Overall, across the case-study schools teachers spoke of the benefits of ICT in their teaching practice:
You can do without it [ICT], but [your teaching] is so much better if you do use it. (Cedar Avenue, Medium ICT, Teacher)
Many commented on the ‘immediacy’ and ‘flexibility’ ICT offers. Effective ICT integration was also seen to have an impact on student learning and engagement. In particular, the benefits were seen in reinforcing learning and meeting student needs and diverse learning styles, particularly through short, varied and more visual activities.
Nowadays kids need to see it on screen... it [ICT] just reinforced the point I was trying to make... it’s there to support me... obviously I’m the teacher; the IT is not going to do the work for me.... Everyone sees the benefits... it makes the teacher’s job easier. (Alder Lane, High ICT, Teacher)
If it’s up on the white board, they become active, they genuinely become active... they’re looking... their searching skills... they’re learning all the time. (Daisy Road, High ICT, Teacher)
These comments mirror the work of Apkon (2013) who argues that the ubiquity of screens in today’s world necessitates that educators re-imagine and redefine literacy. The impact of ICT within education is argued to depend on the way in which ICT is used, with Thomas and Brown (2011) distinguishing between teaching and learning. They argue that schools can either blend or fail to blend with contemporary technological potential and that such success or failure can be seen through a school’s pursuit of teaching-based approaches (traditional learning) or learning-based approaches (innovative experimental learning) respectively. This section examines the ways in which ICT usage is perceived by teachers to enhance student learning, particularly through differentiation, more student-centred approaches and social learning, all of which have been found to play a key role in student engagement and educational outcomes (Chandra and Mills, 2015; Shinners, 2013; Brown and Adler, 2008).
Across a number of schools, teachers contended that the use of ICT enhanced their capacity to engage with, and meet the needs of different student groups. This was particularly the case for students who were seen as less academic, those from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds and students with different types of special educational needs (SEN):
I find that IT is very informative for the kids, it’s also very visual, which a lot of our children would be visual learners... they’ll learn much faster using IT, they do a lot of projects on their iPads. (Daisy Road, High ICT, Teacher)
There is an advantage [of ICT] I think for learning support, particularly. Especially when you’ve got different styles of learners, when you have more visual [learners]. Or they may struggle with handwriting... if they’ve dyspraxia or something. (Alder Lane, High ICT, Teacher)
With the type of students we have, they’re great visual learners, they need to see things in front of them... because we’re in a DEIS school the academic standards wouldn’t be as high... so you have to try and make it as practical as possible for them. (Beech Street, Medium ICT, Teacher)
The shift towards the pedagogical use of ICT among some of the teachers manifested in the greater use of group-work, project work and other more student-centred approaches. Some highlighted the potential of the reformed junior cycle to enhance and further promote such approaches, underpinned by the effective use of ICT:
The Role of ICT in Teaching and Learning | 73 When we are doing project based learning they are... going out,
finding information themselves, collating it, sifting through it together [group-work] and then presenting it... and that’s done through the internet [All stored centrally on Google Drive] (Juniper Avenue, High ICT, Teacher)
If they can work in the project work properly into the new proposals for the Junior Cert, it’ll work out great... It’ll definitely change the dynamic. (Beech Street, Medium ICT, Teacher)
Research internationally is increasingly highlighting the value of social learning in the educational process. Brown and Adler (2008) argue that ‘the most profound impact of the internet, an impact that has yet to be fully realized, is its ability to support and expand the various aspects of social learning’. Social media shifts the emphasis from the content of the subject to the learning activities and human interactions around which that content is situated. They cite diverse evidence for the importance of social interaction to learning. In the Irish context Shinners (2013) finds evidence that the use of Edmodo, an online platform for classroom communication, increased student attainment as compared to a control group using traditional teaching methods.
One teacher spoke of the use of social learning approaches, which they felt students welcomed and valued:
I have a class blog, teaching twitter, I use a range of ICT focused technologies in the classroom for active learning purposes... so it’s real effective for social learning so they’re answering each other’s questions and looking to see what feedback the teacher gives.. [it’s moderated] so when they post I have to accept it in order for it to go up on the blog... They’ve used a lot of Sways as well, which is another form of PowerPoint, but it’s all online... and we use interactive games and Socrates and Cahoot... through CPD you’ve learned all about [these]. (Green Lane, Low ICT, Teacher)
The same teacher considered it important for students to learn independently:
It’s all about giving the independence back to the students, the independent learning, where they’re responsible, if they don’t make a certain amount of contributions to the blog over the year well then you’re looking at the assessment... it’s blended learning, its teacher plus tool equals learning . (Green Lane, Low ICT, Teacher)
A number of schools have developed online learning platforms, providing material for teachers and students alike. Particularly good examples of this were observed in Alder Lane and Juniper Avenue (below):
We use Edmodo... we say to the children it’s like an online Facebook... it stores all of our notes [teachers],... everything is up there, which cuts down hugely on the amount of paper we generate for them... but more importantly it’s permanently there [no material/notes get lost]. (Juniper Avenue, High ICT, Teacher)
In Green Lane – Microsoft OneDrive is a software platform which is used in a variety of ways:
[For] uploading materials, editing them between staff and students, we work on the one document... so they all [students] have access to all their subject hubs... and all notes are available. And then each teacher can share their notes with other teachers... [and] you can track when students are doing their homework. (Green Lane, Low ICT, and Teacher)
Such online communities were seen as useful in terms of continuous assessment of student learning:
The weekly spelling test is done through Edmodo on the children’s iPads... it helps the literacy really hugely simply because they have a permanent record of their spelling tests and they have a cumulative score... their parents can see that at all times and if they’re at 89 per cent... they want to get ten out of ten in the next test so that they can get up to 90 per cent. (Green Lane, Low ICT, Teacher)
Online platforms were also considered to enhance engagement with parents and aid in the communication of information. For example, in Alder Lane teachers upload content for students to access (particularly for students who have been absent) and this resource also keeps parents informed about class content.25
25 ‘There’s more discussion at home about what’s happening in school, which we wouldn’t have had before.’ (Alder
The Role of ICT in Teaching and Learning | 75
More generally, learning platforms and email distribution of class content/PowerPoints, enabled students to keep pace with class content, particularly for those who were absent from school:
... with emails... you can send out different PowerPoints, you might not get the whole thing covered in class and you might not want them to be taking down notes the whole time, you want to get discussion, but then they can reference back to a PowerPoint that you’ve sent them. (Green Lane, Low ICT, Teacher)
Online platforms also helped to enhance student’s broader ICT skills:
It’s not just the actual homework that they’re doing, they are up- skilling as well, digitally, and I think it goes back to the whole idea of the information is coming from everywhere and they’re used to that now. (Green Lane, Low ICT, Teacher)
In line with studies across other national contexts (Kafyulilo and Keengwe, 2014; Hauge, 2014), schools and teachers were at various points along the spectrum from the use of ICT as an administrative resource to an aid in teaching and the use of ICT for pedagogical purposes and to facilitate student-centred approaches. This issue is captured by one teacher:
ICT is not projectors and interactive boards... My opinion of ICT is teaching through ICT and having pedagogical approaches that benefit the students and the teachers. That’s how you’re gonna see benefits of ICT. (Juniper Avenue, High ICT, ICT Co-ordinator)
While the survey data hints at a shift towards more student-centred ICT usage between the pre- and post-installation surveys, the case-study schools highlight wide variation across schools and teachers. While this variation reflects school- level factors such as leadership and climate (see Chapter 5), teachers identify a range of constraints impacting on their capacity to use ICT effectively in teaching and learning. These constraints are discussed in Chapter 7, along with issues around teachers’ level of confidence and professional development.
6.4 SUMMARY
This chapter has examined how principals and teachers reflect on the use of ICT in classrooms across a diverse range of school contexts, in the period shortly after schools received connectivity to high-speed broadband. The findings show a high
level of positivity among principals and teachers alike for the value of, and growing place for, ICT usage in classrooms. Principals and teachers endorsed the benefits of ICT in student learning, such benefits ranging from enhanced student participation and achievement, greater collaboration among students and in the development of higher order thinking skills and transversal skills. Teachers spoke about particular advantages in terms of meeting diverse student needs, allowing greater differentiation and tailoring of approach. The potential for ICT and online resources to support and expand social learning was also noted.
However, it is clear that the change process is slow, with incremental improvements for existing users coming faster than adoption by new users. There is some evidence of teachers increasingly using ICT for more student-centred teaching methodologies, and greater levels of student usage, over time. Overall, differences in the level and nature of usage were apparent across the high, medium and low ICT schools. Further, the case-study evidence also clearly highlights the centrality of the high stakes examinations, with opportunities for more interactive teaching approaches drawing on ICT and online resources being squeezed in the pre-examination period. This contrasted with the TY programme, which was seen to allow opportunities for schools to both draw on more innovative ICT-based resources and to develop students’ ICT skills.
Barriers, Teaching Resources and Professional Development | 77
Chapter 7
ICT Integration: Barriers, Teaching Resources and
Professional Development
7.1 INTRODUCTION
As discussed in Chapter 1, a core question of this study is to examine the factors shaping variation in ICT integration across teachers and schools. This chapter examines three sets of factors shaping the use of ICT and the internet in teaching and learning. The first section examines a range of barriers identified by teachers in the case-study schools as impacting on the integration of ICT in their teaching. The second examines the types of online and ICT resources teachers draw on in their teaching. The final section considers teachers’ and principals’ views of levels of ICT knowledge among teachers and examines the extent of participation in professional development. Survey results from principals and particularly teachers, from the pre-installation and post-installation surveys, also provide valuable evidence on the challenges teachers face in utilising ICT and online resources in their teaching and the extent to which they are confident about their ICT-related skills and competences.