INNOVATIVE POLICIES IN EDUCATION TO PROMOTE ICT CENTRES IN ANDALUSIA (SPAIN)

This paper contributes significant data to the report of the project "Observatics": the implementation of free software in ICT schools in Andalusia. Our main goal is to analyse its effects in the teaching-learning process. This project is backed and financed by the National Research Plan (R&D&I) 2004-2007 of Spain's Ministry of Education. Our research analyses the centres' Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plan, implemented by the Regional Autonomous Government of Andalusia, to focus on the progressive implementation of computers in Andalusian Primary and Secondary schools, so that pupils can use them daily and thus contribute to their own learning process. In general, we try to gauge the range of use of computers in schools, the models of computers use and the influence of factors associated to second-level obstacles, such as the teachers' professional situation. The most outstanding data are those which refer to the increasing use of computers and the training process in which teachers are involved. Other significant factors are the educational stage and teachers' professional characteristics (age, teaching experience, years in the school, job stability, etc.) as well as the presence of computers at home; all these have some influence on the use and curricular integration of ICTs. Mainly, the analysed effect of the measures used to integrate ICTs on the educational administration and the education centres. This integration is analysed not only at an institutional level, concerning the organization of the centres, but also referring to the permanent teacher's training actions and the implications and repercussions in the teaching-learning processes and the classroom and thus its repercussions in the teaching-learning processes. The intended objective of the mentioned study is to describe the most current impact of long-distance learning technologies in education, within the Andalusian autonomous region.