Broadening access to the curriculum through using technology to link home and school: a critical analysis of reforms intended to improve students' educational attainment

Pedagogy and Learning with ICT

“…The mother in this family used ICT to enhance her social life through participation in chat rooms, but this did not add to the family's cultural capital in any way. In another of our own studies (Lewin et al 2003) we found, similarly, that the real digital divide was not between those with and without access to ICT at home, but related to the purposes for which home computers were used: only the students from advantaged homes used ICT for school-related work, either of their own volition or because their parents suggested it. Had teachers requested that ICT should be used for homework many others would have had the facilities to do so, but teachers operated a de facto policy of not setting ICT-related activities for homework for reasons of equity.…”

“…This is merely another manifestation of the well-established phenomenon by which students are differentially advantaged or disadvantaged according to the cultural capital available to them in the home. Lewin et al (2003) have shown that when teachers make no specifi c requests for students to use ICTs for homework, those in homes with high cultural capital are much more likely to choose to use ICTs for school work than other students with similar access to ICTs at home; moreover, children are less able to argue their need with parents and siblings for access to a shared resource if teachers have not made a specifi c request for them to use ICTs.…”

“…Although it is nowhere so stated, the national curriculum is based on the assumption that all learning will take place in the school, or as directed by the school, and it is the responsibility of the school to ensure that students are given their 'entitlement' of teaching to enable them to progress from one level to the next. The school system is, therefore, unprepared for wide variations in students' prior learning of the kind now typical in terms of ICT skills as a result of frequent and sustained use of ICTs by many young people in the home (Lewin et al 2003). As a result, teaching largely proceeds on the basis of covering the whole of the specifi ed curriculum 'from scratch' with all students regardless of the skills they have already acquired.…”

Access and use of technologies in the home in the UK: implications for the curriculum

“…There should be less focus on teaching ICT skills in discrete lessons and more emphasis on embedding the teaching of skills across the curriculum within the context of authentic and purposeful tasks. Although not referred to in this article, the digital divide needs to be considered and provision should be made for out-of-school access for those without technologies in the home (for further discussion see Somekh et al ., 2002a;Lewin et al ., 2003). In addition, teachers and parents should be made aware of the potential benefits of ICT-based leisure pursuits such as accessing the internet at home and playing games.…”

Taking the sociological imagination to school: an analysis of the (lack of) impact of information and communication technologies on education systems

“…Although it is nowhere so stated, the National Curriculum is based on the assumption that all learning will take place in the school, or as directed by the school, and it is the responsibility of the school to ensure that students are given their 'entitlement' of teaching to enable them to progress from one level to the next. The school system is, therefore, unprepared for wide variations in students' prior learning of the kind now typical in terms of ICT skills as a result of frequent and sustained use of ICTs by many young people in the home (Lewin et al, 2003). As a result, teaching largely proceeds on the basis of covering the whole of the specified curriculum 'from scratch' with all students regardless of the skills they have already acquired.…”