School IT 'failing to keep pace'

January 14 2011

Students are learning more and using technology more frequently at home than they do at school, it has been claimed.

Research carried out by Microsoft revealed that 82 per cent of 16 to 18-year-olds use the social networking site Facebook every day to communicate with friends, the BBC reports.

Speaking at the BETT Show for educational technology in London, Microsoft director of education Steve Beswick said this level of engagement with IT is not being matched in the classroom.

"Rather than pushing back something like Facebook, it's a matter of finding out how it can work for learning," he commented.

Although technology is not the answer to everything, it is a useful tool and can be used to make some subjects more interesting for pupils, Mr Beswick explained.

Speaking last week, Steve Bonnick of Toucan Computing said children often own expensive devices such as smartphones and tablet computers which could be put to good use in the classroom.

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