Mapa de capas topográficas y de referencias

Research that has been conducted concerning the learners’ perspectives has mostly focused on Primary education and less has been done on Secondary education. Deany, Ruthven and Hennessy (2003) underscore this view and claim that: “few studies have focused specifically on secondary pupils’ views on their current classroom use of ICT in teaching and learning” (2003:142). Goodison (2002) also investigated the pupils’ perceptions, but at a primary level only. Warschauer, Knobel and Stone’s (2004) study, elicits the learners’ perspective to a certain extent, but is primarily about technology and equity in schooling and to a lesser extent on how technology was integrated into the curriculum in the schools.

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The integration of ICT into the curriculum can benefit learners in two important ways such as valuable hands-on experience as well as a possibility for learners becoming creators of knowledge (Howie, Muller & Paterson, 2005). Hence the main focus of the study is about the learners’ perceptions not of general issues, but more specifically on the integration of ICT into the curriculum. In the next section, I discuss the different studies particularly and highlight what learners perceived as of importance in using ICTs for their learning. In Deaney et al.’s study, learners’ views have been summarised into six themes and these include:

• “Task affected”: which concerns how ICT tools enabled learners to carry out tasks with ease, quickly and reliably, and to high standard for example, fast typing, spell check and neatness

• “Refinement assisted”: which referred to the convenience of moving text and making the necessary changes when writing an essay using ICT

• “Ambience altered”: concerns the computer laboratory environment that is different and more relaxed than in the classroom and encourages more involvement than sitting in the classroom with pen and paper

• “Motivation changed”: deals with altered classroom ambience associated with ICT use raised interest and motivation

• “Learning reshaped”: deals more with the contribution of ICT use to reshaping learning, for example ICT resources had potential to be used not “as just a tool” but “as something to learn with”

• “Teaching displaced”: entails ICT use with a degree of distancing and displacement of teachers and teaching (Deaney et al. 2003).

Saye (1997) also conducted a study where students’ perspectives were of importance. The findings generally suggest that students use technology for their learning as they indicated that “technology was used in virtually every class” (Saye, 1997:15). This is evident in Saye’s (1997) summary of the students’ perceptions on the different aspects of computer use in their learning and these include:

• Efficiency, speed, and clarity that educational technology provide students

• Technological affordances that give students more places to go for information than before

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• Derivation of students conceptions of technology use from how their teachers use technology

• Technological options that lighten the teachers workload which students perceive as laziness on the part of the teachers.

The next two studies are basically about the perception of learners of ICT within the primary school level and the findings are to a certain level contradictory to each other with respect to the use of word processing. Some of the learners cited in Goodison’s (2002) study disagree that word processing allows them to type faster because of lack of typing skills as they put it “… sometimes you can’t find the letters on the keyboard” (2002:290). Again, there seems to be “exchange of views” when it comes to which program to use when writing short stories as “one pupil thinks WORD is better … and another who champions PUBLISHER” (Goodison, 2002:289). On the other hand, one of Selwyn’s findings on the perceptions and views of primary school children in using computers includes “the speed and ease of work-processes when using computers” (Selwyn, 2001:245).

Coming back to the findings in Goodison’s study, there is an indication that learners use computers at home and that this experience is somehow linked to what they are able to do at school as far as computer use is concerned. Goodison (2002) refers to this as “social learning” (2002:285), which implies that when learners use computers at home with family members, this gives them confidence to use computers at school in the presence of the teacher and other learners. Goodison further indicates that

The transfer of learning in ICT is two-way: from home to school and from school to home, and just as siblings (and parents) play an important role at home, so do classmates at school (2002: 286).

The learners have also indicated that the use of computer programs has elevated their independence (Goodison 2002:287). Selwyn (2001) has grouped the findings and these include:

• the speed and ease of work-processes when using computers: [using computers for school work rather than writing with hands using pen and paper] (Selwyn 2001:250).

• the extending or curtailing of learners’ abilities when using computers: “ for some children, the opportunity to produce work above and beyond their conventional capabilities prompted … enthusiasm for using computers” (Selwyn 2001:253).

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• freedoms and restrictions of the finished product when using computers: “ … children argued with regard to writing stories [and] they considered the creative opportunities and constraints of the computer as very important” (Selwyn 2001:256).

• concerns over originality and authenticity when using computers: [There are concerns especially from girls that] “producing written work on a computer severely diminished the perceived right to be identified as the unique creative and individual source of the text” (Marshal 2000, cited in Selwyn 2001:258).

The research that I have discussed above seems to give an indication that learners have a lot to say in using computers for their learning. It is of concern that learners’ voices have been ignored for such a long time and yet the policies put in place are claimed to be for their benefit at the end of the day. Therefore, it is necessary when “further exploring how children are making sense of computers in school it may be possible to suggest ways of more effectively presenting computers to students in classroom settings through both policy and practice” (Selwyn 2001:260).