Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) were introduced into educational institutions more than twenty years ago. Meanwhile, computer hardware and software has become much more sophisticated and an immeasurable amount of information can now be accessed through the Internet. Almost every educational institution in Europe has at least one computer pool with access to the World Wide Web, and Web 2.0 technologies have made it possible for students to easily connect with each other and establish communities of learners.

However, in Europe ICT use in schools is not as high as ICT use at home and as recent PISA results show, the frequency of ICT use in European schools is still rather low. Unfortunately, we still do not have a clear answer why this is the case. As Kirkwood & Price (2005) have shown in a large-scale study, attitudes of students towards ICT use are of critical importance for actual ICT use. Students are more likely to use ICT if they consider digital devices to be supportive in achieving their learning goals.

We assume that attitude towards ICT use is also decisive for ICT use by teachers. This assumption is given some support by Philippe Gabriel’s contribution who explored the attitudes of 30 pre-service mathematics teachers at the University of Avignon. The attitudes

of pre-service teachers were also investigated by Fernando Fraga-Varela and Adriana Gewerc from the University of Santiago de Compostela. The authors conducted an in-depth analysis of their teacher students’ attitudes and beliefs and showed that these were acquired at a relatively early stage of their school careers. Finally, Colin Harrison and his colleagues report on a study on the use of online teacher professional development to support teachers in their use of ICT. They evaluated a web site that offers resources on cognition and spelling development which are aimed at helping teachers of English improve their students’ spelling.

Kirkwood, A. & Price, L. (2005). Learners and learning in the twenty-first century: what do we know about students’ attitudes towards and experiences of information and communication technologies that will help us design courses? Studies in Higher Education, 30, 257-274.