There is a song at the beginning of the musical, West Side Story, where the character Tony sings that "something's coming, something good." The song is an anthem of optimism, brimming with promise. This paper is about the long-held promise of information and communication technology (ICT) to transform teaching and learning, to…

iPads have only been on the market since April 2010 but have rapidly gained great attention within educational communities. While their potential to support teaching and learning has been advocated by many, as yet little empirical research has been released on their application in primary and secondary classrooms. This paper reports on an action…

This paper provides some initial findings from a current longitudinal study that examines the implementation of a student-owned 1:1 laptop program in a school for boys in Perth, Western Australia. This research tracks 196 students, their families and associated teachers for a 3-year period (2010-2012). Underpinning this research is a mixed methods…

This paper explores two different schools' approaches to implementing an iPad program and a Netbook program to a year level of students. The aim of the study was to determine how these mobile devices were being used in the classroom and whether they enhanced teaching and learning. The experiences of students and parents were obtained through…

This study investigates primary school students' perceptions of interactive whiteboard technology and its influence on their learning during mathematics instruction. Using Bubble Dialogue templates, group interviews and lesson observations to gather data on student views and the classroom context, a theme-based description of student perceptions…

This paper reports on one part of the first year of a three-year study into the feasibility of using digital technologies to represent the output from practical assessment tasks in senior secondary courses. The aim was to improve the alignment of assessment with pedagogy and curriculum. Students in seven classes studying the "Applied Information…

Teacher education graduates need appropriate levels of confidence and capabilities in relation to technological knowledge (TK) as a basis for having technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) to meet the challenges of learning and teaching in the 21st century. However, it should not be assumed that tomorrow's teachers enter the profession…

This study investigated the use of information communication technologies (ICT) in the Early Years (R-3) in two diverse school settings. Students were surveyed to investigate their use of ICT at home and school. The findings presented, focus on student's self-assessed capabilities and attitudes using ICT and explore differences between the…

Students learning in regional, rural and remote locations in Queensland are currently experiencing a "turn-off" in relation to school-based ICT in the first three years of high school. At the same time, students are experiencing increasing levels of interest and motivation from their use of ICT at home. Given the importance of ICT as an enabling…

South Australian rural and remote schools have been using a variety of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to enhance curriculum opportunities for students whose teachers are at a different campus or different school, or who are out of the school for extended periods of time undertaking courses, such as, Vocational Education and…

When used in a pedagogically sound manner, interactive whiteboards (IWBs) are a valuable resource for connecting students with their learning. IWBs have been utilised in remote NSW schools for almost ten years, with other regional schools having only recently installed them. Exemplary teacher practice that demonstrated good pedagogy in the use of…

The study reported here investigated whether Year 6 boys were engaged through the use of an online journaling tool. This journaling tool allowed the students to self reflect on their behaviour and affective reaction in an online environment. Case study methodology was used with twelve boys from a regional primary school in Victoria, during the one…

Research has shown that girls do not participate as much as boys in Information Technology (IT) in the senior years of high school. Despite research in the 1990s which identified the under-representation of girls in IT, the same pattern still continues. In addition, the complex reasons for this gender divide, and how to counter it, remain unclear.…

The calls for the transformation of how science is taught (and what is taught) are numerous and show no sign of abating. Common amongst these calls is the need to shift from the traditional teaching and learning towards a model that represents the social constructivist epistemology. These calls have coincided with the Internet revolution. Through…

This article is an evaluation of the use of Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) as a teaching and learning medium from the perspectives of students in Years 5 and 7 at Firbank Grammar School, in Victoria. It replicates a study undertaken in the United Kingdom by Wall, Higgins and Smith (2005). Fifty-six Year 5 students and 82 Year 7 students at the…