Real time: computers, change and schooling. A benchmark study of the information technology skills of Australian school students

摘要

This paper reports on the findings of Real Time: Computers, change and schooling, a national sample study of the IT skills of Australian school students published in late 1999 by the Australian Commonwealth Department of Education, Youth and Training. It provides baseline information on the IT skills of students at the end of primary and compulsory secondary schooling in Australia. Data is also provided on the IT skills of Australian teachers, on uses of IT across the curriculum and on the computer resources available with schools, differentiated by sector, region and SES indicators. Significant equity and access issues are raised by evidence of disparities between the resources available to both students and teachers, both in the schools and at home. Although data on student-computer ratios is too crude to be a reliable basis for policy measures such as the setting of national IT skills benchmarks, it nevertheless indicates the growing gap between the information rich and the information poor in Australian schools.