ICT in learning and teaching
Findings from qualitative research
Teaching and learning
The implications of the ICT Test Bed Project for teaching and learning are at the heart of the project's purposes. This is the central area of the schools' and colleges' core business, to which all the other ICT Test Bed themes contribute. The project's investment in a range of technologies for use by teachers and pupils, in classrooms and at home, is very extensive. Since it is impossible to deal in detail with the full range, in this report the focus is on the impact on teaching and learning of the use of one key resource: whole-class interactive technologies.
Classrooms in the ICT Test Bed schools have been provided with either an interactive whiteboard linked to a computer and data projector (the schools of two clusters) or a visualiser and interactive tablet linked to a computer and data projector (the schools of one cluster). The ICT Test Bed curriculum areas in the further education (FE) colleges have invested in similar resources. The huge investment made in these whole-class technologies, the time and effort given to professional development, implications for pedagogical philosophy and vision have the potential for a major impact on learning.
A study was carried out involving observations and interviews with teachers and pupils in 24 classrooms across all phases in the three clusters in the autumn of 2004, at the beginning of the third full academic year of the ICT Test Bed project. Most classes had been equipped with whole-class technologies for between one year and 18 months, though in some FE classes the time was shorter as installation had been delayed.
It is important to note that schools, and individual teachers within schools, are progressing at different rates and this study of 24 classrooms, selected by ICT Test Bed managers in selected schools and the colleges, did not focus on the least advanced.
Six key themes emerged from the research: resources, pedagogy, shaping of the lesson, interactivity, skills and attitudes.
Resources
It is clear that whole-class electronic resources provide a new ambiance in the classroom. Across the clusters, the evaluators saw a range of electronic resources used in whole-class teaching: content-rich web-based materials (drill and practice 'games', for example), materials created by teachers (such as an electronic talking book, a presentation on histograms, downloaded images and scanned texts) and exercises designed with standard office programs (for example, mathematics activities using spreadsheets). The quality of teacher presentation is significantly improved, not just in terms of colour and imagery but also in the clarity of text. Pupils can now read the board much more easily than before. The ease with which text can be highlighted and changed can lead to increased pupil involvement and more pupil control over the process. One teacher said:
I know for a fact that [without the large screen] I wouldn't be teaching them as much [...] and I know that they wouldn't be learning as much because they'd be looking around [...] It's made it a lot easier because they're looking at it and it's clear to them, it's on a big scale.'
Projected electronic resources have the potential to change curriculum materials from the static to the dynamic. That which is displayed can be changed rapidly (from screen to screen), is provisional (can be added to and deleted) and can move (video clips, animation). Very different from paper-based materials, this opens up possibilities for teaching (which resources can be displayed) and learning (expanded modes of representation), and hence has implications for pedagogy (interactivity).
The presence of a large screen taking up a sizeable area of classroom wall space is in itself significant. A number of teachers spoke of the attraction and focus that this draws from the pupils.
For example, a reception class teacher said:
They were sitting quietly through the whole lesson and they are only five. If I was using the [traditional] whiteboard it would not have held their attention so well. Varying things like showing a mince pie instead of a burger [in a numeracy lesson] makes things different so they look at it.
It also allows the teacher in some cases to stand or sit to one side and gives more opportunity for them to observe and concentrate on assessing the pupils' reactions. This was especially true when using the teacher's computer to manage the image or by using the ActivSlate which enabled management and changes to the screen to be carried out from anywhere in the classroom. The obvious involvement of the pupils and the pleasure of the teacher in the attractions of display technologies did on occasions encourage the teacher to spend longer on plenary questioning rather than on pupils carrying out their own enquiries.
The whole-class technologies have built-in or associated tools such as pens or similar pointing devices. These certainly, in our observations, often encourage and enable more pupil control of, and involvement with, the proceedings. It was interesting to see children who had been in school for less than four weeks handling the pen and changing pages on the board with confidence and skill. The ActivSlate has some advantages but is perhaps less intuitive to use, and in addition was introduced at a later stage of the implementation phase. As a consequence it is not yet being used uniformly across all classrooms, particularly in secondary schools. When children have not had experience of the ActivSlate, for example in the Early Years, teachers feel it is more appropriate to stage its introduction to ensure that pupils develop the required skills.
The visibility of a large screen was clearly an improvement on a small computer screen and teaching manipulative processes such as Excel program management, as well as loading programs and web-based resources and managing files, were considerably easier for students to follow. Simple techniques such as placing a square grid over a shape to explore area, moving elements of compound shapes around the board and simply drawing bar-charts and other graphs were certainly helpful pedagogic tools, and ones (at least not so readily) possible non-electronically. There are also a number of other functions built in to the software used with the classroom technologies, for example the ability to highlight words and to use colour to help structure the work. The 'spotlight' tool was also useful to enhance the pupils' understanding of elements of the text.
Of other ancillary equipment the voting systems (ActiVote, for example) used in some schools seemed to impress teachers and pupils by their possibilities. These are tools whereby pupils respond to multi-choice questions much as audiences vote in game shows. Use of a voting system needs careful preparation if the questioning is to be anything but merely checking knowledge of facts and in order to contribute to meaningful diagnostic assessment. Research over recent years suggests that formative assessment - especially formative self-assessment - could be highly beneficial in raising attainment, especially of lower achievers. It will be interesting to continue to monitor the degree to which teachers do use the results from ICT assessment tools to inform their subsequent practice, and improve learners' experiences. Although the teacher can actually see what each child has answered, the pupils still feel a comforting degree of apparent anonymity in the process, and the social context of the assessment is found attractive.
Another item of clear value was the Digital Blue video camera. Evidence was seen of pupil-produced video-clips, displayed on the large screen, providing useful peer teaching for other pupils. It also motivated the pupils (even those with autism) to review their spoken and visual communication skills. Images taken around the school and at school events are obviously valuable stimuli for discussion.
The immediate availability of sound is also useful: using the children's own voices to present facts and questions, or enabling the questions in the presentation to be asked in their teacher's voice, or even just presenting further stimuli to acknowledge right or wrong answers. It also helps, of course, in the seamless presentation of video-clips as part of the lesson presentation in subjects such as RE, PSHE and geography. Many children's television programmes and electronic games are very noisy (or sound rich) and young people are used to having such stimuli as background to concentration. In this way whole-class technologies do help to provide multi-modal (text, sound, still and moving images) opportunities in the classroom which can support learning in different ways. It is this variety which probably accounts for the increased attention and concentration which teachers report in their pupils.
Whole-class interactive technologies were reported to have been very reliable. This is in part due to the investment in technician support which ICT Test Bed funding resourced and partly the well founded technology that appears to be embedded in the resource. Teachers, too, are now largely confident and competent with the resources so that difficulties no longer become problems. This appears to be particularly true of many primary schools. Whilst still true of many secondary teachers, the situation in this phase of education seems to be more variable. The researchers noted some problems resulting from the introduction of whole-class electronic resources into every classroom in secondary schools, which amounted to a large-scale system change. For example, there can be a problem with visibility, particularly on sunny days; blinds are costly and there was at least one observed session where the blinds were broken. Shadows can be cast if people stand in particular positions in relation to the projector and there is a clear health and safety issue from the projector shining in eyes. In most classrooms, however, these were not regular problems and experience has led to better positioning through ceiling-mounted projectors.