Success Factors

	Children, on-line learning and authentic teaching skills in primary education
	Success Factors

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Primary success Factors

Success factors are those things that, if they were in place, would ensure the success of the enterprise or endeavour. There are two notion of critical success factors:

the list individual of factors that are necessary for success
the group of factors that together are sufficient to ensure success

At this stage of the research we have not yet reached any conclusions regarding the nature of the following list of success factors, however they have been identified as being important for success in incorporating ICT into class programs. It is hoped that subsequent investigations will elaborate this issue.

Key success factors

The (provisional) list of success factors identified to date (20/8/03) include in apparent order of importance

1. Shared purposes and rationales for the application of ICT within the class or school - what is to be achieved and what will be supported. In the case of isolated successful teachers using ICT the support may come from outside of the school. Thus there are cultural aspects in play. For a teacher these are underpinned by 'membership' of a professional learning network (a community of practice). This network may be the school staff and/or a loosely managed personal/professional group. With the support and encouragement of others these purposes are then translated into explicit, agreed and supported intentions and practices - what & how - of ICT within teaching & learning.

[Note: The purposes and processes to be shared across the school will require explicit governance and a culture of collaboration (in relation to ICT)]

2. Matching technology available for use in a timely manner - the technology is available and the teacher can rely on being able to use the technology within the teaching and learning window of opportunity concerned. See more on reliability.

3. Working knowledge - the teachers and students have sufficient knowledge and experience to be able to

select and operate the technology for the intended purposes
promptly troubleshoot the situations that arise thus maintaining the window of opportunity
recognize the limitations of the technology
and to successfully adapt the technology to the purposes of the users

4. Cost effectiveness - the value gained in terms of knowledge, experiences and products is worth the time, effort, cost of devices and consumables ... involved in the using ICT in teaching and learning activities. Cost effectiveness is enhanced by such things as...

the ease of use of the software
the ease with which most students learned how to use the software
the success of peer tutoring (users supporting each other) in its use
most students being able to use the software without being distracted by the challenges of using it, i.e., students stay focused on what they were learning about (rather than having to move their thinking to thinking about how they managing the technology)

The effectiveness is not only in terms of using the technology - there can be significant flow-on effects. Not being distracted by the technology is also likely to enhance

time-on-task
the quality, depth and breadth of student dialogue while using the technology
value from the products and the experience after they have used the technology

Secondary Success Factors

In addition to the four primary success factors that manifest themselves within classrooms there are four secondary success factors that impact on the classroom from outside

5. (School) governance

6. Reliability

7. Professional Learning and

8 Collaboration

For more on the interaction of these success factors see tentative theory

Teacher survey data

From a brief overview of the comments by teachers on the CCCI survey it would appear that, in relation to the above list

Teachers perceive reliability and working knowledge as being necessary
Then by first adding shared purposes and then cost effectiveness

the above list into a set of sufficient conditions.

However there is a caveat:

'Shared purposes' is really the most important condition overall with purpose being the most important aspect of shared purpose, that is, "there must be a good reason to use ICT".

The good reason is what ultimately drives teachers as they are generally child focused and tend to think in terms of learning outcomes for their students. Yet this is the very aspect that so often eludes them (i.e. the good reasons are poorly articulated or demonstrated). Some teachers are still bewildered by what ICT can do and simply demonstrating what can be done with ICT often adds to the bewilderment.

However, whether or not the reason is sufficient to pursue a purpose is relative, that is, it is dependent on cost effectiveness. That is, the purpose must be very good if the cost is high. And the cost is lowered by improving reliability and working knowledge.