full techoable report june 2013

7/28/2019 Full Techoable Report JUNE 2013

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Curious Minds have funded the evaluation as an integral part of the Techno-ABLE project


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Introduction Page 1

Evaluation aims and objectives Page 1

Research methodology Page 1

Overview of Project Page 2

Project Methodology Page 3

Case Study Tor View Special Community School Page 4

Case Study Royal Cross Primary School Page 9

Case Study Lancasterian School Page 15

Conclusion to Report Page 19 - 21

Common Themes Diagram Page 21


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This report summarises the findings of an evaluation of a creative collaborative project

across three SEN schools in the North West of England, developed by Curious Minds andDIY Theatre Company. The evaluation aimed to assess the effects of technology on pupil

engagement and progress. The technology used in this project was the iPad.

This evaluation is timely as the huge global explosion of technology means that the need to

equip SEN students of the 21st Century for an independent future in an ever changing

world is paramount.

The evaluation was commissioned by Curious Minds, the Bridge Organisation in the North

West, working with Arts Council England to connect all young people with great art andculture opportunities.

1. To evaluate the effectiveness of using iPads on pupil progress and engagement

across three SEN schools

2. To evaluate the sub enquiries in each school which reflected the different needs from

the schools. These sub enquiries were looking at: writing, punctuation and parentalengagement

3. To identify common themes across the schools

The research conducted was action research and involved a practitioner, class teachers,

teaching assistants (TAs) and pupils. The rationale for it being an action research project

was so that the findings of the project can be related straight back into the schools to informfuture practice and effect positive and relevant change in the schools involved.

Methods used for collecting data were a series of observations of the classes working with

the practitioner and a series of interviews with the staff and the practitioner involved.

Alongside this qualitative data, quantative data was collected through the engagement

sheets across two schools and the assessment tool Nearpod was used in the other school

(see Royal Cross below).


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The Techno-ABLE project grew out of the Developing Different Voices series which is an

ongoing network for SEN schools across the North West run by Curious Minds. This grouphas brokered links between special schools, cultural organisations and research institutes

across the region in order to encourage arts, culture and creativity in schools. Three special

schools have worked in partnership with each other, Curious Minds and the practitioner

Paul Main to develop the Techno-ABLE project to answer the question:

How can we im prove pupi l engagement and progress through the use of creat ive

techno logy?

The technology used was the iPad and the schools were keen to discover how iPads couldencourage engagement and learning. This question had come about through recognition

that technology can significantly support young disabled people.We were keen to look at

ways to help develop new creative skills and a higher visibility for pupils to create a more

level playing field between themselves and their mainstream peers. The overall aim of this

was to expand the life chances of these young people.

Through partnership with DIY Theatre Company, the regional agency for delivery of training

and specialist knowledge around Arts Award, this project has incorporated Discover and

Explore Arts Awards.

The three schools that took part in the project had worked closely with Curious Minds and

engaged fully in theEnquiry and Change Creative Partnerships programmes, showing acommitment to the concept of creative learning. One school is based in Manchester and

the other two schools are based in Lancashire.

The project was awarded funding from Curious Minds of 10,500 with 1,500 from DIY

Theatre Company shared equally between the three schools and each school contributed

3,000 as their share making a total budget of 21,000

Participants

A total of 53 pupils took part in the project with ten pupils from Tor View School, 24 pupils

from Royal Cross, and five pupils from Lancasterian school.

One highly experienced technical practitioner, Paul Main was involved across all three

schools to lead the project with staff and pupils. 21 members of staff across all three

schools made up of teachers and teaching assistants participated.

Jude Bird, the Cultural Education Manager from Curious Minds was the Project Manager

and Leigh Gardner was the Researcher/Evaluator.


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Jude Bird, Paul Main and the lead teachers from each school liaised closely to plan the

project. The schools received one session of CPD with Paul Main to familiarise themselveswith the iPads and some of the apps that Paul thought would be appropriate. Paul was to

work with a designated group in each school for six sessions spread across twelve weeks.

In Tor View and Lancasterian schools Paul worked with KS4 groups and in Royal Cross he

worked across KS1 and KS2. Tor View and Lancasterian were able to split their groups in

half in order to have a control group which did the same work as the iPad group (without

using the iPads) .Royal Cross took the opportunity to use the iPads across the whole

school as they had a genuine desire for total inclusivity and was possible due to them being

a very small school, so had no control group. The engagement sheets were filled out for

every pupil in both the iPad groups and the control group. The engagement sheets were notused in Royal Cross (see below). The engagement sheets were an assessment tool

developed by Tor View school from research conducted by Professor Barry Carpenter

OBE.

Each school applied its own sub question to work to, in order to meet the different needs of

the separate schools.


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Tor View Special Community School

Tor View Community Special School is situated on the edge of Rossendale in Lancashire

with views out across open countryside. It has 150 pupils ranging from 3-18 and holds

Specialist Arts College status. It caters for pupils with moderate learning difficulties (MLD)

through to pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD)

Staff involved: Six. In both groups there was a lead teacher and lead teaching assistant

(TA). The lead teachers took on responsibility of planning and the TAs took on the

responsibility of filling out the Engagement sheets. The control group lead teacher was the

Discover and Explore representative and was responsible for putting together the portfoliosfor this.

Number of iPads: Ten

Number of pupils in the iPad group: Ten

Sub question:How far and in what ways can we facilitate the development and

retention of new skills to improve learning?

This sub question came from recognising the need for the retention of writing skillsespecially in punctuation with use of capital letters. Paul Main informed the staff that he

would look for apps to help with this and described this as Firing up the neural pathway

through games.

Each pupil was identified with a specific learning need and set a target and the lead teacher

used the work produced (the eBooks) to assess these targets.

Methodology

Alongside the lead teacher Paul discussed planning of sessions and the suggestion of

making an eBook was taken up enthusiastically. Through this ebook, the pupils would have

the freedom to experiment with apps that Paul found for them and the chance to practice

writing skills, without realising that they were writing. There was recognition from staff that

this would be helpful in the future with the lead teacher saying:


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Lead teacher

I am hoping it will give me the time to try out the apps properly and have an awareness of

all the different programmes this would be useful to take to outreach in secondaryschools, make me more aware and give me quick ways to search for things. It will make

me use my iPad more for teaching. And hopefully get my assessment results up.

Common themes noted by the lead teacher at the beginning, included a lack of confidence

and pupils not being able to check their work they are either reluctant to do it or do not

know how to do it. It was hoped that using iPads could promote greater confidence or

eliminate some of the self doubt.

First observation - First session

The first session was used to get a baseline for the engagement sheets so the lead teacher

helped the pupils to choose things they knew they enjoyed doing, therefore the class were

all involved in separate activities and the TA was able to get results of what engagement

looked like for each individual.

2nd

Observat ion Second sess ion

At this session the students were more used to seeing Paul and trying out the iPads. There

were 8 out of the 10 students present. One student S sits separately during class time from

the rest of the students who were all sitting together with their desks all pushed together.

Paul showed them an app, Spelling Lite and there was an immediate hush as they started

to concentrate. After 10 minutes there was still an interest and a buzz as some were

working at different paces and getting onto different levels so others wanted to see andknow what they were on. 15 minutes in there was still great interest and this continued until

break, when the pupils had to be stopped from working.

Example of eng agement

Student (S) with ASD and behavioural problems

S was using her iPad and with her teaching assistant used paper and pad to try to find the

correct spelling. S has written swimming clearly on her paper and lasts at this task for 25

mins. Then the TA lets her play for a break on something else.


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The teaching assistant working with S remarked:

Teaching assistant

Its really good because it is helping her with her writing without S realising it as her writing

can be problematic.

We were to see examples of this learning without realisingit, throughout the whole project.

3rd Observation Final Session

During this session it was really apparent how familiar the pupils had become with theiPads and levels of concentration and engagement were again high. There was very little

sound in the room as the group worked, heads bent over their iPads and the only talking

was the teacher helping one of the pupils.

Paul was working on their eBook with them and using photographs of them working to add

in. When Paul asked what apps could be used to help with the book one of the boys

immediately called out, Poplet, one of the apps they had used previously, showing an

interest and a retention of information. The pupil who sits on her own started the session

outside of the classroom (this was the first day back after half term and it takes this pupil a

while to settle back into class.) She then became interested in what was going on and sat

at her place using the iPad for most of the session. When another pupil joined her at her

desk S looked over at her photos and recognised herself and Paul on a photo which made

her laugh. This was an unexpected engagement and communication from S.

The iPads are all numbered and each pupil was able to recognise which number they used

with one pupil aware of the numbers for practically every member of the group, again

showing an engagement and interest in the iPads and project.

One of the TAs remarked that the class was really helping each other with their tasks. Oneof the other boys went over to help one of the girls and her TA who were trying

unsuccessfully to find something and then went straight back to his own task. This young

man had been concentrating very hard on his eBook and his TA remarked:

Teaching assistant

S is now able to ask for help if he gets stuck. He tries things on his own but doesnt mind

asking for help on it whereas if he was writing, his pen would be down and he would be

looking around the room instead of asking for help.


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Through working on the iPad and being able to experiment, this pupils confidence has

grown enough to enable him to ask for help if he needs it. This is something that is

occurring more across the class. Staff also commented that they are able to see

immediately how pupils are getting on as in the case of a partially sighted pupil who wasstruggling with work that could then be made bigger for her on the screen, but if she had

been bent over her paper and pen, they may not have realised she was struggling.

Assessment of Targets set

The lead teacher drew up targets for the pupils by marking their current target and giving

them a target to work towards based on their English and writing e.g.:

English writing, (Pupils name ) level NCL -2B

Current To produce writing that conveys meaning making appropriate word choice

Working towardsTo order words correctly in writing

Number of pupils who met both targets 4

Number of pupils who met current target 8

Number of pupils who met working towards

target

4

Number of pupils who met working towards

target but inconsistently

3

Number of pupils who met neither target 2

The two pupils who met neither target had been set targets which, once the project moved

on and acquired its own life, were not relevant to them they however both have surpassed

expectation in what they got out of the project, for instance S in the example above being

able to join in and concentrate on a task for 25 minutes and the other pupil using ideas of

her own to make her eBook.


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During the sessions working with the practitioner the pupils demonstrated skills in being

able to listen, follow instructions and really experiment with the iPads to find out what theycould do for themselves. Behaviour was seen to be very good (at one point in the final

session a TA came in to say she was supposed to be in the class to cover, she looked

around at all the pupils working and concentrating and said, Well it looks like you dont

need me and left. There was an increase in independent learning and the iPads were very

useful for personalised learning as apps and games could be set at different levels to suit

the pupils needs. Pupils were asking for help much more than they had done before the

project and were also much more willing to share and help each other out. The iPads were

also making it easier for staff to see what the pupils could and couldnt do and to be able to

make adjustments to the iPad instantly (see example of partially sighted pupil above). The

pupils looked forward to Paul coming into school and responded to him in a very positive

manner.


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Royal Cross Primary School

Royal Cross is in Preston Lancashire and is Lancashires only school for deaf children. It

caters for pupils from ages 4-11.Pupils can travel long distances across Lancashire toaccess it. There are currently 24 pupils with a high proportion of boys and a higher than

average number of pupils with English as an additional language.

Staff involved: Three teachers and five TAs

Number of iPads in use 6 Number of pupils involved - 24

Sub question:

How far can st ructured ICT workshop s and act iv i t ies develop go od c omm unicat ion

and so cia l relat ionsh ips between deaf chi ldren and th eir famil ies?

This is an important question for Royal Cross as they really wanted to make better

connections with parents, especially fathers. A high proportion of their pupils are from

Asian families and for these families the father tends to be the English speaker and the

more dominant person in the family. There was also a big issue about finding ways for

children to be using technology at home as a tool for communication and not just as a tool

for playing. There was the intention that the children could more fully enter into family life

and by sharing some of the apps in use at school the hope is that parents may feel moreconnected to the school. So this project is looking towards the iPad as a tool for

communication not isolation.

Methodology

It took longer than in the other two schools for a clear methodology to be constructed as

there was a long wait for the iPads to arrive in school. The engagement sheets were not

suitable assessment tools for this school as the pupils are generally highly engaged in

learning so Paul helped to develop other methods of assessment and the school is really

keen to develop the iPads to help with assessment. In KS2, the project changed from

working on literacy skills to developing skills in science and this was then assessed using

as assessment programme called Nearpod. In KS1 the time with Paul was spent on

developing skills to form and recognise letters and they experimented with different apps to

enable this to happen. In the last session the pupils worked on finishing off their eBooks

which will form their assessment for Discover and Explore Arts Awards. For the penultimate

session Paul worked with KS1 and with KS2 on the last session. These changes and

occurrences happened as the school and Paul experimented to find the best methods for

working across all four classes as Royal Cross, in order to fulfill their genuine desire for

inclusivity and to engage the parents, decided on a whole school project.


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Alongside Paul working in school, the parents strand of the project was very important and

Royal Cross organised three workshop days to involve parents. These workshops were

designated to take place on three Saturdays in May, June and finishing with a social trip in

July. The rationale for choosing a weekend was to enable parents who work during theweek to attend as the school knows that this is a barrier to attendance at events. One of

the other barriers to parental engagement is proximity to school and transport difficulties so

transport costs were built into the project budget to overcome this. As our project was about

communication I constructed three questions to ask some of the parents:

Questions to parents

1. Do you feel you know what your childs day in school is like when they come home?

2. Do you use Moodle at home (Moodle is the online communication tool for sharing

information between school and home)3. Do you think the iPad can help with communication between you and your child?

I spoke to three sets of parents directly and observed others working with their children.

Observations

First observation using two borrowed iPads. Session 1Reception 3 pupils. The teacher felt it was important to find new ways to deliver literacy

so that the children did not get bored. From this class my main observation was that the

children were engaged when they were in control of the iPad (we were sharing two iPads)

but not interested if someone else had it.

Y1 and Y2, 4 pupils. This class were working on the story of The Hungry Caterpillar in a

very visual way. The children broke at the end and played in the classroom demonstrating

excellent learning through play skills one girl was making sounds down a cardboard tube

and the teacher explained that she is just learning that she can make her own sounds. After

free time Paul introduced the dragon through augmented reality and showed the pictures up

on the whiteboard. Only two pupils were here by this time. The pupil who had been playing

with her voice looked around the classroom for the dragon and hid behind Paul and the

other pupil looked very excited by it. There was a very immediate trust shown towards the

practitioner from these children when the pupil wanted to hide from the dragon, she chose

Paul to hide behind and not her more familiar teacher. This trust in Paul was an important

part of the project and something that was apparent across all three schools.


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2nd observation Third session

Y1 and Y2 - From this visit I could see independent learning, sharing and the teacher found

it very useful to be able to observe her two new pupils and see what they are capable of

doing as they were working independently and making their own choices.Teacher

Ive not had a chance to be able to watch them like this before

Paul had set up some apps for the pupils to use and they enjoyed experimenting as shown

below:

From researchers field notes:

The level of concentration is high this is over an hour they have been occupied on one

task. They have absolute control over what they are doing no-one is telling them they

cant go on things, they are just finding stuff for themselves.

One boy who had not shown any interest in the iPads in the first session (when there were

only two) sat with his support worker for over an hour looking at the iPad, and with help, he

used his finger to draw letters. This pupil normally moves around a lot and finds it hard toconcentrate due to his needs.

One of the new girls dropped her iPad (the covers for them had not yet arrived) so she was

given another one but was ignoring her instructions to leave it on the desk. She had it

taken from her and then when got it back she played with it until she found a way to take a

photo while keeping it on the desk thus demonstrating a way to problem solve! This

child wanted to know Why? they had to stop at home time, as she was, in the words of her

teacher so engrossed.

3rd observation KS2 Final Session

There are two classes in KS2 and I observed them both on this day. The first class below I

had observed on my first visit prior to the iPads being in school and the second class had

not been observed by me before.

First class

The pupils were immediately showing an excitement that Paul was there and greeted him

with a very enthusiastic Good Morning Paul. There were six pupils present but Paul only

dealt with five of them as one of them was not having a good day and was outside for most

of the session. Paul explained that they were going to add labels to the photographs taken


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by the photographer and the pupils remembered how to add text, talking Paul through it as

he demonstrated on the whiteboard. Paul asked them to download three photos and put

their labels on. During this activity they needed a lot of help but there were no signs of

frustration, the concentration was high and there was an air of excitement and willingness.As the pupils filled in labels they showed them to Paul very proudly. When they came to

make their second pages, they were working with more confidence and the HLTA in charge

of the group remarked:

HLTA

Its amazing how quickly they get it and they will remember it.

As the children worked at this activity there was a buzz and chatter this was the oppositeof what had been happening in Tor View when the pupils were silent in their concentration

and an example of how engagement can be shown in different ways. This noise of

working was demonstrating high levels of engagement, excitement and involvement in their

activity and the pupils were very relaxed in this learning.

In the second KS2 group the pupils were more able to work on the task (this is a higher

level class) and Paul realised that they were getting through the photos and labels very

easily so he chose some different activities for a couple of the boys to stretch them further.

This was a demonstration of how the iPads can be used for differentiation instantly. The

class teacher told me of the last lesson Paul was with them when they had been looking at

telling the time:

KS2 teacher on working on the iPads to tell the time

They could all work at their own rate which is what I like about technology, not the same

pressure to keep up with the rest of the world.


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Parent Engagement Workshop

First Workshop

The first workshop was attended by ten families and one of the fathers had never been inthe school before. One of the new pupils parents attended, they are both deaf and are

known as having a history of non engagement with schools. This was a very good start to

the workshops and the feedback at the end of the session was that it had been worthwhile

and the parents would like to do similar sessions.

Parents felt they could find out how their childs day had gone through the Homework book

and through Moodle, which they were all aware of and had started to use it.

Parent comments about Moodle

D (child) controls it all I find it useful as it links to games and the curriculum.

This comment is an example of how important technology is as a means of communication

between school and home. When asked if they thought that the iPad could improve

communication at home with their children all the parents agreed that they thought it could.

One of the dads plays games on the home iPad with his son and during these games his

son will talk to him via the online chat roomeven though they are sitting next to each

other. It is a clear and quick form of communication for them and accessible via

technology:

Parent comment

If it wasnt for digital technology, D would really struggle.

During this workshop parents got the chance to try out some of the apps that the pupils had

been using in school. The iPads were out on a large table in the conference room and

parents and children came in to play on them with the reception teacher, helping and

guiding them on apps. One of the parents was very impressed with some of the work her

son had done using Story Creator and she wanted to know how to get it on her iPad at

home. This parent had accessed funding from the Birkdale Trust to purchase an iPad and

the workshop was an ideal place for her to pass this information on to other parents to

encourage them to apply. Parents swapped information about other apps they had seen or

were using and the feedback at the end of the session was that this opportunity for mixing

and meeting had been very useful. They were also able to make suggestions as to what

would be useful to them and their children with the iPads and one of the suggestions was

that the teacher could film herself doing some signs for new words as the pictures of

signing were often hard to interpret.


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Conclusion

This project became a whole school project as they were so keen to share the iPads across

everyone. Therefore without a control group there can be no comparison to how pupils

progressed doing similar activities without the iPads. However, the enthusiasm across theschool from both staff and pupils has made this a very successful pilot scheme with a

higher level of engagement and involvement from the parents than was expected. KS2

looked at the ways that the iPads were being used in KS1 (as this is a small school, sharing

and best practice is very easily distributed) and KS2 staff decided that they wished to focus

on science and assessment more, rather than stay with KS1 on a focus for letter formation,

writing and literacy. Across both key stages differentiated learning was really important and

the instant access that the iPads can give for this was very apparent.


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Lancasterian School

Lancasterian is based in south Manchester in a highly residential area and is a Special

School for Communication and Interaction. The ages range from two to sixteen and theschool caters for pupils with physical difficulties, severe medical conditions and

communication needs.

Staff involved Two lead teachers for both groups, five TAs

Number of iPads Six

Number of pupils in the iPad group: Five

Number of pupils in Control group: Six

Sub question:

How far and in w hat ways can we faci l i ta te the development of l i teracy ski l ls in an

enjoyable and transferable way?

The lead teacher felt strongly that iPads could be used for finding different ways of working

and had been using her own iPad with the class to make and tell stories. This teacher

wanted her pupils to be able to explore the iPads and see them as something fun and not

necessarily something that was for learning, so she wanted to find ways for the learning to

be hidden in the fun. This teacher works very creatively to encourage the pupils to

experience different ways of learning for instance just before this project, the pupils had

been experiencing what it may have been like for Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel

by lying under the tables and painting onto paper pinned to the underside of the desks.

Methodology

The iPads that some of the pupils had at home were very much used for playing games onso Pauls aim was to find apps that would help with literacy while ensuring that the pupils

were enjoying using the iPads. Paul and the lead teacher planned sessions together and

decided that one of the ways to develop the literacy skills was to find different ways to

present a story (this reflects one of the needs in Royal Cross at KS1 where the teacher

wanted to find different ways to present literacy.) This class had a lesson with the lead

teacher two days before Paul was due so Paul and the lead teacher decided to use the

lesson on the Monday to present a story with Paul following it up on the Wednesday with

the iPads. The class looked at the Easter story in the first session with the iPads (which

was the second session working with Paul) then moved on to Gullivers Travels and then


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they worked on their e books. The control group was following the same lesson plan and

the lead teacher was teaching the control group.

First Observation First session

The class were learning about Italy and working on a book that was going into a bigger

book of Italy. We did not use the iPads in this session and Paul and I used the session to

get to know the pupils. One of the pupils was excited that he was going to be able to find

out about Italian football and later in the session he brought his work over to show Paul and

me. His teacher explained that this pupil has fantastic verbal skills but cant transfer them

to his writing so working on the iPad on letter formation would be useful for him.

Second Observation Third session

The group were working on Gullivers Travels and had read the story two days before with

the lead teacher. Pauls plan was to recap the story and then check their own retelling by

making it into a comic. We started work in one room but soon had to move to another room

for another class and lost some time doing this. However this disruption did not hinder the

engagement nor the enjoyment which was surprising. The pupils settled back to their work

as soon as we were in the other room. Using augmented reality in order to make the

pictures small to the pupils, Paul showed pictures of the story and the pupils took it in turns

to look:

Student responses to Gullivers Travels Augmented Reality

Pupil male 1: Oh my God!

Pupil male 2: I couldnt believe my eyes!

The pupils eagerly swapped the pictures around to try them out and Paul let them know that

they would be making comics next. (We had to move again at this point but as before, themove did not disrupt the concentration)

Now working in the studio everyone settled on the floor apart from Pupil male 1 (above)

who chose a chair and Paul started them all with the app, Comic Life. J called me over to

help and at this point we were all struggling to put the title in and needed Paul to help us.

One boy said it was hard to do and Pupils male 1 and I found our writing went into the title

not the speech bubble. There were no signs of frustration at this though, each student

waited very patiently for Paul to come and help . The photos I took show concentration and

engagement.


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Teaching assistant and student during Comic Life building

Do you like the iPads (Name)?

Yes

Do you like writing on them?

Yes

The TA told us that it is hard for the students to associate the iPad with anything but games

so using it as a tool for writing was unusual. Paul finished the session with them doing

some games of their choice. This was a session with very high levels of concentration.

There was also a huge amount of trust and acceptance from the pupils as they looked to

Paul for help and encouragement and were also asking me for help. After this session the

pupils were very keen to take their teacher back to the room to show her the little people

they had seen on the augmented reality and the teacher then built on this idea and brought

in Little People toys which they used to photograph and make Gulliver books on the iPad.

These books were done alongside the control group as one big group and the lead teacher

observed the iPad group sharing their new found skills with their peers and helping them.

This was unexpected behaviour as the pupils do not normally share their work or expertise

with each other.

Third Observation final session

During this session the pupils continued using Comic Life and used the images that the

photographer had taken to make ebooks. One of the boys was having a slightly difficult day

and lost one of his rewards from his TA. Paul changed his activity for him immediately as he

wanted to Do it myself and the boy was delighted to be on an app where he could record

his voice (Story Robe) over his pictures and be more in control of what he was doing. One

of the other boys opened Tellegami (one of the apps they had been using) and started to

write a story with the sentence:

Example of pupils sentence writing

I am writing on the iPad.

By choosing his app and way of writing his story, this pupil was showing his independence

and his ability to choose his own way of learning.

Again, as in the session I had previously been in, we had to move rooms but the pupils

coped with this in a very mature and sensible manner and as soon as we settled in our new

area, they got straight back to their eBooks. One of the pupils in the iPad group is regularly


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removed from lessons for behaviour problems. Of the six sessions with Paul he only had to

be removed once which was a strong sign from him that he was engaging well.

The lead teacher has been able to encourage fine motor skills through the use of the iPads they are much more accessible to her students than the computers and one pupil loves to

do jigsaws which he cant manage with his motor skills so is really enjoying being able to do

them on the iPad.

Conclusion

The lead teacher had been keen to ensure that the iPads would be seen as something to

be enjoyed and the pupils had no problems seeing them as that. They did see them as

something for games and through the apps that Paul choose for them and the activities he

planned for them, these games continued, while also encouraging the pupils to write and

experiment with words. As with Tor View, we were seeing the pupils learning without

realising it. During morning sessions with their teacher, if the students saw the iPads out on

the tables they would go straight to the tables to do their spellings so that they could then

go on the iPads. This was a big change but the iPads acted as an incentive fro the pupils to

get their spellings done. The lead teacher was in charge of the Control group and when she

worked with them on making books on the iPads, the iPad group were very helpful in

sharing their skills and encouraging their peers.

The iPads have had an effect on behaviour as concentration is high and the pupils arereally enjoying using them and gaining independence with their work. This has also helped

their motivation (see spelling example above) Confidence has grown as the results of what

the pupils are doing are so visual and immediate that they can see their work and then

show it very proudly to others, as well as being able to help others find ways to access the

iPads.

In terms of future work in Lancasterian the lead teacher feels that the school will probably

buy more iPads and is looking at them across the whole school, with a project currently

taking place with iPads in Nursery.


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The Messiness of Research

This report, as detailed above, has been developed in order to put together the findings

from the Techno - ABLE project and as it has been collected and edited by the author, it

becomes a subjective piece of work which is one of the many criticisms of qualitative social

research. In writing and collecting the data I have tried to remain unbiased and open to

what I have been observing. I have copious field notes I have studied at great length to

look for themes across all the schools, themes in each school and answers to the questions

we asked and in this search for answers have often found myself and the data asking more

questions! Research is messy I may be expecting to find something out and I am led in a

completely different direction by my subject it is this messiness that brings the research to

life for me. I am looking at real people, children, teachers, parents, practitioners, a moment

in someones life and not looking at a neat row of figures that I expect to give me neat

answers at the Total column at the bottom. It is this realness and congruence from the

participants that makes research alive for me but also what makes it difficult sometimes to

piece succinctly together.

All three schools are very different and in each school there are a multitude of differences of

needs in the pupils so this research is in many ways about three separate projects, with, in

Royal Cross, another three separate projects, all under the banner of our one question:

How can we improve pup i l engagement and progress through the use of

creat ive techno logy?

The two factors that remained constant across the schools were:

1. The iPads

2. Paul Main, the practitioner

The iPads caused an excitement and engagement from the start they had the Novelty

Factor to start with so engagement was quite high from the beginning, what became

apparent though, was that this engagement was something real and not something that

occurred just because the activities were new. This is an important finding as it is the

engagement that will help to sustain this work and carry this project forward. Through being

engaged pupils have been able to show progression not only in terms of literacy skills (for

instance the letter formation, forming sentences, writing with capital letters) but in terms of

personal skills and behaviours.


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Concentration has been very high throughout the project and pupils have demonstrated

clearly that they have been learning through the fun and enjoyment of the iPads. Pupils are

able to remember the names of apps, to choose appropriate apps for specific pieces of

work, to be able to share their work with staff and peers and to take great pride in thatsharing. There has been far more independent learning occurring and pupils have been

able to correct their work without their peers knowing what they are doing which has

produced a surge of confidence this confidence is being seen through pupils actually

asking for help when they need it. To aid this independence the iPads have been used to

help with differentiated learning and this has been done quickly and with minimal disruption

as pupils are working apps can be changed, levels set differently to accommodate various

needs, all to benefit the pupil and empower them at their level.

None of this could have happened though without Paul who had the technical capacity to

be able to experiment and find apps suitable for the users. Paul was an essential part of

the process, instilling enthusiasm and understanding of the iPads across staff and students

and making the learning accessible for everyone. Several staff members have purchased

iPads for themselves and their families at home after working with Paul.

Many of these outcomes have reached across all three schools and figure 1 on the

following page shows this clearly.


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The project has changed in many ways from its beginning concept as each school used it

to shape to the needs of their learners and this adaptability will ensure that there is no end

to this project. The possibilities with the iPads or the next revolution of software is infinite

and our learners on the Techno-ABLE project will benefit from these possibilities immensely

and use them to enable them to expand their life chances and to give them the opportunity

to live a fulfilling and creative life.

CommonThemes

Across all3 Schools

Willingness to

help eachother

Increasedconfidence

Ability tocorrect own

work

Tools forassessment

Accessibilityfor motor skills

Working attheir own rate

Instant abilityto capture /

log/ evidencethings

Instant accessto the two

above

Differentiatedlearning

Independentlearning

Improvementsin behaviour

Figure 1


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full techoable report june 2013

Documents