Introduction
This
document explains how ICT can enhance teaching & learning, and also covers
strategies for classroom use of ICT. The unit is suitable for all teachers, but
especially for those who are new to the profession.
Why ICT?
Why
should schools and teachers work towards increasing the use of ICT in
education? There are two main reasons. Firstly, consider the potential of ICT
to change the nature of work and leisure over the next twenty years. Today’s
children need to develop the skills which will enable them (and society as a
whole) to benefit from new opportunities offered by ICT. Secondly, there is a
growing body of academic research, such as the Interactive Education project at
Bristol University in the UK (www.interactiveeducation.ac.uk),
which demonstrates how ICT enhances the quality of teaching and learning in
schools, and thus contributes to the raising of standards of achievement in
education.
Benefits of ICT in Education
In
the UK,
all research into ICT in Education is monitored by BECTA (British Educational
Communications and Technology Agency). Here are some of the benefits which ICT
brings to education according to recent research findings.
General benefits
●
Greater efficiency throughout the school (Greene et al, 2002)
●
Communication channels are increased through email, discussion groups and chat
rooms
●
Regular use of ICT across different curriculum subjects can have a beneficial
motivational influence on students’ learning (Cox 1997)
Benefits for teachers
●
ICT facilitates sharing of resources, expertise and advice
●
Greater flexibility in when and where tasks are carried out
●
Gains in ICT literacy skills, confidence and enthusiasm (Harrison et al, 1998)
●
Easier planning and preparation of lessons and designing materials
●
Access to up-to-date pupil and school data, any time and anywhere (Perry, 2003)
●
Enhancement of professional image projected to colleagues
●
Students are generally more ‘on task’ and express more positive feelings when
they use computers than when they are given other tasks to do (Becker 2000)
●
Computer use during lessons motivated students to continue using learning
outside school hours (Becker 2000; Chen and Looi 1999; Harris and Kington 2002)
Benefits for students
●
Higher quality lessons through greater collaboration between teachers in planning
and preparing resources (Ofsted, 2002)
●
More focused teaching, tailored to students’ strengths and weaknesses, through
better analysis of attainment data
●
Improved pastoral care and behaviour management through better tracking of
students
●
Gains in understanding and analytical skills, including improvements in reading
comprehension
(Lewin et al, 2000)
●
Development of writing skills (including spelling, grammar, punctuation,
editing and re-drafting), also fluency, originality and elaboration (Lewin et
al, 2000)
●
Encouragement of independent and active learning, and self-responsibility for
learning (Passey, 1999)
●
Flexibility of ‘anytime, anywhere’ access (Jacobsen and Kremer, 2000)
●
Development of higher level learning styles (Gibbs, 1999)
●
Students who used educational technology in school felt more successful in
school, were more motivated to learn and have increased self-confidence and
self-esteem (Software and Information Industry Association 2000)
●
Students found learning in a technology-enhanced setting more stimulating and
student-centred than in a traditional classroom (Pedretti and Mayer-Smith 1998)
●
Broadband technology supports the reliable and uninterrupted downloading of
web-hosted educational multimedia resources
●
Opportunities to address their work to an external audience (Allen 1995)
●
Opportunities to collaborate on assignments with people outside or inside
school (Chiu 2002; Lipponen 2000; Willinsky 2000)
Benefits for parents
●
Easier communication with teachers (Becta, 2001)
●
Higher quality student reports – more legible, more detailed, better presented (Accounts
Commission for Scotland, 1999)
●
Greater access to more accurate attendance and attainment information
●
Increased involvement in education for parents and, in some cases, improved self-esteem
(Hennessy, 1998; National Literacy Association, 1996)
●
Increased knowledge of children’s learning and capabilities, owing to increase
in learning activity being situated in the home
●
Parents are more likely to be engaged in the school community
You
will see that ICT can have a positive impact across a very wide range of
aspects of school life.
ICT and Raising Standards
Recent
research also points to ICT as a significant contributory factor in the raising
of standards of achievement in schools.
- Schools judged by the UK school inspectors Ofsted to have very good ICT resources achieved better results than schools with poor ICT.
- Schools that made good use of ICT within a subject tended to have better achievement in that subject than other schools.
- Socio-economic circumstances and prior performance of pupils were not found to be critical.
from:
Primary Schools of the Future - Achieving Today: A Report to the DfEE by Becta,
January 2001 (http://www.becta.org.uk/news/reports/primaryfuture/intro_conclusions.html)
•
Secondary schools with very good ICT resources achieved, on average, better
results in English, Mathematics and Science than those with poor ICT resources.
from:
The Secondary School of the Future: a Report to the DfEE by Becta, February
2001 (http://www.becta.org.uk/news/reports/secondaryfuture/intro_conclusions.html)
A
range of research indicates the potential of ICT to support improvements in
aspects of
literacy,
numeracy and science.
- Improved writing skills: grammar, presentation, spelling, word recognition and volume of work (Lewin, Scimshaw and Mercer, 2000; Lewin, 2000; Moseley, Higgins et al, 1999; Passey, 1999)
- Age-gains in mental calculations and enhanced number skills, for example the use of decimals (Moseley, Higgins et al, 1999)
- Better data handling skills and increased ability to read, interpret and sketch graphs (McFarlane et al., 1995)
- Improvements in conceptual understanding of Mathematics (particularly problem solving) and Science (particularly through use of simulations)
from:
Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) Report, USA
2000)
Where to start?
Let
us begin with the assumption that all of the above evidence has convinced you
that the use of ICT in education is worthwhile. Even a quick glance at the
research findings reported here will make the whole field of educational ICT
seem somewhat imposing and perhaps overwhelming to many teachers. At the same
time, a brief consideration of your daily working life will bring to mind a
series of limitations as to what you can personally do, such as a shortage of
equipment, time, or specific ICT knowledge. So how to start?
You
will, of course, substantially increase your own ICT skills and knowledge by taking
part in all the modules of this training package. In addition, we offer two
main strands of advice in this particular document:
Firstly,
the greatest incentive to school managers and government departments to invest
in supporting ICT in education comes from teachers making best use of existing
resources, and maximising pupil achievement under current circumstances.
Teachers cannot wait for more computers to arrive at school before they begin
the task of building ICT into their working life. It is essential that
educators start this journey now with the resources available to them already.
This process, where it is successful, will serve to encourage education
authorities to provide further resources, support and training.
Secondly,
the introduction of ICT into school life is a long and gradual process. From a
teacher’s perspective, a valuable insight comes from Jim
Wynn, Microsoft’s Education Strategy Manager for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Jim cites
Professor Margaret Cox's research on teachers' use of ICT (King's College, London) as a key
influence. "She found that teachers who try to use ICT often chose areas
where they were completely comfortable with their teaching, on the grounds that
they could rescue it if it went wrong. Invariably what she observed was a worse
lesson than the one it replaced because the preparation was wrong and they
didn't really know why they were doing it," he explains.
Jim talks about teachers needing to evaluate the success of their
own teaching. Some lessons will no doubt already be excellent without the need
to introduce ICT. These are lessons which would be evaluated with a score of 9
or 10 out of 10. In this case, the use of ICT can bring little improvement, and
in fact could threaten to have a negative impact on the lesson. Conversely, a
lesson rated as only 3 out of 10 cannot be rescued by the use of ICT. Rather,
lessons of such low quality need a more basic re-evaluation.
"If it's a 9 out of 10 lesson, leave it alone - the 7 out of 10 lessons are the important ones to rescue. So you take the 7 out of 10 lesson and try to work out why it's not better and then see if ICT can help," he explains. "If the lesson is less than 7 out of 10 you need to look more deeply at your teaching practice. ICT is a step too far."
"If it's a 9 out of 10 lesson, leave it alone - the 7 out of 10 lessons are the important ones to rescue. So you take the 7 out of 10 lesson and try to work out why it's not better and then see if ICT can help," he explains. "If the lesson is less than 7 out of 10 you need to look more deeply at your teaching practice. ICT is a step too far."
This view gives teachers a clear starting point. Think about the
lessons you teach, and identify some which are neither the best nor the worst.
Look for areas of your teaching which are perhaps satisfactory, but which could
maybe improve with the introduction of an ICT-based component. The rest of this
document will guide you through the process of including the use of ICT into
your lessons.
Practical considerations
Before
you begin to plan specific ICT activities for your classroom, you must of course
consider the practical realities of ICT in your school. In particular, you will
need to consider the number of computers available and the number of students
in your class. As a general rule, it is best to have no more than three pupils
working at one computer. This often means that a whole class cannot work on
computers at the same time, a fact which has several consequences in the
teacher’s planning.
- How many students can work on computers at the same time?
- Is it important that all students get an opportunity to work on computers?
- If there are not enough computers for the whole class to work together at the same time, then some students will need an alternative learning activity while they wait their turn.
- How will you manage the process of providing access to computers for everyone? This may need to be spread over a period of weeks.
- Will the students all be working in the same classroom?
- If not, how will you ensure adequate supervision of those who are out of sight?
- What instructional needs will students have (both for the ICT-based activity and the non-computer-based task)? How much teacher input will be required? What is the teacher’s role now?
It
is clear that using ICT asks many questions of the teacher, not only in terms
of designing purposeful learning activities, but also with regard to classroom
organization and the use of different teaching styles. While the traditional
teaching model (whereby the teacher stands in front of a large group of
students and issues them with instructions or passes on knowledge) can also be
adopted when using ICT (for example when telling a class what to do), it is
more common to find with the use of ICT that the teacher works more closely and
personally with individual small groups of students. The teacher becomes more
mobile around the classroom, and is able to engage in detailed discussions with
students about the work they are doing, what they are learning, what they
should do next etc.
A
further consideration here is the kind of ICT equipment which is available. Do
you have Internet access? What about email? Are students able to save their
work so that it can be re-used at a later date? Does your school have special
software packages for certain subjects? Are these installed onto computers so
that they can be used? It is very important that teachers who are trying to
develop the use of ICT also develop strong relationships with any technical
support staff who may be able to help with these issues. You may be able to
encourage them to buy additional equipment, such as a multimedia projector,
which will enable teachers to demonstrate or run ICT-based activities with a
whole class simultaneously.
Examples of ICT-based activities
What
kind of classroom activities are suited to the use of ICT? The following is a
brief guide to some of the most common uses of ICT in teaching and learning.
Finding out
Students
can use ICT to find out information and to gain new knowledge in several ways.
They may find information on the Internet or by using an ICT-based encyclopedia
such as Microsoft Encarta. They may find information by extracting it from a
document prepared by the teacher and made available to them via ICT, such as
document created using Microsoft Word or a Microsoft PowerPoint slideshow. They
may find out information by communicating with people elsewhere using email,
such as students in a different school or even in a different country.
Processing knowledge
Students
can use ICT as part of a creative process where they have to consider more
carefully the information which they have about a given subject. They may need to
carry out calculations (eg. by using Microsoft Excel), or to check grammar and
spelling in a piece of writing (perhaps using Microsoft Word), or they may need
to re-sequence a series of events (for example by re-ordering a series of
Microsoft PowerPoint slides).
Sharing knowledge
Students
can use ICT to present their work in a highly professional format. They can
create documents and slideshows to demonstrate what they have learned, and then
share this with other students, with their teacher, and even via email with
people all around the world.
Top tips
Teachers
need to decide how they want ICT to feature in a lesson. Will the teacher use
ICT to create a document which they will then present to or share with the
class? Will the students themselves use ICT either as part of the learning
process or as a presentation tool? To make this decision think carefully how
you would teach a given lesson without using ICT, and then try to identify the
weakest part of the lesson.
- Perhaps the opening presentation of information is poor: it may be too long, it may be too text-heavy, or it may be unclear and difficult to follow.
- Maybe the learning process at the heart of the lesson is not actually delivering the learning desired: you may need to provide additional or alternative activities to enhance the learning process, which motivate students to work for longer and with greater depth of thought.
- It could be that the problem lies in the final stages of the lesson: maybe the pupils need to create an expression of their new knowledge to clarify and consolidate what they have learned, or to help the teacher to evaluate the success of the lesson.
ICT
can provide solutions to all these problems and weaknesses, but it is important
that the teacher has a clear idea of how and where he/she wants ICT to have an
impact.
Think
carefully about how ICT will be used in the lesson (and by whom), and consider
what support will be required. For example, if you want your students to create
slideshows about the history of Ancient Egypt using Microsoft PowerPoint, then
you will have to teach them not only about the history involved but also how to
use the software being used.
It
is a very common experience for teachers in the early stages of using ICT to
find that their lessons take much more time when using ICT than they do without
using ICT. This is natural. Firstly, you must remember that your students are
learning a set of new and valuable skills alongside the traditional subject
content. In the example above, they are earning how to use Microsoft PowerPoint
as well as something about History. Secondly, use of ICT can be slow where many
beginners are working together, but speeds up considerably within a short time,
as users become more familiar with the working environment and the skills
involved. It is worth noting that one very positive feature of ICT use in
schools is that both teachers and pupils are very keen to share their knowledge
to help and support one another. This has the effect of accelerating the
learning process, while it also provides a safety net for those who are
struggling most with difficult new skills. One additional benefit is that use
of ICT often creates situations where students must work together. The
discussions and debates which arise bring a new dimension to the learning
experience, where spontaneous lively communication leads to initial ideas being
challenged, and thus the need to re-assess conclusions, make compromises and
reach agreements.
Final thoughts
Teachers
involved in this training course may find this document overwhelming at first,
so remember the following:
- The longest journey starts with a single step
- You are not alone!
You
are at the start of an exciting journey, and it is perfectly OK to take the
first steps without knowing where it will all lead. You are now part of a
worldwide community of teachers, all of whom are trying to use ICT to enhance
teaching and learning. Many of them will have the same difficulties and
frustrations as you. All of them will be happy to share experiences via email
or website discussion forums, so join in and get involved! Find out more in the
training module called Skill Sharing. Finally, amidst the careful planning of
next week’s lessons, do not forget to keep a vision of a brighter future for the
schoolchildren of the world!
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