A Study of Uses of ICT in Primary Education through Four Winning School Cases in the Taiwan Schools Cyberfair

The purpose of this study was to understand, describe and interpret the uses of information communication technology (ICT) in primary education in the Taiwan Schools Cyberfair as a means to expand and enhance student learning in an extra-curricular setting. Four winning schools, with 48 teachers and students involved, were purposefully selected for study. The research findings revealed that students in each group were highly motivated through the extensive use of ICT. Through long-term engagement with ICT, students were empowered to conduct both wider and deeper exploration of their selected topics of interest. We report and describe the effects of using ICT. In this study, three collaborative learning models for applying ICT in projectbased learning (PBL) mode are identified in the specific contexts: the SCGP model (same class, grade, and project); the DCGSP model (different class and grade, same project) and the DCGP model (different class, grade, and project). In addition, we identify a new and important collaborative model, SPECS, which stands for school (intra), parents, enterprises, community, and school (inter). The SPECS model connects all the possible participants involved in the ICT-enabled activities that contributed to the success of the outstanding performances of the four winning schools at the Schools Cyberfair contest. In the conclusion we discuss some specific issues relating to PBL.