http://www.schoolevolutionarystages.net –

A fantastic  short paper on recent research in the UK and US that explores the phenomenon of primary schools evolving in general technology terms at a different and faster rate than secondary schools.

” Primary, or what others know as elementary or preparatory, schools operating  on a digital base are on trend to evolve faster then secondary/high schools, and  to adopt an ever higher order mode of teaching, with all the concomitant  implications.  The pathfinder primary schools are that step ahead in their  evolution of their secondary counterparts and are on course to remain  so.

While the difference is not great between the pathfinders, as  previously indicated those as yet rare early adopter high schools are where they are today because that have been on their evolutionary for the past 15-20 years.

While the high schools are as indicated (Lee, 2014) encumbered with a sizeable number of challenges most primary schools not only are better
positioned to undertake the evolutionary journey but also on present indications are likely to encounter fewer obstacles on their journey. The general trend, at least for the foreseeable future is for the difference to grow.

A consequence that we are already seeing with the pathfinder primary schools globally is that their graduates are moving, and will  increasingly be moving from a higher order digitally based mode of teaching,  where the children naturally use their own digital kit to a lower order mode of
teaching in the high school teaching where the use of the student’s technology is often still banned.

Not surprisingly the students and their parents are frustrated and invariably they are looking for those high schools where the disconnection is least. It is a development that has very real student enrolment implications for the high schools. However on present indications it is a development that most high schools could struggle to redress in the near future.”