Medidas Puntuales

As we have seen from the data of Teacher A, E and L technology has implications for the information literacy of both teachers and students. The management of teaching and learning for registration, record-keeping and academic monitoring has in recent years moved to electronic means and this was emphasized very positively by Teacher K:

‘absolutely revolutionised coursework, is Fronter… they can see what they’ve handed in, there’s no confusion, it’s up there, their parents can see… marking and sending it back that’s been absolutely brilliant.’

Teacher K and Teacher H were both very positive about the way it had enhanced the learning experience in their respective subjects of Drama and Music:

‘increased use of videoing for self and peer evaluation… they can voxpox and interview each other and reflect and it’s so quick…’

‘…it’s just so natural to the kids. They come in, stick their USB in, and listen to their tune, play along with the Musical Futures, we do a lot of that and it’s actually made it very accessible.’

In both of these subjects technology has provided new processes for creation, like those mentioned by Teacher E in the Art classroom and these have been absorbed into their teaching practices.

In addition to affecting this range of processes, technology has made many more information resources available for use in teaching and learning. This requires both students and teachers to be involved in the processes of finding, interpretation and synthesis. For teachers it gives the advantage:

‘you want to teach a topic and I’m not very sure, I can just quickly go on the net and look out to see if any other teacher somewhere, not even in London has done something similar somewhere and how did they approach it’ (Teacher D)

As we saw in Teacher A’s view this has enriched the classroom experience enabling access to many more historical sources which she felt had enhanced their information literacy skills, whereas Teacher L did not think information literacy skills had improved, since the emphasis had moved away from books. Teacher C, based on her work with sixth formers, commented:

‘Laptops waste too much time and they don’t think what they find is of the same quality as what they can find in a book’

Teacher C’s comments are based on supporting students through the search experience, monitoring their reactions and abilities and it is evidence that both critique and evaluation are taking place in their search process. Although Teachers A and L spoke of modelling strategies, they do not place an emphasis on search as an intellectual process and in the main, provide the

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source for the students that will be used during the lesson. Teacher C has made the time to teach search processes in some detail and makes both electronic sources and books available for the activity. Teacher C does this with sixth form students and has introduced such experiences for Year 7 students too. But like Teacher L finds that the issue of time in the Key Stage 3 curriculum is a barrier to including search:

‘We’re doing a bit of independent learning in Year 7, but because we only have one week to do it in, one hour in that week, they have a pack given to them. So the research skills aren’t there. The technology skills aren’t there because we haven’t got the time to allow it. So the emphasis of that is going to be on their thinking skills isn’t it? The judgments they make… rather than the finding.’

In relation to using information sources Teacher G and Teacher K commented upon the copy and paste culture:

‘there’s always been a problem, that if you send a child off to research most, maybe 10 or 15% of them will not have actually read what they give you.’ ‘cut and paste.. But then I guess maybe in my day I would have copied from the book.’

Copying is a problem if the task is simply to fetch a piece of information, where an activity is set that requires the information found to be synthesised or a judgment made about it, then a higher information literacy skill is invoked. Despite long-term existence of this problem and that technology has made it even easier to copy information, there still seems to be a somewhat passive attitude towards it from teachers. There is generally a continuing absence of teaching for search and an approach to information that is more passive than active in nature. Teacher E viewed this as a choice between control and freedom. At the other end of the spectrum from Teacher E’s viewpoint, sits Teacher J who believes technology gives the teacher the advantage of greater control over student actions. Teacher J would like to see all information sources carefully selected by the teacher and stored on Fronter ‘..yes it’s fantastic but it’s not harnessed enough, not enough control…’ Although copy and paste is discussed as a phenomenon at no point in the data has a teacher made reference to the ethics of information use and shown an awareness of the harm caused by plagiarism.

Teachers have concerns about the use of technology but also see advantages in the way that work can be organised for students through its use and that this can enable greater ownership of learning, as mentioned by Teacher A in the first section. Teacher K voiced a concern about the pressure to use technology that has been made available in schools:

‘…I think it was forcing me to interact with the kids via an external piece of equipment… I always want a whiteboard, a projector… to show clips… but for Drama I’d rather be interacting with each other rather than via a computer. …about the Globe a fabulous looking program… but why would you not explore that practically?’

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This very much resonates with Teacher L’s view that one needs to be careful about the choice of when and how to use technology so that it enhances the learning opportunity rather than

allowing it to drive the choices. Teacher K also expresses a desire for learning experiences to be authentic, like Teacher E and L, she advocates visiting the real thing or creating an active interaction in the drama studio.

These concerns about authenticity and the choices teachers make, have to be balanced against the opportunity to enable students to access and control their own learning through technology. Ownership of learning was identified by Teacher A as something made possible by technology because it provided a range of processes for students and this was echoed by Teacher D when he spoke about making resources available on Fronter:

‘So children can do a lot of independent things and you can also interact with whiteboards and them… That’s actually taking ownership of their own learning. Whatever a teacher teaches is not the ultimate.’

This comment about students working independently of the teacher and accessing resources beyond the teacher, indicates that the authority of knowledge, no longer rests only with the teacher and the textbook in the classroom. Teacher D acknowledges how technology has caused a questioning of his cognitive authority and as mentioned in the previous section this is something he encourages through discussion in his classroom.

Technology has brought new resources and processes into the classroom, challenging the information literacy skills of both teachers and students, but it has not prompted a concerted look at this aspect of learning.

In document Diagnóstico y propuesta de solución a los problemas de inundación en un tramo del río Guadalete a su paso por Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz) (página 89-93)