Measurement of the Impact of ICT on Children's Education

MIICE stands for Measurement of the Impact of ICT on Children's Education.

It is a partnership of Scottish EAs and teacher education institutes, led by the University of Edinburgh (Moray House School of Education) and dedicated to discussion and action research to enhance learning and teaching through appropriate use of ICT. The partnership had its first meeting in May 2000.

MIICE's main purpose is to put into words what most recognise is good quality in learning and teaching incorporating the use of ICT. It is concerned with those qualities which cannot readily be assessed in conventional ways. MIICE wants to contribute to the debate about the ends of more widespread use of ICT for learning and teaching. Use of ICT makes real demands - in money and time - on education authorities, schools, teachers and children. It needs to be clearer what the benefits are that can be anticipated.

The MIICE project grew out of observation of a set of case studies of evidently good practice in the use of ICT to promote learning and teaching across Scotland (primary, secondary and special schools). The 16 case studies can be seen at http://sitc.education.ed.ac.uk/Case_Studies/index.htm

The MIICE partnership has developed a range of instruments to help with this focus on quality of learning and teaching when using ICT. Prime among these has been the MIICE quality framework or toolbox, which is a cornerstone of the activities of the partnership as a whole and of individuals using MIICE.

The MIICE toolbox, developed in 2001, articulates the criteria by which one can measure progress in the quality of learning and teaching in general. An alternative approach to the framework was published in May 2009. Both the toolbox of 2001 and 2009 have the following structure:

• Outcomes - these are the broad areas of impact of ICT use; there are 13 altogether, in 3 broad groups ((1) Learner reflection; (2) Skills development; (3) Managing and manipulating digital information; (4) Shared planning/Organisation; (5) Investigatory learning; (6) Shared learning; (7) Motivation; (8) Enhancing learning outcomes; (9) Quality of outcomes; (10) Self – esteem / confidence; (11) Teacher use of computers as productivity tools; (12) Teacher facilitating the learning of ICT principles and good habits; (13) Teacher use of ICT as a rich and effective means of learning.)

• Components - these are aspects of these broader areas; there are from 2 to 4 components in each outcome and 41 altogether (4 of which appear in 2 outcomes)

• Measures - these are the detailed activities about which questions might be asked when assessing achievement; there are from 1 to 6 measures within each component The structure broadly mirrors that in “How good is our school?” (quality indicator, theme, illustration) but the MIICE framework is a more finely grained analysis.

The toolbox is available in various formats (full version, basic, summary…) to permit selection and adaptation for personal professional purposes.

The MIICE website is at http://www.miice.org.uk/

Status

The MIICE quality framework or toolbox has been used since the start by a wide range of individual professionals, schools, education authorities, universities and other agencies to help them to articulate 'progress' when learning is being planned or reviewed which incorporates the use of ICT.

A small selection of the ways in which a number of individuals and agencies have found MIICE useful can be found at the MIICE website. (There is evidence an examples on the website that this scheme was used at least until 2010.)