Changes in Instructional Practices in Technology-enriched Classrooms and Student Views on Learning

The study describes changes occurring in instructional practices of teachers in technology-enriched classrooms and their relationships to students’ and teachers’ views concerning the meaning and role of information and communication technologies (ICT), and to students' views on learning in a technology-rich environment. The study was performed in the context of a 3-year longitudinal project in which 6 teachers and 164 of their students, in grades 4 to 6, used ICT in a technology-rich learning environment, concentrating on curricular issues by using information-rich tasks. Using open-ended questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations, the results demonstrate the complexity of the relationships among the instructional practices implemented in the classrooms and students’ and teachers’ views on technology and on learning via ICT. Although student views were generally aligned with the instructional practices used in their classrooms, both similarities and differences were revealed between teachers’ and students’ views on the meaning of ICT use for learning. The results show that students and teachers can develop constructivist meanings regarding the use of ICT in the classroom, viewing ICT not only as a teaching tool but also as an intellectual partner. Students can also develop constructivist meaning of learning as an enjoyable cognitive and social exploratory process of knowledge restructuring.