ICT in learning and teaching
Findings from qualitative research
Teacher resources
In all the observed lessons the teachers had resources already placed in the system before the lesson began, either through pre-prepared PowerPoint presentations or by placing links or pages ready for recall as the lesson progressed. In this sense teacher lesson preparation is possibly more thorough when using the whole class technologies. It is also proving useful for supply teachers, since the teaching resources are ready for the lesson, and continuity of curriculum is better ensured. The quality of computer-based materials is generally excellent and many teachers have adopted a simple data storage system of storing files and web-pages in folders which makes it very much easier to find the appropriate file or image for display.
The PowerPoint presentations observed by the evaluators were of themselves evidence of teacher creativity. They were generally of high quality, often involving animations and sound. How they were used pedagogically, however, varied within and between lessons. Teachers were attracted to PowerPoint because they could prepare pages for display before the lesson took place, with low levels of reported use of this technology. They could include a variety of images and the ability to move through the pages easily facilitated lesson management. They are easy to adapt and modify, both before and during the lessons. Finally, they are easy to place on the school's VLE or to pass on and share with fellow teachers.
Many of the teachers in the sample had created PowerPoint presentations as lesson starters, increasing the range and scope of texts used in introductions. They were used to illustrate book stories (teacher-made e-books) and to recapture information presented in an earlier lesson. It was felt that in presenting the information via PowerPoint the students could be provided with a structure and there was clear evidence to pupils of teacher planning. The starter activity and/or objectives provided a focus when students walked into the room and all the presentations could be made available on the school/college intranet so that students who had not taken adequate notes or who had missed a lesson for some reason could access the notes. Where appropriate, teachers took the opportunity to use pen tools to write additional notes and to highlight features of pre-prepared materials. This enabled them to demonstrate, to explain more fully, to respond to perceived need according to student response, and to respond to student questioning. This use of the adaptability of the technologies was essential to stimulate student interaction with the lesson. There were occasions when PowerPoint was used merely to present notes and information which the teacher often read to the class and this kind of use often resulted in boredom and information overload.
Good PowerPoint handout notes were attractive, with white space inviting supplementary commentary from the audience, but poor ones were merely full of words. There is always a question as to whether to offer the prepared handouts beforehand for students to annotate during the session or to annotate the handouts from student discussion during the session before printing them. There were occasions on which the quantity of PowerPoint slides was misjudged and on occasions apparently good pages failed to maintain pupil attention owing to other classroom 'events'. One teacher commented that she was so enthusiastic about PowerPoint in the first year that her presentations were too PowerPoint heavy.
She realised that the children were mostly enjoying it but they were passive. She was beginning to adapt the resources she had already created and build in more activities for the students to do. In much of the best presentation the pupils themselves wrote on the board and responded to the pages as they were presented.
Preparing electronic resources has implications for teacher workload with regard to advance planning and preparation, even though practice has speeded up the process of resource creation. Finding images on the internet or scanning them in from books takes time. Many teachers highlighted the advantages of being able to create presentations at home and transfer them to school via memory sticks, CDs and discs. Teachers said that they were willing to invest the time because it is a resource for future use. Many teachers indicated the advantages of being able to use and adapt materials prepared the year before and all seemed to have well organized filing systems.
It was noticeable in our observations that we saw comparatively little use of web-based resources. Teachers did have some bookmarks in their files to useful pages but few brought forward web-based games, for example, preferring to use self-created resources. Nor did we see much evidence of the overt use of search engines in the classroom. The issue of copyright, the security of access to materials in personal files, as well as a desire to encourage personalised resources means that most VLE materials will be 'home-created' and may mean that teachers will in future make less use of what are sometimes excellent web-based resources. It may, of course, be primarily a consequence of the limited number of observations.
Pedagogy
There is no doubt that many teachers in ICT Test Bed schools and colleges have become very skilful and accomplished. Teachers selected programs and files, adjusted screen displays, moved between resources and used tools with ease and without hesitancy or uncertainty. In all of the observed lessons, the display technology was embedded as a mediating 'tool' for subject teaching and learning. There is a sense in which whole class technologies are bound to have an impact on pedagogy and observers, teachers and pupils agree that they increase pace and interactivity. Nevertheless, they can also fit easily into existing patterns of classroom interaction, and in some ways their efficiency reinforces presentational approaches and teacher dominance which reinforces traditional methods. The teachers set the learning objectives, presented planned and prepared materials, and asked 'teacherly' questions which largely had short right/wrong answers with limited extended discussion. It should be noted, however, that by focusing the enquiry on whole-class technologies it would inevitably lead to observing such situations, and individualised learning contexts were less likely to be seen. What is clear is that pupils appreciate the clarity of teachers' presentations:
It's better because you can see what you have to do... Before, you had to get all in a mess and then you kept getting everything wrong because you didn't have the interactive whiteboard to help you with what to do.
There was some evidence that individualised activities took place in upper KS2, secondary and FE contexts and there was some evidence that the ICT Test Bed investment in laptops for upper primary classrooms was generating more pupil-centred activities. In FE too there were examples of individual research-based enquiry by students. In many instances, however, it would still be true to say that whole-class technologies remained didactic tools, improving classroom ambiance rather than learner autonomy. Teachers allowed students to manage the board, but the context was entirely theirs and they retained control over the content and the questions. Whole-class technologies do not of themselves empower moves towards more individual and differentiated teaching. The national primary strategies have worked against such development, with standard lessons and standard targets, and whilst there was evidence of some differentiation within some primary lessons, it was limited. Few of the observed secondary lessons, where students are more likely to be placed in 'ability' groups, showed evidence of individualisation. Different subjects probably differ in their assumptions about individual as opposed to class learning but the whole-class technologies, with the strong central focus, encouraged more class-based contexts. There was little overt sign of individualized learning plans in FE lessons where classes were often as small as 10 or 11 students, though it was evident that some tutors did make use of the VLE, and by implication there was a strong expectation that students would utilise this resource. It could well be that formal classes form a smaller part of the FE curriculum and that individualised activity is more likely to be student self-study.
All parts of lessons where whole-class technologies were used took place in classrooms rather than computer suites, except in some FE sessions. The lesson format in primary literacy and numeracy lessons largely cohered with the now 'traditional' three-part structures, that is, whole-class starter, group/individual activities and whole-class plenary.
In early primary classrooms there was good use of the traditional gathering space (often 'the carpet') at the front of the classroom round the board. The KS1 children then moved back to their tables for related group or individual work and groups also used banks of computers located in the classroom as well as the IWB. This group work was often clearly differentiated for the different groups or individuals, using either different worksheets, different computer programs or 'fast finisher' activities. The confidence and competence with which these pupils, even four-year-olds, approached using the computers was impressive.
Differentiation in the whole-class sessions was more difficult to monitor without knowing the children, although it was clear that the teachers asked some children to undertake less demanding tasks at the IWB and their questioning was differentiated, as it would be without the IWB. There was some indicative evidence that well constructed use of a voting system could provide a stimulus for differentiation, as the pupils' responses were so readily available for the teacher. There is much development work needed, however, for this to be a widespread activity.
In upper primary, secondary and some FE classrooms, students remained at their tables which were set out in various (but largely fixed) layouts. These sessions were clearly targeted at one subject and generally followed quite traditional patterns. The teachers generally conducted often lengthy question and answer sessions to start the lesson which were then often followed by individual tasks for the students to carry out. One FE lecturer used games to enliven the initial question and answer session. In another FE session, the teacher used a mind-mapping program on a tablet to structure students' recall of the previous session. The display technologies certainly helped to focus this activity, and in good sessions stimulated good discussion. In some lessons, however, this introduction was rather extensive with students' attention and computer structuring giving a sense of purpose which might not always reflect learning.
The availability of desktop computers or laptops for pupils' use seemed more variable in secondary and FE contexts, and clearly depended upon the subject areas. Most primary classrooms in two of the clusters contained a group of computers; in the third cluster there were usually just one or two, and a number of upper primary classes already had (or were just introducing) sets of wireless networked laptops. Secondary technology departments were well supplied but not all the other subject areas were so fortunate, making computer-based instruction problematic except where departments made widespread use of the school's computer rooms. In one FE context, some students took up to 20 minutes to move from the IWB session to using the laptops, whereas in a Year 6 classroom where the pupils each had their own laptop (available to take home) the transition took only the time it took for the computers to boot up. This might create some issues when the primary pupils who are used to taking notes and writing with their laptop emerge into a less well supplied secondary context. The teacher of this Year 6 class, using Word tracking procedures, commented on compositions uploaded to her file by the pupils and they then downloaded the comments for action. It was rare to see homework presented and assessed electronically in secondary schools.