Evaluating the effectiveness of ICT rollout in an Irish primary school: a case study of a primary school in the west of Ireland.

Information and communications technology is an integral part of our personal and working lives. The children of today were born as digital natives and technology pervades every aspect of their everyday lives. The ubiquity of ICT demands that all our citizens are prepared for full participation in this digital age. There has been huge investment in ICT by successive governments in terms of research and resources. There are countless bodies of research that extol the pivotal benefits of ICT in education. When properly harnessed it has the potential to enrich learning and enhance teaching invigorating classroom practice and enabling learners to progress in more personalised and self-directed ways. Yet for all this the education sector seems stubbornly resistant to fully embracing the opportunities that ICT has to offer. The focus needs to shift from technology provision to full integration into pedagogical practice in a transformational way. The evidence shows that teachers are not luddites or technophobes so why is this revolution not happening on the ground? The main aim of this study was to investigate the impact of sudden rollout of a state-of-the-art ICT infrastructure in a primary school in Ireland. Of primary interest is measurement of adoption rates among teachers and the quality of use in the classroom, benefits to student learning and engagement and any shift in teacher’s attitudes. If barriers exist, what are they and what can be done to alleviate them? The findings indicate that rapid rollout of technology leads to greater teacher immersion in ICT promoting a steeper learning curve and improved chances of success. The main barriers identified for teachers are lack of training, time constraints, teacher confidence and access to resources.