Abstract

This paper reports on a study that captures the reflective voice of students and describes their use of ICT in school learning. The focus of this paper is centered on the ways in which the student learner thinks about the use of ICT within the school curriculum. This qualitative investigation includes the use of classroom observation data and student interviews using video-stimulated recall techniques. These data provide evidence about the specific impact of ICT on the students’ thinking and learning processes. The student perspectives describe school learning opportunities in which they participate and they identify the aspects of teacher practice that they consider to enrich their learning. Direct investigations of student opinions are generally missing from the ICT and learning literature. Student evidence in this investigation indicated that they felt that there was a dominance of low-level applications in their school use of ICT. It is apparent that advancements in software applications have not necessarily transferred into school learning experiences to encourage the adoption of higher-cognitive thinking strategies in meaningful learning situations. The conclusion to this paper captures the relationship between the thinking and learning strategies described by students in relation to the literature that has emerged over recent years.