innovative and enthusiastic teachers taking advantage of the opportunities afforded, a number of practical and cultural obstacles remained. While practical shortcomings, such as access to suitable hardware and software, might be fairly readily overcome if the financial will were there, the culture and practices of the school may prove more stubborn. The focus in this paper is on the views, hopes and expectations of the primary and secondary teachers who participated in the surveys and how they will influence the implementation of the ICT initiatives

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The United Kingdom team investigated policy and practice in relation to students in four key categories of disadvantage, according to participation and achievement data: asylum seekers and refugees; gypsies and travellers; minority language speakers; and looked after children; and. The link between policy and practice was found to be a tenuous one and although there were many examples of good practice documented, few were systematically evaluated or disseminated in ways that would allow others to learn about, adopt or adapt apparently successful initiatives.

Abstract. This paper reports on one strand of a PhD study that examines newly qualified teachers' use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to support teaching and learning in Scottish primary classrooms during the first two years of their career. Preliminary data analysis indicates that some of the new teachers are creative, innovative users of new technologies who have embedded ICT effectively into their classroom practice while others remain reluctant users. This paper looks at some of the factors that differentiate the creative from the reluctant. Three levels of influence are discussed, and the interactions between them. They are the national/authority level, the school level and the individual or personal level. Some necessary, although not in themselves sufficient, conditions for creative use of ICT are identified as well as some desirable ones.