A systematic review and meta-Analysis of the effectiveness of ICT on literacy learning in English, 5-16

The English Review Group completed an overarching systematic review of the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on literacy learning in English in 2002 (Andrews et al., 2002). In this review, a ‘map’ described all the included research in the field. An in-depth sub-review reported on the impact of networked ICT on literacy learning (Andrews et al., 2002). This present review is one of a further four in-depth sub-reviews that address aspects of the overarching question – what is the impact of Information and Communication Technology on literacy learning in English? The broad background to the descriptive map and the in-depth sub reviews is that there is a growing concern internationally that the investment in ICT in schools is not impacting on literacy development. This concern arises from a belief held by many – including governments as well as schools – that ICT is beneficial to learning and specifically literacy learning. The question is a specific one and has to be seen within a wider political, social and technological context in which the symbiosis between new technologies and new literacies (and thus literacy learning) is acknowledged. The set of four in-depth sub-reviews follows an initial in-depth sub review on the impact of networked ICT on literacy learning (Andrews et al., 2002). This review is one of those four sub-reviews and addresses a question about the effectiveness of ICT on literacy learning.