A Systematic Review of the Impact of ICT on Literature-Based Literacies

The broad background to this review is that there is a growing concern internationally that the investment in Information and Communication Technologies (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.

In this systematic in-depth review of the impact of ICT on literature-related literacies in English, 5-16, Locke and Andrews set out to determine – as far as they could, given the range of research available and the conceptual complexities of the field – the nature of the impact of what have become known as new technologies within a wider notion of the symbiosis between ICT and literacies.

The background anticipates that research studies of the impact of ICT on
literature-related literacies are thin on the ground. It sets out key definitions and
explores the conceptual issues in the present review, supplementing the generic
part of the report in this regard. It also summarises briefly the policy, practice and research background. The review uses systematic research review methodology developed by the EPPI-Centre, as described in the generic part of this report.