ICT for education is now a popular catch phrase. Schools use it to advertise the progressive nature and vendors of “educational” ICT tools also jump on the bandwagon to sell their products to schools. Some even promote themselves as consultants to schools to sell these ICT tools to schools. But ICT for education is not just about tools. It is also about how to use ICT tools in a very pedagogically sound manner. To be sure, ICT for education also includes its use for  the administration and monitoring of a school’s activities. However, here I will limit the discussion to the use of ICT for learning.The knowledge of the technical aspect of the ICT tool is important but for it to be used as an educational tool, great thought must be given to what learning is to take place with it and how that learning is to take place

Schools, therefore, have to be aware of this important element in using ICT for education, especially when they are dealing with vendors masquerading as consultants. Many of these vendors are only keen to sell their products to the school but cannot advise the schools on the quality use fo the tools for learning. Schools keen to use ICT can fall prey to such vendors because often schools themselves have little expertise in the use of ICT for learning.

Among the questions that schools need to ask vendors or consultants are:

a) how the tools are to be used;

b) the frequency of use, the learning goals that can be achieved with the tools;

c) the limitations of the tools;

d) the kind of training that is required for the teachers;and

e) the learning curve for mastery of the tool

Consultants claiming to have expertise in ICT use for education should also be quizzed on their understanding of learning as a process and not only as an ICT platform. Schools owe it to themselves to do these because usually not only are the ICT tools relatively expensive but all too often it is being pushed only for its promotional and novelty value and not due to some real educational objectives.