Technology Enhanced Learning in the Classroom

Technology Enhanced Learning in the Classroom Rosamund Sutherland, Roger Dale, Marina Gall, Marie Joubert, Elizabeth Lazarus, Sasha Matthewman, Simon Mills, Federica Olivero, Susan Robertson, Ian Thompson, Pat Triggs Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol The InterActive Education project (Sutherland et al, 2009), based in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Bristol, was developed in the context of a rapid expansion in all kinds of information and communications technology (ICT) and in response to the massive drive to incorporate these new technologies into every aspect of school life and learning in the UK. The overall aim of the project was to examine the ways in which ICT can be used in educational settings to enhance teaching and learning. The project took a holistic approach, examining learning with ICT at both the level of learner and classroom, and the learner in outside school settings, also taking into account the institutional and societal factors which structure learning. The project drew heavily on socio-cultural theories of learning (Vygotsky, 1978, Wertsch, 1991). A key aspect of such theory is the claim that all human action is mediated by tools. In our research we interpreted the idea of „tool‟ to incorporate a wide range of technologies and artefacts (for example pen, paper, book, computer), semiotic systems (for example language, graphs, diagrams), social interaction (for example group work) and institutional structures (for example national educational policy). Within this framework the idea of person-acting-with-mediational-means expands the view of what a person can do and also suggests that a person will be constrained by their situated and mediated actions as they take place in various kinds of settings. The project was predicated on the view that teachers would need support to begin the process of integrating ICT into teaching and learning. This support was organised around Subject Design Teams (SDTs) within the following subject areas: English, history, geography, modern foreign languages, science, music and mathematics. The SDT consisted of teachers from the project partner schools, researchers, teacher educators and research students. Each Subject Design Team (coordinated by a member of the University research team) constituted the core of the professional development which was central to the project. These teams collaboratively developed Subject Design Initiatives (SDIs), sequences of work and research involving the use of ICT, which were designed, implemented and researched in individual teachers‟ classes. Building on the work of Collins (1992) and Brown (1992), SDIs were planned to address key learning areas within a particular subject domain (e.g. mathematical proof (Sutherland, Olivero & Weedon, 2005), musical composition (Gall & Breeze, 2005), writing in English (Matthewmann & Triggs, 2004)) and to incorporate both digital and nondigital technologies as appropriate. Design was informed by: theory; research-based evidence on the use of ICT for learning; the craft knowledge of teachers; curriculum knowledge; policy and management constraints and possibilities; and the research team‟s expertise. The focus was on iterative design and evaluation of SDIs. A dynamic record of classroom activity and learning was created from video and audio recording, screen-capture, observation, pupil interviews, and pupils‟ work. This formed both data sets for analysis and a stimulus for reflective discussion with teachers.

The following is an overview of the main findings of the project: Policy and management of ICT The mandate for ICT in education has overwhelmingly been interpreted by schools as a licence to acquire equipment (Dale et al, 2004). This has been costly, but in addition, has detracted from an emphasis on teaching and learning. These institutional constraints have not supported head teachers to prioritise the professional development that teachers need in order to change established practices. In particular the prevalence of high-stakes assessment inhibits teachers from taking the risk of incorporating ICT into teaching and learning. Learners’ out-of-school uses of ICT The research found that teachers often underestimate the impact of students‟ out-of-school experience of ICT on the way they learn in the classroom. Analysis of data revealed, for example, the impact of contemporary and popular music on composition in schools, the use of search engines on language investigation in English, and experience of using spreadsheets influencing how pupils learn data handling and statistics. Teaching and learning with ICT The work of the Subject Design Teams supported teachers to take the risk of experimenting with ICT in the classroom. The majority (70 per cent) of teacher partners used ICT successfully to enhance student learning. Analysis of video data showed that students can work with ICT for long periods of time, investigating their own questions and experimenting with ideas in an interactive way. However, the project also revealed an inherent tension in the power of ICT. It was found that extended individual engagement can lead to the construction of idiosyncratic “informal” knowledge which is at odds with the intended learning, suggesting that, without the support of a teacher, students are unlikely to shift from informal knowledge worlds into the more formal worlds of school knowledge. For example, without the support of a teacher students are unlikely to develop knowledge of mathematical proof from knowledge of everyday reasoning, knowledge of the Italian Renaissance from knowledge of popular culture, knowledge about the etymology of the English language from everyday experiences of speaking and writing English, or knowledge of science from game-like simulation software. Effective teaching and learning with ICT involves finding ways of building bridges between „individual and idiosyncratic‟ and „intended‟ learning. Teachers as enabled practitioners The InterActive Project showed that a successful model for professional development is to create networked communities in which teachers and researchers work in partnership to design and evaluate learning initiatives which use ICT as a tool for learning (Triggs & John, 2004). Such professional development requires people to break out of set roles and relationships in which researchers are traditionally seen as knowledge generators and teachers as knowledge translators or users. For meaningful researcher-practitioner communities to emerge, trading zones are needed where co-learning and the co-construction of knowledge take place. The Subject Design Teams (SDTs) are examples of such trading zones. The capacity to engage in dialogue about implicit theories of learning and teaching, and a willingness to see them in the context of particular knowledge domains, were essential to the success of Subject Design Initiatives (SDIs).

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