ICT in learning and teaching
Learning and teaching in ICT-enhanced classrooms
Primary schools
Students' attitudes, skills and knowledge relating to ICT
Technology is an integral part of primary children's everyday classroom experience in ICT Test Bed schools. In the 2005 students' survey, children at Key Stage 1 were unanimous in saying that their preferred lessons were ones in which ICT was involved. The responses from Key Stage 2 children showed a significant increase in the use of digital cameras (55% in 2005 compared to 38% in 2003), scanners (27% in 2005 compared to 17% in 2003), and email (57% in 2005 compared to 31% in 2003). They have had sufficient opportunities for hands-on use of equipment, such as laptop computers, digital cameras and Digital Blue video cameras, to feel very competent and confident in their use. Primary students' use of the internet has increased very substantially (for Key Stage 2 97% in 2005 compared to 85% in 2003; for Key Stage 1 95% in 2005 compared to 56% in 2003). In Key Stage 2 the internet is used more at school than at home (school 97%, home 61%). While much of the use of interactive whiteboards and large screens with visualisers/electronic slates is by teachers for whole-class presentations, the great majority of primary students (80% in 2005 compared to 50% in 2003) say that they have had the opportunity of using them to present their own work.
As a direct result of their greatly increased use of computers, primary students' low level of keyboard skills is becoming a nuisance. Some ICT Test Bed schools are taking steps to support students in gaining keyboard skills with computer-based typing tutors.
Children in ICT Test Bed primary schools also have excellent knowledge and awareness of ICT. For example, in interview they showed good awareness of different functionalities and input devices associated with whole-class technologies such as the touch screen, pens, cordless mouse, remote keyboard, projector, microscopes, scanners and concurrent viewing on a desktop PC. They showed good command of technological terminology, such as 'recalibrating' (when interactive whiteboard writing is what they called 'dodgy') and the 'control panel', and were able to remember and recite sets of instructions, such as how to upload their work to the shared site to enable teacher access.
Use of whole-class technologies
Observations in primary schools and interviews with both teachers and students provided ample evidence of the everyday classroom use of whole-class technologies to teach all subjects, as well as uses beyond the curriculum and in whole-school contexts such as assemblies.
Students told the evaluators that the whole-class technologies were used by all of the teachers all of the time:
"It stays on, and anything they don't want us to see they click on the desk, no show, so people can do their private work and no one can read it."
They described the use of whole-class technologies as primarily teacher-controlled but involving students either touching the interactive whiteboard, writing with interactive whiteboard pens or using devices such as 'zappers'. There was an overwhelmingly positive attitude to whole-class technologies:
"The best computer that we could have had was the whiteboard."
"We don't need projectors and those transparent sheets anymore - all the Christmas songs are now typed up and it's brilliant."
The size of the screen was identified as one of the greatest benefits: "Everyone can see." Another advantage was seen to be the interactive whiteboard's efficiency, convenience, ease of editing, automatic functions and orderliness:
"...and the whiteboard pens don't break. They are like cotton on there, and it's better because it wouldn't break or anything."
"There's like a rubber there, you can just rub it, you can just rub it off, and clear the screen."
The positive impact of ICT on students with special educational needs
In primary schools there is strong evidence from teachers' interviews and action research reports of the very beneficial impact of ICT, and in particular interactive whiteboards and large display screens, on the attention and motivation of students with special educational needs (SEN). Several teachers report on spectacular initial impact on children with attention deficit disorder and autism; it will be important to track whether this impact leads to actual gains in attainment.
It may be that the very strong focus in primary education on the written word, and assessment of attainment in terms of ability to handle the making and deciphering of textual signs, creates a strong sense of failure and lowering of self-esteem in children who do not have the capability to handle text at an early age. There is some evidence that use of an interactive whiteboard provides a public forum for such children to demonstrate their abilities in a non-textual medium. Further study is needed to explore whether working with the 'drag and drop' facility of an interactive whiteboard might be a successful strategy to help such children overcome their sense of failure and wean them to learning to handle text with confidence.
Where action research studies have been conducted with SEN students, teachers have recorded how they benefit from handling equipment such as digital cameras and microscopes. SEN students seem to experience an increased sense of control and positive identity from handling ICT equipment.
Teachers' planning, record-keeping and assessment of children's work
There have been radical changes to the process of planning and sharing materials and recording assessments, particularly in primary schools. One problem, however, is that the requirements of the national tests, and the primary strategy materials which are designed to help teachers prepare students for them, were not designed with ICT-rich schools in mind. As with the strategy materials, some Local Authorities schemes are not sufficiently flexible to mesh well with ICT-enabled practices. Primary teachers reported in interviews that this restricts the educational opportunities of using ICT. Many teachers reduce children's use of ICT during the year preceding key stage tests.
Nevertheless, there are examples of ICT-led assessment, particularly at the foundation stage, where the electronic collection of samples of pupils' work is used to validate and moderate baseline assessments. This suggests the way in which testing might develop in the future as an evidence-based procedure rather than a test-taking activity. Teachers store examples of pupils' work for transmission to parents to keep them informed. There are examples of using text-tracking methods to help pupils to draft and redraft work. leading to a clearer understanding by them of how writing is assessed and developed. There are also some examples of using 'voting systems' as a means of assessment, especially for such activities as 'mental mathematics'.
Teachers are enthusiastic about the record-keeping facilities of ICT, both for their security and ease of access.
Secondary schools
In the 2005 survey, the number of students that reported 'always' enjoying school had doubled (34% in 2005 compared to 17% in 2004). At a time when there is widespread concern about secondary students' motivation to learn and high levels of truancy, this is a very encouraging finding. It seems likely that this is related to the use of ICT for teaching and learning across the curriculum.
Use of whole-class technologies
Many secondary teachers told the evaluators that the interactive whiteboards or large-screen displays of computer screens and visualisers have had a radical impact on their teaching, enabling them to present material with greater clarity and hold students' attention better. Some teachers understand the potential of these whole-class technologies to improve the interactivity of teaching and are using them innovatively. However, few secondary teachers are making as sustained use of interactive whiteboards as their primary colleagues and inevitably skills in using them well are less universal in secondary schools. Visualisers require much less specialist skill development but it is possible to use them in a minimalist way, for example, simply to display the page in a text book.
Secondary students were very positive about their teachers' use of these whole-class technologies, but it was clear from student interviews that secondary teachers' skills are more uneven than those of primary teachers.
The positive impact of ICT on students with special educational needs
In many of the ICT Test Bed secondary schools, the high levels of ICT have clear benefits for students with special educational needs. This is particularly the case with whole-class technologies. For these students the multiple stimuli and varied approaches on the one hand, coupled with more interesting skill-practice materials on the other, are increasing motivation. Teachers' action research studies also show that SEN students enjoy being in control of ICT, for example, they are highly motivated and appear to benefit from using digital cameras and electronic microscopes. It will be important to track whether these apparent benefits are reflected in raised attainment.
Embedding ICT in the curriculum in secondary schools
Although frequency of use varies considerably between subjects and teachers, ICT is now becoming embedded in teaching and learning across the whole secondary school curriculum, largely through teachers' use of whole-class technologies such as interactive whiteboards and visualisers/interactive slates linked to computers. This is important in light of the findings of both the ImpaCT2 evaluation and the NGfL Pathfinder evaluation that the focus of ICT use in schools during the period 2000-02 was on teaching ICT skills (DfES 2002; DfES 2002). The ICT Test Bed schools are at the third stage of ICT development - the integration of ICT with curriculum subjects - as set out in the ImpaCT2 report. This finding is confirmed by the maturity modelling data relating to secondary schools' use of ICT in the curriculum.
In many subjects, the scale of ICT Test Bed funding enabled secondary schools to acquire full sets of commercially produced digital learning resources as a single purchase, rather than buying them piecemeal over time. This has made it easier to integrate their use with teaching and learning across whole departments as well as making it easier to organise staff training and build an ethos of mutual support.
The majority of students reported that both the hardware and software in their school were sufficient to enable them to complete their work (82% cumulative responses in the 'agree' categories for hardware - an increase of 6% from the previous year and 22% from 2003 - and 83% cumulative responses for the software category - an increase of 6% from the previous year and 18% from 2003). However, a number of students were dissatisfied and unfavourable home-school comparisons may be the cause of this (most responses in this respect fell in the 'disagree' rather than 'strongly disagree' category). Some 90% of secondary students reported having access to a computer at home and many use it for sustained periods of time. The internet is now seen by 88% of secondary students as the best means of accessing information for project work and assignments, in preference to books; this is in contrast to their reported preferences at the start of the project. (See also Section 7 of this report.)
Yet, there are a number of organisational issues which make implementing ICT development in secondary schools difficult to manage. Real difficulties are caused by the timetable which involves short teaching periods and frequent changes of classroom by students and often also by teachers. This means that the students and teachers need to refocus on the in-class ICT equipment at the start of every lesson. Students need to log on the class 'banks' of laptops if they are used and teachers need to distribute the equipment and often refresh their own log-in. This all takes time at the beginning and end of each lesson and teachers do not see that as efficient or productive. It also places stress on both the hardware and the wireless network systems. The ICT needs of different subjects vary and therefore the resources vary, and the students have to adjust to that. Implementing change in secondary schools poses challenges relating to scale, department cultures and movement within school of both teachers and students.
Assessment and record-keeping
The provision of Key Stage 3 tests for ICT as an online activity was generally welcomed. In other subjects the teachers regularly stressed the importance of the written word over the electronic word in order to prepare for SATs and GCSEs, which are the basis for the school's position in league tables. This clearly diminishes the extent to which ICT could be used by students. It led to departments timetabling the use of ICT into particular discrete periods of the term to control its impact and to requiring homework to be paper-based in preparation for the examinations.
ICT has, however, made it easier to make assessment outcomes publicly visible and this has led to much improved departmental assessment policies. Electronic sharing of exemplars of student work has improved moderation procedures in all years, and has led to better target-setting for classes and students. Most schools are also working towards the central collection of some (though not all) assessments to aid management and policy-making. This is based on termly (or half-termly) assessment, which is also leading to parental reports being more related to the achievement of targets by the students rather than the verbal comment style of report. At departmental level, recording of assessment is often by spreadsheet but central analysis is usually done through some form of MIS assessment manager.
Limitations to the 'hands on' use of ICT by students in secondary schools
There is evidence from logs of ICT use and interviews that Year 8 students in ICT Test Bed schools are making only limited use of the power of ICT during the school day. For example, during one week in February 2005 a sample of students from all three clusters recorded on average 45 minutes a day of ICT use at school. This appears to relate to the high demands on computer equipment made by specialist examination syllabuses. Use varies between subjects and the logs recorded particularly low use in science. Regular, sustained, hands-on use of ICT is largely reserved for ICT, design and technology or business students studying for examinations in Years 10 and 11. In interviews, secondary school students in Year 8 told the evaluators that formal ICT lessons are often boring and this appears to relate to the Key Stage 3 ICT curriculum. Some told the evaluators that they felt they could make much better use of the available resources. Others expressed frustration at the limitations placed on their use of the internet by the security software and filters on the school's network. Students also said that it is rare for them to be asked by teachers to use ICT for homework. These findings come from a sample of students drawn from the three ICT Test Bed clusters, but reflect similar findings in the ImpaCT2 evaluation (DfES 2002; Somekh, Lewin et al. 2002) and the ESRC-sponsored Screenplay project (Facer, Furlong et al. 2003).