Computer technology plays an important role in our everyday lives and it has now been introduced into the mainstream education system with the core objectives of enhancing classroom teaching and improving the pupil learning experience. In Northern Ireland a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) infrastructure, called LearningNI, is currently in place. However, government reports and school statistics suggest that this VLE's usage across the primary school sector is rather disappointing. In an effort to determine the factors impeding its success in the primary school sector and to redress the limited usage, this research focuses on how technology can be deployed in a positive way with regard to teaching, learning and assessment. Computer assisted approaches to developing and supporting children's education together with the importance of classroom assessment for learning, leads to consideration of the potential of a number of current learning support technologies. Educationally related technologies such as VLEs, serious games and virtual worlds are investigated with regard to how they can play a potential role in facilitating teaching and assessment as well as providing an enjoyable pupil learning experience. This thesis proposes a content neutral game-based approach, with educational design principles incorporating behaviourism theory and complementing a cognitive theory, to enhance a typical VLE for primary school assessment for learning. This hybrid game-based approach is demonstrated via a prototype system, called AmbiLearn. AmbiLearn consists of a VLE platform, developed with a content creation capability, a game module and a reporting module. This game-based approach which is generic in nature, content neutral and learning theme independent, aims to complement classroom teaching and support class reporting with an emphasis on assessment for learning. Evaluation of AmbiLearn is conducted via a field study with teachers and pupils from the local primary school sector. Results from this study are reported as promising with regard to system interaction and usage, the motivating impact of the game dynamic and the enhancement of assessment for learning. Future work considers the enhancement of AmbiLearn to act as a platform for further investigation into the role a game based learning environment can play in assessment for learning at primary school level

This thesis adopts a cultural psychological perspective on children's use of computers at home and, as a contrast, in the classroom. It utilises various methodologies to investigate the actual uses that children make of computers in these settings and also focuses on how computing practices are situated within the local ecology, or context. Seventy-six 7-, 9- and 11-year-old pupils from five socially and ethnically diverse primary schools were interviewed in their schools. In addition, thirty-three families with children of comparable ages, from the same five schools, participated in a detailed study of the ecology of home computing. Findings suggest that, although parents had high educational aspirations for the ways in which their children would use a new computer, these aspirations were not met in reality. Entertainment games predominated and educational software was used comparatively little. This thesis explores why this was the case and finds that it was the differing ecologies of the home and the classroom that mediated the different uses that were found in either setting.

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This thesis describes a training scheme to raise awareness of group skills. Drawing on existing research and observations of classroom practice, this scheme requires children to consider group skills before, during and after the group activity. The approach is unique as the task of raising awareness of group skills was designed to influence, and be influenced by, the group task; and feedback on group skill usage is generated from individual self-assessments made during and after the activity. Studies using the scheme with 9 and 10 year olds working in face-to-face groups found the medium (paper or software) and the environment (a classroom or laboratory-style setting) influenced the self-assessments. Despite this, using the scheme did not result in the transfer of group skills to other activities. A relationship was found, however, between the consistency of the self-assessments recorded during and after the activity and the child’s ability at group work. The training scheme positively influenced the task performance. If a software implementation of the scheme was used concurrently with computer tasks, there was a trend towards improved recall in the material studied. If used with an activity that also incorporated communication, reflection and responsibility, a significant improvement in performance was achieved.

This is the first study in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) integration into Early Childhood Education (ECE) to call upon a blended theoretical framework of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, Fullan’s concepts of educational change and complexity theory. In drawing the collected data together within the framework of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, a range of linear factors that influence practitioners’ use of ICT in the playroom at the micro-level (teachers’ pedagogical beliefs, confidence, technological pedagogical knowledge); meso-level (local school policy, leadership, support) and macro-level (national ECE curriculum and national ICT policy) were identified. Currently, structured research into ICT integration in ECE is extremely limited in Saudi Arabia. This thesis addresses this substantial knowledge gap in the practice of ICT integration in Saudi Arabian ECE settings through a collective case study approach of Saudi Arabian programs. According to the literature, Scotland, for some time, has been at the forefront of developing strategies for the integration of ICT into early years. Policy in Scotland has also been supported by a range of literature, studies and reference to ICT use in the curriculum; that have assisted practitioners in making important pedagogical decisions for using ICT in the playroom. For these reasons, Scotland is included in this research as an example that can provide some insights for improvement in the Saudi Arabian context. Six case studies were used to address the study’s research questions: four in Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia and two in Scotland (located between Glasgow City Council and East Dunbartonshire). As part of the research’s endorsement of a holistic approach, the researcher triangulated multiple research methods (questionnaire, semi-structured interview, playroom observation and documentary analysis) to investigate the status of ICT use in preschool settings and factors that influenced teachers’ ICT practices. The target community was made up of practitioners in ECE settings, including head teachers and practitioners from both private and public preschools. Research findings suggest that practitioners in both locations hold a positive perspective of the importance of ICT integration into ECE. However, enthusiasm and positive attitudes do not always lead to high levels of ICT integration. In Saudi Arabia in particular, much of the integration is achieved in an informational, teacher-centred/traditionalist manner, rather than encouraging child-centred, constructivist approaches. The results revealed that teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and their relationship to teaching practices strongly influenced integration practices. Furthermore, school characteristics were equally, if not more, influential upon integration levels. In general, in the Saudi ECE sector, the journey to ICT integration is at an initial, unstructured stage and observed attempts at integration are largely the result of practitioners’ individual efforts. Investigating ICT integration into teaching and learning in the Scottish preschool case studies provides examples of child-centred learning through ICT that suggest ways of integrating ICT fruitfully into the micro-level of the playroom. The Saudi context can benefit from examining these constructivist practices. Scotland is more advanced in ICT integration than Saudi Arabia because it has a policy for ICT integration into ECE; though, in both sectors there exist similar factors that influence practitioners’ approaches to integration at both the micro- and meso-levels (practitioner confidence, ICT-based activity management skills). Practitioners in both contexts hope for the comprehensive improvement of ICT integration, and there is a clear desire for an explicit educational policy for ICT in preschool education and for continuous teacher training. Overall, this research provides the first detailed picture of Saudi preschool teachers’ ICT practices, perspectives and attitudes toward technology use in ECE and will have the capacity to inform present and future national ECE policy. Furthermore,findings from both case studies provide international stakeholders and practitioners with a series of guidelines for effective ICT integration.

Computers are excellent tools and assistants in foundation-phase classrooms. Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) influences the way teachers teach, as well as the way learners learn with regard to the curriculum. The responsibility for providing foundation phase-learners with educationally appropriate computer experiences in literacy, numeracy and life skills rests with the educators because the learners' progress in learning depends on the skills, attitudes and ingenuity of the educators, and the software they select for the learners. Educators should have the vision, the knowledge and the experience to introduce and apply CAI to benefit every learner in the didactic situation. Educators' general lack of knowledge and skills in this area has necessitated the compilation of didactic guidelines. The guidelines emerged from the literature that was consulted for this study. These guidelines should assist educators in providing successful CAI for learners. / Educational Studies / M.Ed.

Computers are excellent tools and assistants in foundation-phase classrooms. Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) influences the way teachers teach, as well as the way learners learn with regard to the curriculum. The responsibility for providing foundation phase-learners with educationally appropriate computer experiences in literacy, numeracy and life skills rests with the educators because the learners' progress in learning depends on the skills, attitudes and ingenuity of the educators, and the software they select for the learners. Educators should have the vision, the knowledge and the experience to introduce and apply CAI to benefit every learner in the didactic situation. Educators' general lack of knowledge and skills in this area has necessitated the compilation of didactic guidelines. The guidelines emerged from the literature that was consulted for this study. These guidelines should assist educators in providing successful CAI for learners. / Educational Studies / M.Ed.