Dissolving Boundaries Through Technology in Education Project Primary School Links

Dissolving Boundaries through Technology in Education Project – Primary School Links

Heather Kinnear, Leslie Caul, Sandra McWilliams, Jill Dunn, Patricia Eaton and Mary McAlister, Stranmillis University College, Belfast

Paper presented to the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, University of Leeds, 13-15 September 2001

SUMMARY

This paper presents an evaluation of 5 case studies that aimed to promote various cross-curricular themes. Students enrolled on the BEd teacher education degree in a United Kingdom Higher Education Institution were selected on the basis of possessing high confidence and competence in ICT to spend their school-based work placement in 1 of 5 primary schools in Northern Ireland selected to participate in the Dissolving Boundaries project. Tutors from the University College were allocated to each school to supervise the students. The methodology of each evaluation consisted of semi-structured interviews with teachers, principals and focus groups with the tutors and students. Findings suggested a positive attitude among those involved and with a small number of exceptions, respondents seen Dissolving Boundaries as exciting, yielding some benefits in the present and promising more to come. The project served as a vehicle for staff development within the primary schools and resulted in improvements in children’s thinking, concentration, motivation and presentational skills. Each school progressed at a different pace and this was reflected in the use of NINE (Northern Ireland Network for Education) as the main communication forum. Timetabling constraints proved problematic in the initial stages, as did deciding on common curriculum areas in which to integrate the work of the Dissolving Boundaries project.

INTRODUCTION

ICT prepares pupils to participate in a rapidly changing world in which work and other activities are increasingly transformed by access to varied and developing technology. Pupils use ICT tools to find, explore, analyze, exchange and present information responsibly, creatively and with discrimination. They learn how to employ ICT to enable rapid access to ideas and experiences from a wide range of people, communities and cultures. Increased capability in the use of ICT promotes initiative and independent learning, with pupils being able to make informed judgements about when and where to use ICT to best effect, and to consider its implications for home and work both now and in the future.

The Government is fully committed to ensuring that all schools and teachers are in a position to deploy new ICT’s to raise educational standards to enhance learning and to prepare young people with the ICT skills they will need in society and at work in the 21st Century. In it’s manifesto commitments, the government pledged to set up a National Grid for Learning (NGfL) which was to be an architecture of educationally valuable content on the Internet and a programme of equipping schools and other institutions with the necessary infrastructure and connectivity needed to access that

1 content. To take this forward, a consultation paper “Connecting to the Learning Society” was published in October 1997 where the government invited comments on it’s plans and proposed demanding targets for ICT: 1. By 1999 all newly qualified teachers should become ICT literate to mandatory standards in order to receive qualified teacher status. 2. By 2002 serving teachers should generally feel confident and be competent to use ICT within the curriculum. 3. By 2002 all schools should be connected to the Grid enabling perhaps 75% of teachers and 50% of pupils to have their own e-mail addresses. 4. By 2002 most school leavers should have a good understanding of ICT based firmly on the standards prescribed in the National Curriculum across the UK.

There is little argument that enormous amounts of money have been expended on computers and computer technology in schools. A more contentious issue is the educational effectiveness of its integration into the normal classroom as a teaching/learning tool (Parker, 1999). Sandholtz et al (1996) concluded that one of the key factors on whether teachers integrated technology into their classrooms was the level of support they received from school administrators. Macneil & Delafield (1998) – Texas, USA found that the majority of principals viewed technology as very important in their schools and that it was important for teachers to utilize and learn technology as a curriculum tool.

Over the past few years, a number of projects in schools in Northern Ireland have produced examples of very good practice in a diverse range of applications of ICT. An American Integrated Learning System (ILS) has been evaluated in 2 primary schools in Belfast, Northern Ireland over the past 3 years, demonstrating immediate improvements in mathematical scores and some improvements in literacy and in motivation for learning. The evaluation also demonstrated the crucial importance of the effective management of the system, as a teaching resource, by well-trained and well-supported teachers. The Education Departments Superhighways Initiative (EDSI) provided through the CLASS project, a unique example of the use of the CD- ROM and videoconferencing to support staff development for teachers based in the school and working at a distance. The evaluation concluded that the project demonstrated an efficient and effective platform for flexible in-service provision for the acquisition of skills and knowledge, empowering schools to manage some of their own professional development needs cheaply, and with minimum disruption to pupil learning.

BACKGROUND

The Dissolving Boundaries through Technology in Education Project involves some 52 schools from both the primary and post-primary sector in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. On each side of the border there are 15 primary, 1 special and 10 post primary schools. Stranmillis University College nominated 5 primary schools in Northern Ireland, which will form the main focus of this study. All classes involved were Key Stage 2 and children were aged between 9 and 11 years. The project aimed to support schools in engaging in collaborative curricular projects using computer and video conferencing. In particular, the project was designed to promote the integration of technology in a meaningful way into curricular work, educationally valuable collaborative work done in schools, cross-border linkages, promoting mutual

2 understanding and sustainability of such work beyond the end of the project in June 2001.

The original idea was put forward by the Prime Minister and An Taoiseach in November 1998. The project was managed by Departments of Education in Belfast and Dublin, by the Computer Company Dell and the Telecommunications Company Eircom. Dell provided each school with 4 Optiplex GX100L computers and Eircom provided each school with ISDN lines and TV monitors to enlarge images on the videophones and video conferencing facilities (either a PC based system or a Siemens videophone). Eircom also provided Internet Service for schools in the South and funded this provision in the North for the duration of the project.

The Northern Ireland Network for Education (NINE) was the main platform for communication between schools. The project had its own conferencing area within NINE which, for safety and privacy reasons, was closed to non-participants. Folders were opened in NINE for each individual project with an area for work-related issues and an area for social interaction.

Training sessions were held for project teachers at St Mary’s University College, Belfast, the Coleraine and Jordanstown campuses of the University of Ulster and in many cluster groups in the Republic of Ireland. The focus of the first training event (March 2000) was on web crossing in NINE and a demonstration of video conferencing. North/South face-to-face conferences were held for both primary and post-primary sectors. Post primary teachers met in Belfast, Northern Ireland in March 2000 and primary teachers met in Maynooth, Republic of Ireland in April 2000. The second training event (September 2000) concentrated on Frontpage 2000, a web page design package. It was a requirement that all schools would produce their own web pages which would in turn be uploaded onto the Dissolving Boundaries project web- site, or onto the schools’ own web-site, if available, which in turn would be linked to the project web-site.

PGCE students from the University of Ulster and Queens University and BEd students from Stranmillis and St Mary’s who were on placement in the project schools had the opportunity to become involved in the Dissolving Boundaries project if their teaching practice coincided with the class(es) in the project.

METHODOLOGY

This was a series of 5 evaluative case studies carried out in order to understand and evaluate how effective schools in the project have been in engaging in collaborative curricular projects using both computer and video conferencing. In describing, explaining and interpreting what happened during this process, value judgements were also made as to the usefulness of ICT for the intended purposes.

The study consisted of a number of semi-structured interviews with both the teachers and principals of the schools and classes directly involved in the work of the project by a member of academic staff who acted as tutor for that particular school and supervised the students on placement. The responses were categorized under the following headings:

3 1 Qualifications and training in ICT 2 Benefits to the school and individual classes of being involved in the project 3 The use of ICT as a motivating factor in class 4 Regular use of the videoconferencing and web-crossing facilities 5 Increased confidence and competence of both pupils and teachers in the use of ICT 6 Classroom organization while integrating ICT into the curriculum 7 Time-tabling constraints 8 Importance of mutual understanding using ICT 9 Plans to reach out into the community to make others more aware of work being done 10 Ideas to get remaining classes in school involved in project of similar type next year 11 Plans for staff development as a result of receiving the equipment

In addition, focus groups were also held by the evaluation staff with the students and tutors in order to ascertain methods of best practice in each class involved and ideas for future research using the integration of ICT. The responses were categorized under the following headings:

1 Acquisition of ICT skills 2 Relevance of each project to the curriculum – how were these integrated successfully? 3 Examples of success for integrating ICT into teaching 4 Social benefits to the pupils and schools involved (importance of having a sense of audience) 5 Distinct role of web-crossing and videoconferencing in promoting mutual understanding between pupils and schools on both sides of the border 6 Frequency of messages in NINE (Northern Ireland Network for Education) communication forum in both areas of work-related issues and social interaction 7 Increases in concentration spans and other distinct areas such as literacy and numeracy 8 Size of working groups of pupils for maximum gains 9 Problems encountered 10 Ideas for the future – sustainability issues

PROJECT IMPACT ON TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS

Although the majority of teachers and principals had no formal ICT qualifications they had all attended some form of ICT training provided by the Education and Library Board and showed a willingness to learn more about how ICT could be implemented into the primary curriculum. From the equipment had been installed in each school, all teachers had noticed considerable improvements in children’s motivation and concentration spans. Problems relating to hardware operations were

4 experienced only in the initial stages of the project. All teachers reported using the facilities provided by NINE, with some schools utilizing it more than others. Children appeared to prefer the immediate responses they received when using e-mail. Each of the 5 schools devoted an average of 3 hours each week to the work of the project. All schools installed the equipment in a resources area or computer suite away from the classroom. It was common practice for the entire class to be present in the computer suite and while 4 children were actively videoconferencing, the remainder of the class were engaged in various activities in preparation for the next videoconferencing session.

In 2 of the 5 schools, other classes not directly involved in the project have had the opportunity to use the equipment to develop children’s presentational skills. All schools have plans to publish their projects on the World Wide Web (WWW) and 2 schools have already completed this task. Another school plans to reach out into the community to make parents and others more aware of the valuable work being done on the project. Yet another school has made plans to get the local newspaper to run a story on their school and their web page and currently displays some of the children’s artwork completed during the course of the project in the local library. The project in all 5 nominated schools is progressing at different paces as some schools had the advantage of being previously linked with other schools through Commenius projects. Therefore, each school started the project with a different level of ICT competence.

One of the main aims of the project was to embed ICT into the curriculum. This caused a few problems initially as primary schools in Northern Ireland have a different curriculum to follow than primary school in the Republic of Ireland. The decision as to how to embed ICT therefore was left to each teacher involved and common themes across all 5 schools included English, ICT, Environmental Issues, Geography and History. Timetabling constraints proved problematic in the initial stages as videoconferencing sessions had to be organized so that both classes would be available at exactly the same time. This often meant children missing break or part of lunch but were all more than willing to make this sacrifice to gain more experience using new technologies.

4 of the 5 Principals have also utilized the equipment provided by the project as a vehicle for staff development, encouraging project teachers to “cascade” their ideas and ICT confidence to other members of staff. This has led to some further work in 1 of the 5 schools where other members of staff have begun developing links to other countries. All teachers involved have expressed a wish for further training especially in the design of web pages.

PROEJCT IMPACT ON THE STUDENTS AND TUTORS

Students and tutors felt that they had learned invaluable skills about the importance of integrating ICT into the primary curriculum for the mutual benefit of both teachers and pupils. Tutors felt that they knew more about the use of ICT in different areas of the curriculum and felt more confident about demonstrating its use to students for future school-based work placements. In general, both felt that they had acquired new ICT skills as a result of being involved in the project.

5 The students were in agreement that videoconferencing, web-crossing and e-mail were distinct and separate activities within the schools. Most of the equipment was housed off the actual classroom confines and because of these logistics the very nature of the project in most schools appeared to be an extra curricular activity. In 1 school, the work of Dissolving Boundaries was called the “Friday Club”. One teacher organized her class so that 8 children were typing e-mail messages into NINE using the 4 PCs provided, another 8 children were drawing pictures of their local towns, another 8 were involved in model making and the remainder of the class were reviewing a book that the school and their partner school were reading, as preparation for a quiz during their next videoconferencing session. The children spent about 15 minutes on each task and then rotated so that during a 1-hour session, each child experienced each activity.

In terms of videoconferencing the students felt that the pupils’ communication was less spontaneous and more rehearsed. In turn, this was felt to increase presentational styles and confidence in some of the children. Within presentations, communication was very well organized and structures were clearly laid out in advance of the next videoconferencing session (usually 1-2 weeks by the teachers involved). The use of e-mail made children think more about their use of the English language/grammar and was thought to increase their literacy and thinking skills although these were not formally assessed. The children enjoyed the various activities and seemed very much aware of the audience for which their efforts were intended. Children were often discouraged when their messages in NINE took an average of 2 weeks to be answered. The following table shows how often the 5 nominated schools used the NINE web-conferencing facilities for a combination of work-related issues and social interaction:

Name of School No. of Messages in NINE User Type Braniel Primary School 257 Heavy Stranmillis Primary School 162 High Largymore Primary School 95 Medium Gilnahirk Primary School 68 Medium Bushmills Primary School 25 Low

As we can see only 1 school is making significantly heavy use of the NINE facilities, a further 1 school is making high use, 2 schools are making medium use and 1 school is making low use of the facilities. 2 schools have progressed very rapidly with the production of their own web pages and actually have children’s work displayed in a variety of formats including stories, drawings, poems and photographs of their local areas. All schools have expressed an interest in becoming more aware of other schools with similar equipment as it is felt by the majority of schools that this would open up a type of “global classroom”.

Schools who had previously no experience with the use of new technologies waited in anticipation for the arrival of the teacher education students to take the project into “first gear”. In these schools the students felt that their role was primarily one of technical assistance to which they did not feel qualified. However, as the project progressed naturally, the student teachers had the opportunity to try out innovative approaches of their own. Often these approaches resulted in collaboration between the student teachers and the teachers of the classes directly involved as to ideas for the

6 future utilization of the existing equipment. The majority of students expressed the view that pupils would benefit a lot more if they had the chance of meeting their friends from the other side of the border in person and put forward the idea of setting up a day trip where pupils could really “come together”. The students were in agreement that for maximum benefit to the pupils in both schools, working groups of between 4 and 6 were optimal especially for videoconferencing. The children enjoyed meeting the same group of children on a regular basis and felt that they were certainly “making new friends”. Group work was also thought to improve skills such as team building, co-operation, listening and negotiation skills.

FACTORS THAT FACILITATED SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS

It was common that one of the main elements that facilitated successful inter-school work was similar ages of participating children. In all 5 schools nominated by the University College there was an average of 15 months between pupils in the linked classes on both sides of the border. Pupils commented that they enjoyed talking to friends who were interested in similar sports and hobbies. The teachers felt that success of individual projects was due to the fact that the teachers themselves were committed to the work of the project and were willing to give up free time to organize activities and to structure videoconferencing sessions. 3 out of the 5 schools used small groups of between 4 and 6 pupils and it was felt that the children communicated better and seemed to really ‘know’ the other children. The other 2 schools used whole class communications and this resulted in the children barely getting to know each other on an individual/personal level. Immediate responses from the children in the partner school were seen as a motivating factor. Pupils were discouraged when there was an imbalance of messages between themselves and their partner schools. Teachers and principals expressed the need for more clearly laid out guidelines as to how much time each class should devote to project work each week, how often computer and videoconferencing should take place and ideas about how to integrate more fully the project work into the primary curriculum.

EMERGING IDEAS FROM PAST RESEARCH

A study carried out by a research team from Newcastle University (Moseley et al, 1999) looked at ways forward with ICT, particularly effective pedagogy using ICT for literacy and numeracy in primary schools. Their work indicated that a key feature of more effective teachers was their use of effective explanations. Teachers who favoured ICT were likely to have well-developed ICT skills and to view ICT as an important tool for learning and instruction. They were also more likely to value collaborative working, enquiry and decision-making by pupils. Teachers who had reservations about using ICT were likely either to exercise a higher degree of direction or to prefer pupils to work individually. One teacher thought that ICT was important but was not as important as a teacher and his/her effective interaction with children – ICT can be an effective learning tool but it will not replace good pedagogy – the word processor will not by itself teach the redrafting process, but it will facilitate the teaching of this writing skill.

Teachers who have reservations about using ICT are likely to exercise a high degree of direction and to prefer pupils to work individually. Time is consistently the biggest

7 challenge reported by teachers – time for them to learn new skills themselves, time for them to become familiar with new software or to learn new programs, time to assimilate new software so that they then feel in a position to make professional judgements about knowing which software might be appropriate to use in a given situation.

Home computer use by pupils is increasing rapidly, as it is more generally used by all age groups in society. Computers have a very positive image with pupils, which is largely independent of the amount of computer experience pupils have. The educational uses of computers in the home are substantial for many pupils. School instruction in more demanding ICT skills is valued by pupils, who see it in instrumental terms. Pupils are rather more likely to enjoy using computers at home than at school. Opportunities for creating and handling graphics and for finding out information tend to be more limited in schools than at home, at least for those who have the technical means and knowledge to do those things.

Teachers may well need to teach pupils how to interact with each other more effectively when using the computer (Eraut, 1995). This suggests that effective use of ICT needs to take into account the aims of an activity and that grouping pupils when using computers requires a deliberate choice according to those aims.

Knowledge of and experience with computers are not enough to ensure that teachers use computers in the classroom. The shift to using computers within the classroom takes time (Somekh & Davis, 1997) with 1 study suggesting that up to a year was necessary with the support and encouragement of an experienced team. In addition, the way in which teachers’ skills, beliefs and practices are related is complex (Wild, 1996).

The degree of technophobia of many principals (Parker, 1999) is still holding back successful implementation of ICT in some schools. Atkin (1994) & Mortimore (1996) point out that the principal who ignores the school as a learning community does so at their peril. Effective change management and leadership skills are essential. Dawson (1997) suggests that the leader or principal should be the head learner. In addition, they should act as a facilitator for technology planning as Schiller’s study (1998) showed.

Bernadette Robinson (1993) notes that computer conferencing may be used not only for the transmission of factual information but also as a powerful tool for creative writing, a point supported and expanded elsewhere by Brent Robinson (1993). Many organizations on the World Wide Web (WWW) are being designed to assist classes around the world in the exchange of information via e-mail. The obvious benefits include the broadening of a child’s cultural perspective and assisting them in attaining primary source material on a vast majority of topics. With a simple Internet connection and some time, a world of information awaits.

ICT will only be successfully implemented in schools if the principal actively supports it, learns as well, provides adequate professional development and supports his/her staff in the process of change. Teachers need to teach the processes of learning rather than its products. The conventional learning skills such as locating, collating and summarizing information and identifying connections and contradictions

8 within a body of information, all need to be explicitly moved to the center of the classroom curriculum.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

ICT can be seen as a stimulus to radical change in education, but it is critically important to ensure that this change leads to improved educational opportunities for learners. Everything depends upon effective professional development of teachers, who are currently under extraordinary pressures that are stimulated, in part, by new technologies themselves. Teachers themselves need more opportunities and support in using new technologies in collaborative contexts, so that they can both identify the problems and possibilities for themselves and find ways to model these activities in their own practice with learners. Finally, when introducing these newer technologies, teachers too need time to reflect upon and research what is happening.

The use of ICT can provide innovative learning experiences, but in all cases a great deal depends upon the teacher to provide the context which makes this possible. Teachers need to the competent and confident users of the hardware and software, but this in itself is not enough. They need, also, to understand how to organize the classroom and to structure learning tasks so that ICT resources become a necessary and integral part of learning rather than an add-on technical aid. Support of the school principal is another vital ingredient.

The Dissolving Boundaries Project has been the culmination of a great deal of work by teachers, principals, student teachers, tutors and pupils. Everyone involved has experienced a type of learning curve although each school started with varying knowledge and expertise in the area of the integration of new technologies into the primary curriculum. Nonetheless, new ideas, new perspectives on subject teaching, new ways of classroom management and new experiences in methods of communication have collectively been experienced by all participants.

The success of projects like Dissolving Boundaries rest heavily upon the willingness of teachers to integrate the project work into the children’s daily classroom activities and to recognize its value as a natural vehicle for deeper understanding of curriculum through review, reorganization and written expression of ideas, for social learning and increased self-esteem. Another benefit is that these types of projects extend naturally over the course of the school year, unlike other e-mail projects (Baugh & Baugh, 1997) which are short-lived.

At the dawn of the 21st Century, we are still at the beginnings of a technological revolution that is bringing dramatic changes to our society. This technological revolution will not automatically translate into a similar revolution in teaching and learning. While we have learned a tremendous amount about the implementation and use of new technologies for teaching and learning in the past few years, the need for an expanded, ongoing national research and evaluation program to improve the next generation of technology applications for teaching and learning is profound.

9 REFERENCES

Atkin, J. (1994). Leading a Learning Community. The Primary Principal Journal, December

Baugh, I & Baugh, J. (1997). Global Classrooms: E-mail Learning Communities. Learning and Leading with Technology, 25 (3), 38 - 41

Dawson, G. (1997). Issues and Directions in Preparing School Leaders: Lessons from a Worldwide Web, Monograph No. 30, ACE Newsletter, September

Eraut, M. (1995). A Case for Re-framing Reflection in Action. Teachers & Teaching: Theory and Practice, 1 (1), 9 - 22

Macneil, A & Delafield, D. (1998). Principal Leadership for Successful School Technology Implementation. Paper presented at the Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference, 10 – 14 March, Washington, ERIC_NO: ED421126

Mortimore, P (1996). Leading the Learning Community – The School as a Community of Learners, September, Perth

Moseley, D. et al. (1999). Ways Forward with ICT: Effective Pedagogy using Information and Communications Technology for Literacy and Numeracy in Primary Schools. Newcastle University, Durham University and CEM Center, Durham University, September.

Parker, M (1999). Organizational Behaviour in Education, Fifth Edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon

Robinson, B. (1993). Learning to use Information technology in Schools: What Lessons are we Learning? Journal of Information Technology for Teacher Education, 4, 3 - 6

Sandholtz, J et al. (1996). Teaching with Technology – Creating Student- centered Classrooms, Columbia University, New York: Teachers College Press

Schiller, J. (1998). One Size Does Not Fit All: School Leaders’ Competencies in Using Information Technologies, May, APAPDC Virtual Conference

Somekh, B & Davis, N. (1997). Using IT Effectively in Teaching and Learning. London: Routledge

Wild, M. (1996). Pre-service Teacher Education Programmes for Information Technology: An Effective Education? Journal of Information Technology for Teacher Education, 4, 7 - 20

10 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Heather Kinnear is a Research Officer in Stranmillis University College, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Leslie Caul is the Director of Academic Affairs and Sandra McWilliams is the Head of Teaching Studies in Stranmillis University College. Jill Dunn, Mary McAlister and Patricia Eaton are all lecturing staff in Stranmillis University College.

ADDRESSES FOR CORRESPONDANCE

Heather Kinnear can be contacted at Stranmillis University College, A College of Queens University Belfast, Stranmillis Road, Belfast, BT9 5DY. Tel: 02890 – 384365 (E-mail: [email protected])

Leslie Caul can be contacted at Stranmillis University College. Tel: 02890 – 384268 (E-mail: [email protected])

Sandra McWilliams can be contacted at Stranmillis University College. Tel: 02890 – 384368 (E-mail: S. [email protected])

Jill Dunn can be contacted at Stranmillis University College. Tel: 02890 – 384442 (E-mail: [email protected])

Patricia Eaton can be contacted at Stranmillis University College. Tel: 02890 – 384445 (E-mail: [email protected]) Mary McAlister can be contacted at Stranmillis University College. Tel: 02890 – 384347 (E-mail: [email protected])

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