During the last decade, Information and Communication Technologies have become available in many families and in many learning environments. It is increasingly important to be able to handle these technologies and to use them wisely. In fact, digital literacy or digital competence has been named as one of the key competences for lifelong learning (World Bank, 2003; European Council, 2006).

In many countries, large amounts of money have been invested to implement digital technologies in schools and other educational institutions. Some countries, like Portugal, even have distributed laptops to a large section of their students hoping that there will be returns to their investments in the form of better educational results and higher degrees of employability.

In the first part of this symposium, contributions will reflect on the development of ICT use in and out of school in European countries. Philippe Gabriel from the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Recherche Didactique , Éducacion et Formatcion at Université Montepellier will present an overview of the use of digital technologies in the educational system in France with particular consideration of its contribution to innovation in education.

Birgit Eickelmann and her colleagues from the Institute of Educational Science at Paderborn University in Germany will present results on the use of computers in primary school. Their paper is based on recent data obtained in more than 20 European countries in the context of the Trends in International Mathematical and Science Study (TIMMS).

Karl Steffens from the Institute of Didactics and Educational Research at Cologne University is looking at the relationship between ICT use in and out of school and PISA achievements. Evidently, there is no linear relationship. While up to a certain point, PISA achievements increase with increased ICT use, after that point, PISA achievements go down as ICT use further increases. It is therefore of interest why this is the case.

Finally, Sedef Canbzoglu Bilici and his colleagues from the College of Education at Aksaray University in Turkey have explored what kind of barriers to the use of technology are perceived by pre-service teachers. They also report on the results of a training program which was to help these students overcome these barriers.