The Malaysian Government has been progressive in wanting to introduce a greater use of computers in the classroom. In Unit 1 you would have read the National ICT Strategy Road Map and noted that ICT in education was given prominence. Since the launch of the campaign the country has invested resources in building Smart Schools, equipping computers in schools, providing computers to teachers and more lately to a wider segment of the nation's population as well as training or re-training teachers to a certain extent. In a number of studies undertaken by staff in our universities of computer usage in Malaysian classrooms the picture that is emerging shows among other things:

1. That computer use in classrooms has been increasing from low to moderate over the last decade. The arrival of the Smart Schools initiative certainly seemed to have brought home the value of computers in classroom beyond the Smart Schools themselves.
2. There is clearly an urban-rural divide in both comfort levels and frequency of computer use.
3. Teachers, age, gender, attitude, confidence, familiarity, prior experience with computers all seem to determine the usage patterns in classrooms.
4. Actual usage of computers in schools is also influenced by the attitudes as well as support from both the state as well as school level administrators. Interest in and support for greater application of technology especially in teaching by administrators goes a long way in cultivating and spreading the use of computers.
5. Inadequate supply of computers in classrooms clearly is a deterrent.
6. Broadband availability and easy Internet connectivity will see greater levels of activity than presently noticed.
7. Teachers are sometimes unable to make full use of technology because they lack the time needed to fully prepare and research materials for lessons.
8. Rigid exam oriented curriculum and centrally designed and controlled curriculum do not permit experimentation, exploration and innovation at the classroom level. Both teachers and students are pressured by time, so exploring ideas like individualised learning is not possible.
9. There is a need to increase awareness to the value of computers in classrooms but there should also be ways of managing the use of computers in schools. One of the studies indicated that computer use in classroom can be as low as 29 hours a month and a considerable amount of that time was spent on personal rather than professional use.

There is a perceived gap between policy design, planning, resource allocation, local management and actual implementation. All of these have contributed in one way or another to a much slower uptake of computer usage in Malaysian classrooms than was aspired in our 2020 vision.