ICT and inter-institutional collaboration
2004 Annual Report: Findings from qualitative research
Focused use rather than inclusive of all schools/phases of education
The emphasis on industrial awareness and vocational experience was intended to address a need not being met within A/S level courses in the secondary schools. When the need to collaborate with all schools in the cluster was raised as a possibility it contradicted the direction that college staff responsible for implementing the project had been given. At that stage the college staff felt that the vocational elements and use of professional standard equipment did not lend itself to use in primary schools. However, the staff hoped that they might be able to adapt the project or allow primary schools to access the equipment at some point in the future. There seems to be a tension between responsibility for maintaining professional (and expensive) equipment and concerns about the risks involved in allowing younger (and older) children to have access to this kind of equipment. Clear external direction of this project and fuller lines of communication would have ensured that all objectives were met. There is a need to explore new models of facilitating students' access to expensive equipment. Often young people, with adequate supervision, can be very responsible.
Differences in ICT expertise
In one school, lack of prior experience of Photoshop (both students and staff) proved to be an additional challenge. Staff at the college provided welcome technical support through the staff and student workshops, a 'user manual' and site visits. This was acknowledged as being very helpful and professional, but time constraints did not allow for first-time users (staff and students) to develop a good grasp of how to use Photoshop. This meant that students spent a disproportionate amount of time trying to work out how to achieve particular affects or solve technical problems, because they did not have time to develop an appropriate level of expertise in Photoshop. The teacher concerned commented that there was 'no scope for discussion about the artistic qualities of the work they were doing because they were up against technical problems that neither they nor I could solve.' This created an additional strain on the pressure of covering all that was required for the A/S module. There were issues relating to finding mutually convenient times for the technician from the college to visit the schools, matching availability to lesson times for example. Students referred to a need for more extensive training or greater levels of support. They were, however, happy to learn through experimentation and offered support to each other and the teacher concerned. The teacher felt that this had shifted her role in the classroom as she was no longer the expert but learning how to use Photoshop alongside her students. However, she was not comfortable with the feeling that she was 'deskilled' or not equipped to support her students in the way that she wanted to. It proved important to cater for very varied levels of prior skills among participants (in image manipulation, for example). Both staff and students without prior experience require opportunities to develop the appropriate skills outside timetabled lessons as this requires a significant investment of time.
Logistical issues
The logistics of sharing equipment proved to be challenging, particularly in relation to the timely return of the equipment to the college which was frustrating for all concerned. College staff wanted to ensure that all schools had fair access to the equipment but that the equipment was also available for their own students to use. School staff found the three-week period to be constraining when it always seemed to be raining or the class was timetabled in the late afternoon when it became too dark to take photographs outside. In addition, school staff had to stop what they were doing to make the most of the equipment when it was their turn, interrupting other units of work. The key message from school staff was that more flexibility was desirable.
If you could actually sort of say well 'we always start this unit on this date, could we have the equipment then?' it would have been easier. And also our exam is really early so they have had to stop unit two, do their exam, now they're going back to it without the equipment because the college now has the equipment.
Art teacher, comprehensive school, March 2004
The equipment provided by the college was very expensive and so school staff was asked to follow strict guidelines concerning, for example, insurance and how the cameras could be used. This meant that students were only able to use the cameras when supervised and largely used them in the school grounds rather than taking them off site. This limited creativity and choice. In some cases, students used their own digital cameras to take photographs at the weekend but the quality of the images was not satisfactory and so they only used the images taken with the professional standard equipment for their final pieces.
To increase flexibility those concerned decided that next time round it would be important to redeploy some equipment, particularly cameras, to the schools on a permanent basis and possibly to install Photoshop on school networks rather than relying on the Apple iBooks. This would increase flexibility and enable teachers to 'use [the equipment] more seamlessly'.
Owing to the distances between the schools and the college it was not possible to undertake a visit in a single lesson. School staff was asked to accompany their students on any visits to the college, which meant they had to find the time when they could be out of school for a day or a morning as well as the students. In addition, there were issues about arranging for students to be off timetable in relation to time to study their other subjects. In one school for example, sixth-form students were only allowed to be off timetable once per half-term in order not to affect other subjects being studied.
Impact on practice
Using technology was perceived to be a way of working that enabled ideas to be generated rapidly as well as new forms of outcomes to be produced. In relation to the GCSE and A/S Photography courses, digital cameras were perceived by the teacher concerned to accelerate learning because the process was much faster. The use of digital cameras gave many students the opportunity to realise their potential. Photographs could be seen straight away and taken again if the camera settings and lighting were not quite right. The students appreciated that using digital cameras was modern and represented professional practices, as well as being easier and quicker than traditional equipment.
The digital medium also encouraged a way of working that did not fit in with the assumptions of an external assessment process designed for traditional media. For example, the increase in the number of photographs taken and their easy manipulation did not encourage students to establish a paper trail of progress. Consequently, they often did not record the process of image manipulation sufficiently carefully, and new approaches to recording process need to be investigated. It would also be helpful if moderators could be better informed about the nature of digital imaging so that the contribution of this approach could be appreciated.
The flexible approach adopted in one school offered the best of both worlds: exposure to digital imaging, professional equipment and industrial practices, without constraining the final exam piece through the exclusive use of a single media form which some students clearly did not feel comfortable with.