Abstract:

The idea for this research has grown from our Anglo-Czech alliance that was established in 1994. Various major projects funded by the European Union, the British Council and other bodies have strengthened the understanding and friendship between English and Czech colleagues in the MirandaNet Fellowship (mirandanet.ac.uk). The two groups started with a different view about how edtech should be used in the classroom. As their trust grew the MirandaNet teams not only shared and grew their knowledge about edtech but also about how the different political systems have impacted on national policy and curricula. This paper covers the quantitative data we have collected for the book we are writing about this alliance.

In this presentation we will present the results of our research into the future conducted in MirandaNet context. Our aim is to tell the story of the impact of digital technologies on learning and life and about how our respondents see digital technologies having an impact on our future. We created a questionnaire that we distributed in the UK and the Czech Republic. About half of the participants are teachers, one quarter are students and the others are people who are not in the education system any more. Everyone answered the same questions, but from different perspectives because we wanted to compare the experience of technology in different generations – our participants range from 11 years old to 94.

The first section of questionnaire “Learning about digital technologies”, enquires about the participants’ education in the use of technology. Most of (80%) the respondents say they have not learnt enough at elementary and high school or at the university. Some had left education before technology had begun to have a profound impact on society but amongst the younger respondents a need was expressed for more and better education in the use of technologies and particularly in digital literacy and digital citizenship. Secondly, we asked about specific examples of the use digital technologies in their lives in order to compare generational differences. Most (95%) of our sample, even the older respondents, now use smart phones to access maps, cameras, alarm clock, photo albums, calculators, internet, e-mail and social networking. Thirdly, we ask what they see as the benefits and the dangers. In this context, for example, they worry about the security of their information. In fact, in order to ensure privacy 85% of our respondents were willing to pay for internet platforms and services. It seems free social networking is now seen as a benefit to the company rather than the user as people become wiser about data collection the use of algorithms.

In our detailed findings we have also explored the differences between participants from England and Czech Republic in which we analyses the contrasts between the two different political systems on the information technology syllabi. In the next quantitative stage, we will be interviewing some of the participants to explore the topics

Keywords:

Information technologies, education in IT, digital story, future of digital technologies.