Background

An overarching purpose of education is to produce responsible, thoughtful and enterprising citizens in a society. This implies that quality education must factor in a society’s history, culture, moral and political values, and outlook, at the same time preserving space for individual creativity, self-reflection and enhance individual agency to make decisions and accept responsibility. Thus the goals of education should blend these seemingly diverse goals of inculcating secular values, building moral character, psychological development and creative capacity leading to self-fulfillment, as well as equipping individuals with skills and capabilities enabling them to contribute to society and fulfill their material needs.

The explosive growth and penetration of digital technologies in recent years has greatly influenced education and educational practices. The Government of India (GOI), like many governments around the world, and the private and non-profit sectors combined, spend abundant resources on information and communications technologies (ICT) aimed at enhancing access and at improving educational quality in India. As governments increase their investments in ICTs for education, continued efforts must be made to ensure that investments in technology positively impact all aspects of education, including intangible aspects such as character development, inculcating values, psychological and cognitive developments, social skills and development of creative faculty.

While academic studies around the world seem to indicate that technology does positively influence teaching and learning, further evaluations need to be done to determine if and how technology has achieved this in the Indian primary schools context. The lack of established systematic research studies in India that conclusively demonstrate the effectiveness of technology on teaching and learning make it difficult to determine the necessary conditions required to make the case for further investments in educational technologies. The symposium on Education & Technology in Schools seeks to answer such basic questions about learning and technology and move closer to more definitive answers about when and how technology improves the quality of learning.