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Intellect Books - Moira Monteith

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135 pages

English

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This book considers the cognitive nature of courses connected with ICT or using ICT as an integral part of the course, including some views on the associated learning and teaching styles. Which factors lead to learning outcomes and are these intended or fortuitous? Factors may include ones specific to particular subject areas and their relationship with ICT, motivation associated with ICT usage, the interest which teachers, pupils and students who enjoy using ICT bring to the learning context. Recent developments in the use of ICT, particularly in an educational context where us of ICT has become one of the learning strategies in the portfolio of options teachers possess, have meant that the pedagogic usage has become more important generally. The focus of this book is on the curricular use of ICT and so course evaluation and design are the main contents of each chapter. In this sense the curriculum becomes the cognitive site of learning. Most other books look at specific pedagogic uses rather than the debate between subject and skill learning. Also, a government research paper indicates that thinking skills may well become the new focus for the next phase of development.

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EDUCATION

General officer

Media studies

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Publié par	Intellect Books
Date de parution	01 janvier 2004
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781841508962
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1550€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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ICT for Curriculum Enhancement
Edited by Moira Monteith
First Published in the UK in 2004 by
Intellect Books , PO Box 862, Bristol BS99 1DE, UK
First Published in the USA in 2004 by
Intellect Books , ISBS, 920 NE 58th Ave. Suite 300, Portland, Oregon 97213-3786, USA
Copyright 2004 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Electronic ISBN 1-84150-896-9 / ISBN 1-84150-061-5
Cover Design: Gabriel Solomons Copy Editor: Holly Spradling
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd., Eastbourne.
Contents
Introduction
Moira Monteith
Chapter 1: Remodelling Education
Moira Monteith
Chapter 2: Just a Tool? The Computer as the Curriculum
Martin Owen
Chapter 3: The Computer Practice Framework: a tool to enhance curriculum development relating to ICT
Peter Twining
Chapter 4: Curriculum Enrichment: using online resources, balancing creativity with the readily available
Libby Jared
Chapter 5: Using role-play activity with synchronous CMC to encourage critical reflection on peer debate
Rachel Pilkington and Peter Kuminek
Chapter 6: Computers in Schools and Colleges: The User in Control
Jocelyn Wishart
Chapter 7: ICT and curriculum provision in early years
Deirdre Cook
Chapter 8: ICT Capability and Initial Teacher Training
Babs Dore and Cathy Wickens
Chapter 9: ICT as a Specialist Subject in Initial Teacher Training
John Chatterton
Chapter 10: Information society, situatedness and social construction: student teachers learning on a PGCE geography course
Tony Fisher
Chapter 11: IT as a Key Skill for Teachers: the delivery of IT as an integral component of a full-time PGCE programme
Stevie Vanhegan and Susan Wallace
Index
Introduction
Moira Monteith
This selection of forward-looking curriculum developments is organised specifically around the theme of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in education. The context alters in each chapter but the approaches coalesce in several ways. For example, we are all planning curricula which exploit the use of ICT and we believe that feature alone signifies changes in our learning patterns as teachers or students. We do not attempt to predict what technological surprises are in store for us, as previous publications have revealed how problematic this is to do accurately. However, we can with certainty comment on current practice and the implications of research for the near future. The connection between ICT and successful learning will remain as an integral link for a longer period of time than the technology which has brought it into discussion. Additionally, we are all seeking to find principles of practice within an educational environment which is changing rapidly as a result of the use of ICT alongside numerous government initiatives and strategies.
What is happening currently?
Teachers and, indeed, all educators are under pressure indirectly from league tables based on the position of their school, college or university in a range of tests and examinations. Pressure comes also from the challenges of planning to teach effectively and helping pupils and students learn. In this situation, ICT can be seen as both a support and a burden, depending on how it helps alleviate (or increase) the pressure. Some initiatives crowd out others; for instance, the introduction of the Literacy Hour (prescribed time for literacy development in the classroom) did suspend for a while some teachers willingness to spend time on ICT (Tyldesley, 2002).
At the moment there is an unprecedented amount of training at all educational levels, from primary schools to universities. The outcomes differ according to where a person is on the training ladder. Trainee teachers have to undertake courses in the use of ICT as a way of teaching their own subject if they wish to teach in secondary schools, and in primary they train to teach with ICT across all subjects. Teachers already in post also take part in training but do not have to be assessed on this, as trainee teachers do. Often, part of the training is considered less than satisfactory, by both trainers and trainees. Nevertheless, the training programme is a substantial starter. We hope that the second course will provide a more balanced menu. One thing we can say for certain, ICT will continue to be used in the next decade, but whether it will be whiteboards or laptops or both is yet to be determined.
The place of learning
Libby Jared in her chapter repeats Seymour Papert s claim: that the home and the family would be the dominant site of education and learning in the 21st Century , owing to the effects of widespread access to computers and various telecommunications equipment. That must be true, though the linkage can have very subtle effects.
In most western countries we pay more attention financially to university students, then secondary age pupils, then primary age pupils. Secondary pupils in the UK, for example, have more spent on them per pupil than children in primary schools. Hardware, in the form of computers, like the funding in our educational system, has always percolated downwards. During the 90s, very often the oldest machines went down to reception and nursery classes. However, it seems that if we turn the system around we might get rather more value for our money. Thornbury and Grenier (2002) discuss Substantial longitudinal research in New Zealand (Carr, 1998) [which] found that the home ownership of computers reversed achievement trends for poorer children. The families who owned computers when their children were younger conferred an advantage on the children in terms of later achievement in maths and English in the early years of schooling. This was regardless of family income; indeed, the advantages were more marked for children from low income families.
This is a most staggering and exciting indication which may lead us to reconsider the effects of ICT throughout our education system and its links with learning at home. It is true that educational research can only show us what happens in a specific situation or as a result of wide trawls of statistical information. Evidence gives hints, therefore, rather than definite predictions as to what might occur in similar situations, in this case early years education. It seems that computers, well set up in terms of being usable by young children and with appropriate software can encourage a very warm response. This is far from the notion of solitary children hammering at the keyboard to finish games or just using up their time to flip hedgehogs and other creatures about the screen. If all our children become literate and improve at Maths, this in itself would have a major impact on our schooling and subsequently further and higher education.
Use of ICT in learning emphasises or even uncovers what is actually happening in learning situations. It is like having counters or an abacus to count numbers: you can suddenly see (or feel) what is happening - the abacus factor. Home and school together have always had a pervasive influence on learning. You know whether or not you re able to learn in school, where your position is in society, whether girls can do science or boys learn foreign languages. Grammar schools in the UK had the effect they did partly because people believed they supported social mobility. Even though the selection was often mistaken and occurred at a great cost to some individuals. Now, it is possible that future generations may well have a foundation of learning at home which might (almost) be guaranteed to be positive. If that is the case, then the strengthening of home/school links will be extremely efficacious.
It seems we seldom change without considering our own philosophies and beliefs about the ways we learn and teach. (Cordingley, P. 2000, Moseley D. et al. 1999) That being the case, we need to do rather more than just go down to the computer suite for our required slot each week. We have to consider the principles that underlie our teaching and see how they could be accommodated to or even transformed by the use of ICT.
The organisation of the book
Of course, you may read the chapters in any sequence you find useful. It is an interesting feature that nearly every contributor has felt it necessary to explain the context of the teaching and learning situation as they see it. At first sight these paragraphs may look just slightly repetitive but I have not edited them out. They are not the same though similar; so indicating, I believe, how important the writers consider a particular context is to the way we learn. Many of the chapters mention the old curriculum which in part refers to demarcated old subject boundaries and in part the internalised curriculum which we as teachers develop and tend to rely on in the isolation of our classrooms, lecture halls and labs, away from our colleagues.
The first three chapters look at the changes ICT might bring in general to the curriculum. The first chapter sets out the position for change, the second argues for an educationally directed system of learning rather than one dominated by industrial models and indicates areas where the National Curriculum could be ground-breaking. The third illustrates how we assess our progress once we ve really started using ICT. The next four chapters look at different kinds of learning aided by ICT: use of a website, computer mediated communication to develop language skills, four studies looking at control of ICT as a learning medium, and the use of ICT in early years learning. The next four chapters consider the planning of specific teacher training courses where ICT is embedded within the course.
In chapter one, I suggest that the con