If you are managing the budget at your school, you might want to look at new research that suggests that schools should balance investment in IT with maintenance of the school library. Teenagers were found to be “less enthusiastic about learning which takes place entirely online,” in the provisional findings of a study by MMU’s Institute of Education, commissioned by the Government's technology agency Becta.

The teenagers in the study were "very positive" about using computers in class, but had a distinct preference for mixing online learning with traditional teaching and learning. The research also shows that introducing online assessment has made teachers' lives easier, allowing them to monitor pupils' progress easier, ensuring records are kept up to date and minimising student loss of work. 

In many schools, the tendency is to assume that IT-based learning is more attractive to the rising generation of extremely techno-literate teenagers. This study challenges that assumption, suggesting that the teenagers themselves prefer a balance of modern and traditional methodology.

The research, carried out by the Institute’s ICT, Pedagogy and Learning Research Group, www.esri.mmu.ac.uk/resgroups/ictped.php looked at how online learning is being used to support education in secondary schools. Lead researchers Cathy Lewin and Nicola Whitton did find that online learning has been useful in engaging those teenagers who have become disaffected by education, and is helping to re-engage those who are not succeeding in school or aren't learning by traditional teaching methods.