In 2006, the Western Australian Department of Education and Training (DETWA) published its study,  Teacher ICT Skills:  Evaluation of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Knowledge and Skill Levels of Western Australian Government School Teachers .

The purpose of the study was fourfold:
 
 
 
 
 
  • To provide a valid and reliable assessment of the level and nature of ICT knowledge and skills among WA government school teachers;    
  • To establish to what extent teachers are integrating their ICT knowledge and skills in classrooms;   
  • To identify factors seen by teachers’ as impacting on the development of ICT competence and its integration in teaching and learning; and   
  • To determine potential ICT support and development strategies to enhance effectiveness in the future  (DETWA, 2006 p. 5).
 
 
 
 
The study sought to discover how highly skilled teachers were in terms of basic ICT competencies as well as how well teachers integrated their ICT competencies into their everyday teaching and professional practice.  

 
 
 

 

One way of viewing teacher competencies is to define them as a set of personal skills that are required for best practice use of ICT in education.  Accordingly the DETWA study does separate the concept of acquired  technological skills  (competence) from a teacher's ability and willingness to integrate personal ICT skills in teaching and professional practice.   

Since the study does recommend that the 9% of teachers who operate at high levels on both scales be considered for leadership roles within schools, there is some merit in defining some of the attributes the highest functioning teachers were found to possess as being desireable teacher competencies.  

 ICT skills and knowledge


  • Word processing;  
  • Internet;
  • File navigation; 
  • Email;
  • Presentation packages; 
  • Spreadsheets;
  • Databases; 
  • and SIS Curriculum Manager (SIS). 

  

ICT for professional use


  • Contacting colleagues – via internet (and intranet).
  •  Creating materials for class – via printers, consumables, data projectors, etc . 
  • Curriculum administration – via SIS Curriculum Manager. 

Attitude and motivation


  • Enthusiasm about the application of ICT to classroom teaching – "this could be addressed by [access to] training on using ICT for teaching and learning." 
  • Enthusiasm about  "exploring technology & software – this could be addressed by ... access to online relevant ICT teaching aids."
  • Ongoing and weekly commitment to training on how to integrate ICT within their learning area and in ICT (especially online learning).  (p47)

Multimedia competencies

As of 2006, only 9% of state school teachers demonstrated high generic ICT skills coupled with an ability and willingness to integrate those skills into the full spectrum of professional practice.  Teacher competencies in Western Australia will be addressed, no doubt, but the present circumstance does not bode well for creative use of multimedia in secondary education since many more competencies, specific to the creation and skilled use of multimedia, are required.  Many applications are now available on the Web that take the place of more traditional tools that require a degree of training that would not be reasonable to expect of most teachers.  For example, blah blah give the following list of traditional tools assoicated with skilled creation of multimedia.  I have highlighted some web-based alternatives that require far less training to use, and can often be self taught:

  • Web Design (i.e. Dreamweaver, FrontPage) MS Word creates web pages and many web-based hosting options for web-pages exist that provide WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) page builders.  (This site is hosted on Yola, and this site was created on the Yola page builder using one of their free templates).
  • Graphic Editing (i.e. Photoshop, Fireworks)
  • Learning Management Systems (i.e. WebCT, Blackboard, Moodle)
  • Asynchronous Communication (i.e. Discussion Boards)
  • Demonstration (Captivate, Wink)
  • Animation (i.e. Flash) Flash is a difficult program to master, but the banner on this web page was built on Bannersnack.  Other online flash builders exist.
  • Synchronous Communication (i.e. Breeze/Connect, LiveMeeting, Skype) 

  • Video Editing (i.e. FinalCut, iMovie, Adobe Premiere)
  • Survey (i.e. SurveyMonkey, SurveyGold)
  • Collaboration (i.e. Wikis, Google Docs)
  • Audio Editing (i.e. GarageBand, Audacity)
  • Desktop Publishing (i.e. Publisher)
  • Authoring (Authorware)
  • Virtual Environments (i.e. SecondLife)