e-help Seminar 32 Using ICT to strengthen independent learning
Toulouse 8-10 June 2006
The
Rules
of
Engagement…
The
Rationale
for
the
presentation
is
that…
•
ICT
makes
for
good
engagement.
Engagement
is
essential
for
good
learning
•
ICT
has
the
potential
to
promote
independent
learning
HOWEVER…
•
Tasks
have
to
be
carefully
constructed
in
order
to
create
the
correct
circumstances
ICT is an essential tool in the modern
classroom; it can engage pupils on a number of levels and make the job
of the teacher considerably easier. However, the use of ICT does not
necessarily ensure good learning. There could even be a situation where
the class is quiet and engrossed in their computer/web-based activity,
but getting no lasting benefit from the activity. All activities, ICT or
not, should challenge pupils thinking at a high level and try to make
them better learners.
It is impossible to separate engagement, from getting pupils to think at
a high level and making them into independent learners - they are all
linked. The aim of all three is to create an effective learning
environment.
The Rules of Engagement
In their recent ‘Pedagogy and Practice’ Pack the DfES stated that,
“People learn best when they are interested, involved and
appropriately challenged”. This is hardly a revelation, but it is easy
to forget the third clause in that sentence. Some of the ICT going on in
History classrooms is exciting and captures the imagination for a short
time, but does not involve a level of complexity and challenge students
mentally. If learning is to be effective then interest, involvement and
challenge all need to be addressed. With this in mind, and the research
and Vygotsky and Piaget, the DfES came up with nine rules of Engagement:
1. Activities have a clear purpose and relevance
2. New knowledge is related to old
3. Presentation is varied
4. Activities generate curiosity
5. Pupils ask questions and try new ideas
6. Pupils see their achievements and progress
7. Pupils analyse their thinking/learning
8. Pupils gain satisfaction and enjoyment from their work
9. Pupils get a positive image of themselves a learners
Of these nine, ICT covers six of the points really well:
• Activities have a clear purpose and relevance
• Presentation is varied
• Activities generate curiosity
• Pupils ask questions and try new ideas
• Pupils see their achievements and progress
• Pupils gain satisfaction and enjoyment from their work
The benefit of most widely available applications is that they
automatically give you an end product, e.g. a presentation using Power
Point or a movie using Movie Maker. Also, the wealth of free
applications can allow you to build variety into lessons; and, if lots
of packages are used, then pupils will have to figure out how they work
and interact with others to create the desired results. If the end
products are realised then pupils should get a sense of achievement and
satisfaction form their work.
This leaves three points that do not naturally appear in ICT activities:
• New knowledge is related to old
• Pupils analyse their thinking/learning
• Pupils get a positive image of themselves a learners
ICT activities can include these elements of learning, but they need to
be thought about carefully and planned into any activity. We should not
see this as a simple process: saving work from one lesson to the next
does not constitute ‘New knowledge is related to old’. Teachers need
to make review and linking points into a structured part of the lesson
so that learning becomes connected. Analysis of thinking needs to
tackled in a formal way – how the activity was completed and how the
skills can be applied in other contexts.
Independent Learning
As well as fully engaging pupils with ICT, we should be trying to
increase their general ability as learners. This can be easy to achieve
and in some senses supports the way that applications are designed. The
key is to make the principles of independent learning explicit to pupils
and help them to analyse how these are enhanced through the learning.
For me, independent learning involves:
• Problem-solving
• Inter-personal skills
• Industrious activity • Self-motivation
• Creativity
• Being reflective
The question is, how can ICT activities be used to achieve these?
PowerPoint: Instruction/research
Teachers make good use of PowerPoint, whether they make effective use is
another matter. If we simply use PowerPoint as a means of imparting
information then it will cause paralysis among the masses. However,
PowerPoint does come with a number of interactive elements and with a
little manipulation you can create a meaningful activity that has a
clear purpose and allows for independent learning.
Create a clear activity for pupils to follow: PowerPoint does not have
to be passive. You can use it to create surprises and force pupils to
discover information in order to complete an activity. The process of
learning needs to be the same for any type of activity. We need to have
a learning journey; for example, I have created a virtual battlefields
tour that allows pupils to visit sites and monuments in order to
complete the preparatory work for their coursework. The focus is clear
and the information has to be found and carefully sorted. I have used
the ‘grow/shrink’ option to help with the analysis pictures
(different parts of the image can be emphasised at different times using
a simple cropping and overlay technique). Also, transparent boxes can
have hyperlinks attached to them to create interactive maps and
diagrams. This increases the search element of the task and the idea of
discovery.
Using action settings will allow you to set consequences for pupils
rolling over a particular section. This can create interest and
surprises and to some extent create interaction, simulate research and
problem-solving.
PowerPoint: Peer Instruction
A step forward from exciting presentations created for pupils to use, is
allowing pupils the time and space to make creative PowerPoints of their
own. In this way they can solve problems and reach a meaningful goal.
The challenge does not have to come solely from the ICT aspect: pupils
can be set the challenge of giving a lively presentation with PowerPoint
as one aspect – integrating the ICT to achieve a wider objective. The
opportunities for internal and external challenges make ICT a flexible
option in the classroom.
If you are just using PowerPoint then challenge can be created quite
easily by asking pupils to work with a restricted number of slides,
points or words. Another idea is to include an evaluation scale. For
example, if pupils have identified and discussed five factors then ask
them to assign a numerical value to each one – they should distribute
15 points over the slides, with no two slides having the same value.
This will create a hierarchy and force pupils to consider the idea of
significance.
Another idea is to create ‘How to…’ guides. This could involve an
aspect of history, or even be a structured look at how they achieved the
task. For example, after completing a presentation, you could ask the
group to produce a set of ICT resources for teachers to help them
conduct a lesson entitled ‘How do you build an effective
presentation?’
The most effective way to move skills forward is to blend ICT with
Assessment for Learning strategies. As well as having pupil targets for
History skills, they could have targets in Communication. This will
allow them to see that the subject is a blend enquiry and development
skills and finding ways to present that information effectively. These
targets might be explicitly linked to ICT (e.g. Use the cropping tool to
create more specific analysis of images) or they may be about more
general communication concepts (e.g. Engage the audience more in your
presentations). The first is an example of a scaffold approach that
helps pupils to think about how ICT and communication skills can be
built up. The second is more open and encourages pupils to think about a
range of strategies (some ICT and some not) to help move them forward.
Both have their place and should be used to maximise pupil learning.
PowerPoint is a little unfashionable these days. To dismiss it as a tool
misses the point of its use in the classroom. All schools have access to
it and so do many pupils at home. It does not matter if there are better
tools out there for delivering presentations, what we need to focus on
is the skills it can give pupils in terms of the possibilities of ICT.
They can then take this to other applications and investigate these for
themselves. We should always keep in mind that the ICT is there to
support the History and applications should only be judged in terms of
whether or not they can move historical thinking forward. PowerPoint can
be used to support problem-solving, and manipulated to enhance
inter-personal skills (e.g. to create an interactive back-drop for
dramas or role-plays), it can be used in a number of creative ways
enhance presentations and provides pupils with skills that they can
analyse and reapply elsewhere.
Movies: Thinking Prompts
Movies can be a really effective way of demonstrating a point. This can
be taken a step further by introducing a theme or idea for pupils to
develop or debate. The principle here is that pupils are not just
passive observers, but part of a joke or mental jolt. For example, the
politics of interwar Britain can be presented as the six episodes of
Star Wars (as in, Stanley Baldwin is the ‘Phantom Menace’ who caused
the end of the Lloyd George Coalition). This can then become an exercise
in lateral thinking with students continuing a story started by the
teacher, or challenging the interpretation established in the film. In
this way, Movie Maker can be used to set up a learning task that makes
pupils think, evaluate and be creative.
In a similar way, music videos can be used to make links to individual
lessons. More intelligent music acts will show an interpretation of the
lyrics within their videos and so this offers two possible points for
discussion: the images and the lyrics. So, when teaching Appeasement and
the mindset of the British public, Radiohead’s ‘No Surprises’
makes an excellent start and end point for the lesson.
Pupil Movies can be effective too. Allowing pupils access to Movie Maker
at regular intervals throughout a scheme of work means they can slowly
build up a audio and visual record of the work the are doing. This works
on a number of levels: pupils must carefully select information, but
have regular opportunity to review and edit; adding layers of complexity
actually improves work, because thinking is occurring at a higher level.
Movies can also be used to give pupils the space to work independently.
After a session of history, getting them to report directly into camera
- Big Brother diary room style – will allow pupils the chance to work
without interference and still give the teacher something to assess and
comment on (maybe in the form of a movie!). It can also be a stimulating
end product for pupils when conducting Projects. They are useful for
establishing chronologies and finding patterns.
Captivate or the free programme ‘Wink’ can provide something
similar. The rollovers and interactive elements can create an
environment which provokes thought and allows pupils to develop their
own routes through a particular problem. It can also give teachers and
pupils the facilities to make interesting ‘How to…’ guides.
Podcasting is an alternative to this. Pupils and teachers can get a lot
from audio recordings if they learn lessons from radio. Try to include
interviews, linked music, quizzes, news slots and reviews. All of this
introduces an element of thinking to the production and to the
listening.
Conclusions
Kim Cavanaugh & Debra Maupin argued, ‘Focusing on the process
rather than the tools reverses that dynamic so that students are able to
appreciate not only how a particular task is accomplished, but also
which technology is appropriate for the assigned task—a common skill
they will need when faced with real-world work requirements’. This
must be the starting point of all discussions about the use of
technology in the History classroom. If we add in ICT as an easy way to
grab attention, then we will make little headway in turning out good
quality learners. The skills we value as historians must be reflected in
our use of technology, otherwise there is little to justify its
inclusion. In the workplace, use of technology is fully integrated into
wider systems and we should be trying to prepare pupils for this.
For this to occur, it is important for teachers to hand control of ICT
over to the pupils. This will give pupils the chance to find out
strategies for themselves and become independent learners. A step on
from this is to give pupils clear criteria and then allow them to select
the most appropriate mode of presentation. This can throw up some
interesting results, with pupils exploring the possibilities of
technology as diverse as Flash and mobile phones.
In order to manage such situation, I find a flexible classroom model the
most helpful. Rather than taking pupils to a suite of computers, six are
installed in the teaching room. This allows teachers and pupils to
experiment with group dynamics and computer time. For example, a class
of 30 could be given a problem and then split into groups of five; they
can be told that they can access one computer per group over three
lessons. This will focus their attention on what can be achieved and
force them to think of alternatives to ICT.
Whatever strategies are employed, the most important section of any task
is the ‘debrief’ and looking at transferable skills. This type of
metacognition allows pupils to build on their skills and continually
move forward. This is what ICT in education should be about.
