Improving Classroom Learning with ICT

Rosamund Sutherland,Susan Robertson,Peter John

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781134043644
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Pedagogía
• Categoria: Educación general

Improving Classroom Learning with ICT examines the ways in which ICT can be used in the classroom to enhance teaching and learning in different settings and across different subjects.

Weaving together evidence of teachers' and learners' experiences of ICT, the authors:

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• explain why the process of integrating ICT is not straightforward;

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• discuss whether hardware and infrastructure alone are sufficient to ensure full integration and exploitation of ICT investment;

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• emphasise the pivotal role that teachers play in supporting learning with ICT across the curriculum;

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• argue that teachers need a greater understanding of how to put ICT to use in teaching and learning;

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• highlight that out-of-school use of ICT has an impact on in-school learning;

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• consider what kinds of professional development are most effective in supporting teachers to use technologies creatively and productively.

Case studies are used to illustrate key issues and to elaborate a range of theoretical ideas that can be used in the classroom.

This book will be of interest to all those concerned with maximising the benefits of ICT in the classroom.

Part 1
What are the issues?

Within the first part we set the scene for the whole book, identifying the challenges, issues and questions which it addresses. We start by presenting statistics on the penetration of new technologies into schools and discuss why overcoming the technical obstacles is necessary but not sufficient. We introduce the InterActive Education project which took up the challenge of expanding teachers’ practice and empowering them in their uses of ICT for teaching and learning. We explain why we believe that to change practice and achieve a long-term shift in conceptions of how ICT can enhance teaching and learning, the traditional relationship between teachers and researchers has to be changed. We present an overview of the theoretical ideas that underpin the book as a whole and begin the process of illustrating these ideas with case studies of teachers learning to use ICT.

Chapter 1*
A holistic approach to understanding teaching and learning with ICT

Computer-based technologies can be powerful pedagogical tools – not just rich sources of information, but extensions of human capabilities and contexts for social interactions.

(Bransford et al. 2000, p. 218)

What is the issue?

The keynote quotation for this chapter presents a vision for the use of ICTs in teaching and learning that we share. It is ten years since Bransford and his colleagues articulated this idea of digital technologies as ‘powerful pedagogical tools’. How near are we today to releasing the potential of new technologies to enhance teaching and learning in different settings and across different subjects?

Statistics show that between 2000 and 2006 large and ongoing government investment in technology resulted in a steady improvement in computer: student ratios in primary and secondary schools in the UK. In 2006, on average, there was one computer for every six students; in secondary schools there was one computer for 3.6 students.¹ Laptops became more available along with an increase in wireless connectivity.² Interactive whiteboards became a feature of many classrooms, especially in secondary schools. The central commitment to technology has been and remains a feature of educational policy documents. However, throughout this period the consistent message is that new digital technologies were and are being incorporated only inconsistently by practitioners in UK schools.³

Surveys do show a sharp increase in the use of ICT resources in lessons since 2005, but this is mainly accounted for by the rapid spread and adoption of interactive whiteboards. Teachers quickly saw the possibilities of whiteboards for whole-class teaching; their use of

presentation software and word processing, of downloaded and online resources in lesson planning and delivery increased. Aside from whole-class activity, uses of ICT remain in general limited to word processing and Internet search.⁴ These tools appear deceptively transparent, while other technologies are perceived as more complex and challenging to use. However, assumptions that these more familiar uses of technology are unproblematic in relation to learning require examination.

Measures of the ‘e-maturity’⁵ of schools show wide variations in the extent to which use of technology is embedded in teaching and learning. School inspectors report that on average only two in six secondary school subject departments make effective use of ICT; the remaining four use ICT little if at all. Few practitioners in any phase of education fully exploit the possibilities for learning and teaching that new technologies offer. Using technology for analysing information and problem solving is limited, especially in the secondary phase. Few teachers incorporate new technologies to support students to work together collaboratively or cooperatively; there is little evidence of ICTs used to support creativity.⁶

The challenge, then, is to make the best use of new technologies for the benefit of learners, to enable practitioners to incorporate ICT securely and effectively in their practice and to develop their pedagogic repertoire.

Why does this matter?

Policy documents refer to evidence that incorporating ICT to support learning has a positive impact on learning outcomes. ‘Statistical links between the use of technology and learning outcomes have been identified in an increasing body of evidence … The impact is greatest where ICT is an integral and embedded part of the day-to-day learning experience’.⁷ If this is so then, at the most basic level of social justice, we owe it to our students to engage with this issue.

Research evidence also suggests that young people exhibit a higher level of engagement and more positive attitudes to learning where technology is incorporated. A large majority of primary and secondary teachers surveyed in 2006 agreed or strongly agreed that ICT could have a positive impact on the motivation of all student groups listed. Three-quarters or more of primary teachers in the survey agreed or strongly agreed that ICT also can have a positive impact on attainment. Secondary teachers were less sure about the impact of ICT on attainment, but even so, two-thirds of them thought the impact could be positive.⁸ In theory, at least, the climate among teachers appears to be favourable to incorporating ICT in teaching and learning.

The notional twenty-first-century learner and worker, in ‘the knowledge economy’, is at the centre of much current educational discussion. The competencies, skills and attitudes required by this person are inextricably involved with new (and yet to be developed) technologies. But the issue goes beyond technology to the need for changes in current educational practices. Rather than using technology to keep learners in a passive role (as some technologies make possible), where learners are on the receiving end of resources and requirements for activity determined by teachers, schools or other agencies, the idea is to utilise the potential of technologies for more learner-centred approaches, to give learners more autonomy and choice about how to engage with what is offered. Although recent surveys show that around 60 per cent of teachers say they need training in the use of ICT in their teaching,⁹ the kinds of pedagogical change that new technologies make possible frequently challenge current practice; so this is dangerous country, an uncomfortable place to travel for many schools and teachers. Our research experienced this at first hand and this book does not play down the tensions and dilemmas that are a part of the change process.

There is, then, a general feeling that pedagogical change is needed, and that, to an extent, technology will drive. This is also bound up in a concern that young people’s informal out-of-school experiences with and of technology are so at odds with their in-school experiences that they may lose enthusiasm for formal education. The concept of ‘personalised learning’¹⁰ has appeared, associated with new approaches to learner support and management and to closer links between formal and informal learning which are in the process of being articulated and exemplified.

While a main driver for these desired changes may be to encourage the range of competencies increasingly demanded by employers and the economy more generally or to ‘benefit learners entering a rapidly changing knowledge economy’,¹¹ many in education will associate them also with the creation of a more just, humane, inclusive society, where the development and transformation of teaching and learning serves social and emotional as well as economic ends.

The InterActive Education research project took up the challenge of expanding teachers’ practice and empowering them in their uses of technology for teaching and learning. The Methodological Appendix sets out the details of how the research was carried out. The knowledge and understandings teachers and researchers acquired during this process are set out and developed in subsequent chapters of this book. This chapter provides an introduction: it sets out some of the central ideas that informed the work teachers and researchers did together and illustrates some of the processes by which knowledge was collectively constructed.

Achieving change

We know that to enhance learning using ICT, having the equipment and meeting the technical challenges is necessary but not sufficient. Truckloads of hardware (however shiny) arriving in school will not necessarily change much for the better. Teachers are key and effective; professional development is the crucial element.

Experience has taught us that teachers remain central to students’ learning with ICT but, to fully exploit the potential of new technologies in transforming learning, there is much for them to learn. Incorporating ICT frequently challenges well-established ways of teaching and learning. This sometimes involves painful rethinking. Things do not always work as planned and hoped. Ambiguities and paradoxes emerge as new roles and new rules emerge. Technology alters the social relationships in the classroom between students and between the teacher and the students in ways that are challenging. The tension between freedom/autonomy and constraints in managing learning is a constant issue and is an important thread developed in other chapters. We have found that learning is enhanced when teachers analyse and understand the potentialities of different ICT tools as they relate to the practices and purposes of their subject teaching, and when these tools are deployed appropriately for their students. The teacher’s role, at best, involves a complex shifting of perspectives from the ‘more-knowledgeable-other’ to the ‘co-constructor of knowledge’ to the ‘vicarious participant’. Effective teachers orchestrate the use of ICT, the interactions around it, and their own interventions.

Developing professionals

If the aim is to have a lasting impact on the current situation quickfix approaches are a waste of time and money. We believe that to change practice and achieve a long-term shift in conceptions of how ICT can enhance teaching and learning, the traditional relationship between teachers and researchers has to be changed. Both groups should bring their distinctive and complementary perspectives to the project, and should see themselves as co-constructors in the knowledge-building process. This book is based on research partnerships between university researchers, teacher educators and teachers. This group of people collaborated in designing research-informed learning initiatives and then analysed the outcomes.

A model of professional development where researchers are seen as knowledge generators and teachers as knowledge translators or users is too limited to achieve what is needed. The process of creating researcher-practitioner communities as places where co-learning takes place is complex, but the outcomes can be substantial. The majority of teacher researchers in the InterActive project used ICT successfully to enhance student learning. They attributed this success to the support they received from the project team and to feeling they had permission to take risks and experiment with embedding ICT into their classroom practices. In many cases this was in the context of institutional constraints and conditions.

Putting a ‘thought experiment’ into practice is not always a comfortable process. The relationships established within a community of practice are crucial. And, of course, being a member of a community researching practice is only one of teachers’ many concerns and priorities. In our experience, professional events such as inspections by Ofsted,¹² high stakes assessment periods, school reorganisation, staff changes and crises, as well as personal events such as getting married, having twins, accidents and illness, all had an impact. One effect is that teachers engage with their professional development in different ways and at different levels.

Video as a tool for investigating teaching and learning

Digital video can be crucial to teachers’ development. As a means of capturing teachers in action and students’ responses, video, for us, proved to be vital in understanding and evaluating practice.

Teachers and students quickly became used to the presence of cameras in class. Teachers adapted more slowly to the experience of seeing themselves in action, but in many cases the outcomes were very positive, as this vignette shows.

VIGNETTE 1 A teacher reflects on the use of video

Ian Thompson was acting head of English in a secondary school when he joined the InterActive project. Ian’s design initiative involved 13–14-year-old students producing a magazine-style newsletter for their parents about the school. The initiative was developed jointly with ICT staff at his school. All the classes took place in the computer room where students worked individually with a PC each. Students had different roles on the magazine and there was some interaction and collaboration. There were also teacher-led class sessions reviewing progress and highlighting different aspects of ICT and English. However, the majority of the work was individual and the configuration of the space was very different from that of the English classroom. Although he could circulate and interact more with individuals because the others were all working on their PCs, Ian felt that he was less in touch with the thinking of the whole class. The video evidence gave him an additional perspective.

Ian

It was a bit unnerving at first having two cameras in the room. Of course you got the usual reaction – some of the kids made faces and played up to the camera; some of them begged to be filmed. But we told them no-one was going to appear on TV. After a while it was like everyone says – we just forgot it and got on. Ours was a long initiative and we had hours of tape to look at. It sounds strange but it was one of the most amazing professional experiences ever. I’ve been formally observed many times – sometimes it was uncomfortable – things like Ofsted – but no matter what anyone said to me I wouldn’t believe a word of it. Watching yourself is a completely different experience. It’s the best form of reflection I’ve found. It allows you to step back from your practice and ask yourself: what is going on here? What are the thought processes here – mine and the kids’? Why am I saying that? Why did I think that objective was so important? We’ve taken extracts from the tapes and shown them to other members of the department. If I want to make a point about teaching and learning it’s easier to pick myself to pieces – it’s a good tool for a head of department. It’s particularly valuable because it allows you to see the outcomes of your interventions in a way that doesn’t focus on written outcomes. To see process when you are in the thick of it is difficult. On video you can see yourself interacting one-to-one or with a group, more importantly you can see students working when you are not there. I’ve got insights into the way they think, what they are doing with what I said at the beginning of the lesson. To be able to see something of their thought processes is very unusual.Most of us when we look at ICT we go for what’s safe. We go to what we know. Whereas this sometimes is not particularly safe – I like that. Have a go and get it wrong. The video was the important thing – it’s allowed me to sit and watch and be comfortable with it … It’s an important process. I can now refine my teaching … sit back and reflect properly. I never had the chance and video made it happen.

Ian was one of the teacher researchers who became deeply engaged with the project. He was als...

Indice dei contenuti

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Contributors
• Authors’ preface
• PART 1 What are the issues?
• PART 2 What does the research tell us?
• PART 3 What are the overall implications?
• Methodological appendix
• Bibliography