This Guide for Teachers and Managers provides managers and teachers in schools with advice on the implementation of Information and Communications Technology:

5-14 National Guidelines (Learning and Teaching Scotland, 2000). An important feature of implementation is the development of a management strategy to establish the necessary context of ICT capability on the part of schools. Schools and local authorities are building on their own planned approaches and policies for ICT development and implementation, including the vital area of staff development. This guide is an aid in taking these issues forward and provides assistance in a different degree to a range of audiences, at whatever point has been reached in ICT implementation within the emerging national framework.

Information and Communications Technology: 5-14 National Guidelines should be taken into account alongside this guide and along with existing local authority or school policies in ICT and other national documents, particularly The Use of ICT in Learning and Teaching (a report by HM Inspectors of Schools: Scottish Executive Education Department, 2000). The HMI report states:

The pace of technological change is so great that the equipment and strategies for making the most of ICT for teaching, learning and managing require almost constant review. These factors increase the task of using ICT for the benefit of the education process and of introducing young people to the skills and concepts that underpin ICT as an ever more important aspect of our modern society.

National guidelines for ICT 5-14 are concerned largely with teaching and learning, and this guide considers some issues and opportunities arising for teachers at the 5-14 stages. The guide also stresses the importance of effective management in facilitating development at authority, school and classroom level.

The significance of effective planning cannot be overstated. The central importance of building ICT into school development planning and strategic management thinking is inescapable. While hardware and software implications and acquisitions are clearly a vital consideration in any longer-term strategy, it is more important that schools gain an early and thorough understanding of where they stand in relation to ICT and confirm where they want to go in using ICT.

Thinking through the steps and developing an action plan that meets individual school and local authority needs will pay dividends in terms of shared working, resource-provision strategies and the growing confidence and commitment of all involved in the rapidly changing scene of ICT development.

The pace of change in ICT has an unsettling effect on some teaching staff, who are already dealing with change in many aspects of their work. However, it is important to acknowledge that ICT strategies and approaches will now always require review as new and emerging technologies - such as refined speech-recognition facilities - develop. One aspect that has emerged nationally has been the importance and benefits of shared development across authorities and between schools. Mutual support has proved most effective where collaborative working to specific learning and teaching and/or management purposes has been defined. This includes joint projects that involve more remote schools or cluster groups working to coordinate pupil experience.

The national guidelines for ICT 5-14 clearly indicate that the main approach to ICT development should lie in working towards a permeation strategy where technology is used to support all aspects of learning and teaching and educational management. The focus for schools should be geared towards the:

However, some curriculum time will be required and it is important to plan for this. It is also vital to engage in a staff development approach that equips staff to deal competently with the hardware and confidently with the application of ICT in teaching and learning.

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