Abstract:

The potential of information technology (IT) has been recognized by many (Cradler & Bridforth, 1996; Grégoire et al., 1996; Ouellet et al., 2000). Yet, even if research has shown the positive impact of IT integration on student learning, most people would agree that simply having IT in the classroom doesn’t guarantee its effective use. Surveying more than 20 years of research in the area, ARC – Association pour la recherche au collégial – has been attempting to answer the crucial question of IT impacts on learning at the collegial level, a network of pre-university and technical post-secondary schools. To answer this question, ARC undertook the meta-analysis of results from various experiments (32 in all) in the field of IT application at the collegial level. The product of this meta-synthesis was an initial heuristic model that integrated factors that had positive impacts on student achievement. The second part of the study called for professional experts to share, on the basis of their personal experiences, regarding the determiners and conditions of successful IT integration at that level. This second part of the study revealed new insights that allowed refining the initial model even more. Our personal contribution added to the model by shedding light on the human factor as an important one for successful IT use in the classroom and for positive impacts on student learning. Our contribution emerged from two studies we conducted on IT use in the ESL classroom at the collegial level. The first study took place in the context of IT implantation (Gazaille, 2001) while the second one studied the impact of IT on students’ and teachers’ perceptions and roles (Gazaille, Lavine,.& Fiala, 2006).

Our presentation objectives are to 1) situate the human factor within the wider heuristic model; and 2) to present the human factor of this model or, in other words, to present our conceptualisation of how student and teacher characteristics interact as determiners for a successful IT integration that leads to student learning.

Keywords:

innovation, technology, research projects, collegial, student, teacher, motivation.