ICT for learning

Ed PodestàLead Teacher for ICT across the Curriculum, Little

Heath SchoolPGCE Tutor, Oxford University

Hopes (and fears)

• Transformation• Skills• Personalisation• Independence• Relevance• Motivation• Access

Policy Makers

“Today’s technology is profoundly empowering.”T Blair (2006)

Policy Makers

Two thirds of the country has access to the internet. Millions of people are ordering flights or books or other goods online, they are talking to their friends online, downloading music, all of it when they want to, not when the shop or office is open. The Google generation has moved beyond the idea of 9 to 5, closed on weekends and Bank Holidays.

Policy Makers

• Passivity of users• Counsell & Haydn 2002–Rhetoric-reality gap–Dominant metaphor of ‘delivery’

• NOF style ‘top down’ training & implementation models

• Focus on hardware, at the expense of education of teachers and learners

Schools & Teachers

• Demands– On teacher time– On support resources– On budgets

• Polarised approaches– ‘Legacy - v – Future’ content; or– Ignore, or use minimally

Students

• Conflict between use of ICT at home and at school;

• False and debilitating preconception of ‘digital natives’;

• Passivity.

An analogy

An analogy• “many have claimed television to have a negative

effect on learning, while others show neutral or moderately positive effects”;

• “These systems are effective as teaching aids, not as a replacement to teaching”;

• “they cannot just be "turned on," but require preparation by the teacher, and incorporation into on-going classroom lessons”; and

• “There must be a close "fit" between the television component, the school curriculum, and the student”.

Television in the Classroom: What Does the Research Say? (1991)

A remedy?

‘man’s life cannot “be lived” by repeating the pattern of his species; he must live’

(Fromm 2003, p.29),

A remedy ?‘man’s life cannot “be lived” by repeating the

pattern of his species; he must live’

• teachers using ICT increasingly see themselves as facilitators of learning

• teachers and pupils were reported to be interacting more than in traditional classroom situations

• There was also an increased desire for interaction on the part of pupils ;

• Too much freedom, independence that is not well planned, well “scaffolded”, or well understood leads to problems and disengagement.

Hennessey et al. 2003,

A remedy?

Good teaching and learning [with ICT] starts with good planning.