ABSTRACT
From 1992 NCET has been involved in managing and evaluating a number of government initiatives including the evaluation of the use of CD-ROMs in schools and teacher professional development. (In 1998 the NCET became the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, BECTA, in order to develop the National Grid for Learning.) In the early 1990s almost all secondary schools had at least one computer with a CDROM drive and at least 60 per cent of primary schools had a multimedia workstation as did all initial teacher education institutions. Accessing multimedia CD-ROMs enables pupils to find information and thereby develop a range of information-handling skills. Indeed being able to handle
information is a key part of IT capabilities as defined by the National Curriculum.
