ABSTRACT
A few years ago, in the midst of the UK government’s concerted push to encourage the use of electronic smart boards in schools, I accompanied a group of Masters students (mainly international scholars from China, Taiwan, Ghana and Uganda) on a visit to a local primary school. We braved a torrential British rainstorm to observe the real-life application of the digital technologies that the group had been studying during the previous semester’s module on ‘E-learning in the twenty-first century’. For our visit I had taken care to contact a school that was known locally for its enthusiasm for educational technology, and upon our arrival I was relieved to see that the school was laden with technological ‘kit’. Data projectors and interactive whiteboards (the preferred term in Britain for the electronic smart board) assumed prominent positions in all of the classrooms. Desktop and laptop computers could also be found in every classroom, as well as in two large rooms that had been converted into dedicated computer suites. A number of handheld devices were also located throughout the school. In contrast to all these high-tech accessories, the school was itself housed in an austere and imposing Victorian-era building with high ceilings, huge windows and endless tiled corridors. The main classrooms had tall sloping ceilings that followed the contours of the steeply pitched roof. The overall impression was of a typical late nineteenth-century school building which was now home to some decidedly twentyfirst-century schooling. In short, the school appeared to provide an excellent example of UK primary education for my Masters students to experience.
