III. Metodología
3.5. Procedimientos
This section presents the results from the questionnaires and the focus groups on the three month deployment of the three types of ICT: General ICTs, Online Curriculum- Focused Materials and Focused ICT tools for students with special needs. Mainstream and learning support teachers and students who took part in each deployment were given the same questionnaire. It is important to differentiate mainstream and learning support replies, so the teachers indicated which questionnaires were completed by students receiving learning support. Tables 5.6 and 5.7 show the details for the two teacher focus groups and Tables 5.8 and 5.9 show the student focus group details and participant numbers and the findings for the design guidelines.
Teacher Focus Group (School A)
Type Number Subject No. o. Duratio n
Notes Important comments
English 1 80 mins Discussion of ICT integration & development of design guidelines.
Use exam questions as content.
History 1 Materials don’t have to be online.
Geography 1 Use mind-maps if possible.
Learning Support
1 Content-level should be adapted.
Table 5.6 Teacher Focus Group School A for Design Guidelines
Teacher Focus Group (School B)
Type Number
Subject No. Duration Notes Important comments
English 1 80 mins Discussion of ICT integration was useful follow up to surveys.
Feedback for teachers & students.
History 1 Teachers can create their own
materials. Learning
support
1 Use dyslexia-friendly colours &
fonts.
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Student Focus Group (School A)
Type Number
Type No. Duration Notes Important comments
Mainstream 3 40 mins Students really enjoyed being involved in design.
Use age-appropriate materials. Learning
support
3 Use multimedia & interaction.
Table 5.8 Student Focus Group School A for Design Guidelines
Student Focus Group (School B)
Type Number
Type No. Duration Notes Important comments
Mainstream 2 40 mins Students
helped with suggestions for guidelines.
Students should design the materials.
Learning support
2 Keep text to a minimum.
Table 5.9 Student Focus Group School B for Design Guidelines
5.8.1 General ICTs
The results of the ICT deployment study in Table 5.10 below on the use of MS Word by mainstream teachers show that 25% of mainstream teachers used MS word for content preparation. 50% of mainstream teachers used it during class time as a teaching tool. 100% reported that they allowed their students to use MS word in lab time if they got access to a lab and 75% said they set homework that required using MS Word. 100% of mainstream teachers reported that it was easy to use. 83% of mainstream teachers used MS Word for students to write their essays. Teachers reported that MS Word was most helpful for essay writing and reports on works such as novels or plays. 100% of teachers reported that they used PowerPoint in the classroom however in focus groups, it transpired that most teachers just used it themselves in class. Two teachers reported students giving presentations as a part of a
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History project. Mainstream teachers stated that the ICTs were most useful for project work or homework where students could work on their own.
In the focus groups, mainstream teachers talked about the how difficult it was to get lab time to use their ICT. This was clear during the observation sessions where one session was cancelled because a lab became suddenly unavailable due to another school issue. This was a significant issue for all teachers expect one in the focus groups. This one teacher said there were a number of “home classrooms” where she worked out of most of the day which had one computer in the room. In this case, when the teacher could not get lab time, she used the general ICTs to present materials with MS PowerPoint. MS Word was also used to create mind-map on her projection screen so that the whole class participated.
ICT When used? Easy to
use?
For? MS Word 25% Content preparation
50% Teacher during class
100% Students during class 75% Homework 100% Yes % No 83% Essay writing
75% Timelines (novel, play)
75% Notes 75% Important quotations MS PowerPoint 100% Content preparation 100% Teacher during class 83% Students during class 58% Homework 100% Yes % No
100% Virtual sites visit e.g. Vikings
100% Students synopsis of TV/film
50% Mind map for poems / plays
25% Timelines (novel, play)
Table 5.10: General ICT Results – Mainstream teachers
Results presented in Table 5.11 show that 83% of students used Microsoft Word for homework. The homework included essay writing and study revision. 100% reported that their teachers used PowerPoint in school. In the focus groups, mainstream students reported enjoying being able to submit typed homework to their teachers.
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This result showed that the students enjoyed the integration of the general ICT tools into classroom activities and their willingness to partake in the curriculum-focused integration. The results show that mainstream students do use their ICTs more at home and during this study they were given an opportunity to use it in class also.
ICT When used? Easy to use? For?
MS Word 70% Teacher during class
100% Students during class
85% Homework
100% Yes
% No
100% Essay writing
75% Timelines (novel, play)
90% Notes
90% Important quotations MS
PowerPoint
100% Teacher during class
83% Students during class
58% Homework
75% Yes
25% No
100% Virtual sites visit e.g. Vikings
100% Students synopsis of TV/film
70% Mind map for poems / plays
70% Timelines (novel, play)
Table 5.11: General ICT Results – Mainstream students
Results in Table 5.12 show that learning support teachers integrated ICT into their curriculum. 100% of teachers reported using MS Word and MS PowerPoint for content preparation and in the class with their students. They also allowed student to complete film reviews on MS Word and mind maps on MS PowerPoint during class time with the teacher. During the observation sessions, it was noted that learning support teachers always had access to a computer in their usual “home classroom”. There were occasions during the study where this room became unavailable to them. Learning support teachers worked closely with their students and worked through the materials sitting beside the student. One teacher had all three of her students working together on the ICT. In the focus groups, one teacher indicated that the students took
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turns using the ICT while the others worked on another piece of work. This was an interesting finding as the aim was to move towards an inclusive classroom environment where everyone worked together. This proved difficult to do in reality due to the infrastructure restraints.
ICT When used? Easy to use? For?
MS Word 100% Content preparation
100% Teacher during class
100% Students during class
75% Homework
100% Yes
% No
75% Teacher notes on class work
75% Student notes on class work
100% Key points
75% Add images to notes MS
PowerPoint
100% Content preparation
100% Teacher during class
75% Students during class
75% Homework
100% Yes
% No
100% Virtual sites visit
75% Students synopsis of TV/film
100% Mind map for poems / plays
100% Timelines (novel, play)
Table 5.12: General ICT Results – Learning support teachers
Table 5.13 shows that learning support students reported that they used both MS Word and PowerPoint at home and at school. Examples students gave during the focus groups were giving presentations on their film in class and presentations on a history assignment.
During the observation it was evident that the students enjoyed working with the materials and were confident using word processors.
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ICT When used? Easy to use? For?
MS Word 100% Teacher during class
100% Students during class
75% Homework
100% Yes
% No
75% Student notes on class
100% Essay homework
75% Add images to notes
MS
PowerPoint
100% Teacher during class
83% Students during class
58% Homework
100% Yes
% No
100% Virtual sites visit
100% Students presentation: TV/film
100% Mind map for novel
100% Timelines (poem, play)
Table 5.13: General ICT Results – Learning support students
5.8.2 Online Curriculum-Focused ICT Materials
Table 5.14 shows that mainstream teachers found the online curriculum websites (Skoool.ie, TeachNet) very beneficial. In the focus groups, technical difficulties were mentioned as a serious issue and this was also noted in the observation sessions. Websites crashed and some exercises did not work. Teachers still printed some materials for class when they could not get access to a lab for students. Teachers felt that the materials were age- and content- appropriate to their students. In the focus groups, teachers reported that the students with learning difficulties in their classroom struggled with the language level of the content. Teachers reported that the two sites were 23% interactive and this text-heavy style was inappropriate for students with dyslexia.
Table 5.15 reports that mainstream students had similar results to the mainstream students. They reported a lack of interactivity but said the content was suitable for their needs and age-appropriate.
Table 5.16 shows that learning support teachers used the online curriculum websites for content preparation. In the focus groups, it became evident that the teachers did not continue using these materials for the full 3 months as they could not find resources
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appropriate to their students’ needs. Teachers reported editing information from TeachNet and Skoool.it for their purposes. Significantly, teachers reported that some of the resources they used were not tagged as ‘special needs appropriate’ on the sites even though they were useful resources that the learning support teachers could use.
ICT When used? Easy to use? Content?
TeachNet 100% Content preparation 50% Teacher during class 75% Students during class 50% Homework
66% Yes 34% No
100% Age-appropriate
100% content level appropriate 25% interactive
Skoool.ie 100% Content preparation 50% Teacher during class 58% Students during class 50% Homework
50% Yes 50% No
100% Age-appropriate
91% content level appropriate 25% interactive
Table 5.14: Online Curriculum Materials Results – Mainstream teachers
ICT When used? Easy to use? Content?
TeachNet 50% Teacher during class
50% Students during class
85% Homework
75% Yes
25% No
90% Age-appropriate
100% content level appropriate
25% interactive
Skoool.ie 50% Teacher during class
58% Students during class
50% Homework
80% Yes
20% No
92% Age-appropriate
91% content level appropriate
36% interactive
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ICT When used? Easy to use? Content?
TeachNet 100% Content preparation
25% Teacher during class
25% Students during class
0% Homework
66% Yes
34% No
25% Age-appropriate
0% content level appropriate
25% interactive
Skoool.ie 25% Content preparation
25% Teacher during class
25% Students during class
0% Homework
50% Yes
50% No
50% Age-appropriate
50% Not age-appropriate
0% content level appropriate
25% interactive
Table 5.16: Online Curriculum Materials Results – Learning support teachers
Table 5.17 reports that learning support students said that the online curriculum materials were age-appropriate. The same students reported that the materials were quite difficult and not very interactive. Students used the online curriculum materials at home as well as in school with their teacher. Results from the evaluation show that 100% of learning support teachers did not continue to use the available online curriculum materials (such as Skoool.ie) for the three months because the content was not suitable for their dyslexic students and students in learning support in key areas such as poetry and plays in the English curriculum. The content level was found to be too difficult and the materials were complicated to use and needed a lot of adaption for their students. 75% of learning support teachers stated that there was a lack of interactivity. It became evident that while mainstream teachers reported using online materials for revision and homework assignments and history project work, 100% of learning support teachers said they had to put significant effort into adapting the content to their students. Another problem that 25% of learning support teachers reported was that it was not always viable to use online materials due to websites/computers crashing and labs being unavailable for class-time. During observation it was clear that the students struggled with the curriculum-focused
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materials. This was not appropriate resource so teachers decided to stop using it. These teachers moved onto the general ICTs.
ICT When used? Easy to use? Content?
TeachNet 50% Teacher during class 50% Students during class 50% Homework
66% Yes 34% No
100% Age-appropriate 0% Not age-appropriate 20% content level appropriate 25% interactive
Skoool.ie 5o% Teacher during class 58% Students during class 50% Homework
50% Yes 50% No
100% Age-appropriate
20% content level appropriate 25% interactive
Table 5.17: Online Curriculum Materials Results – Learning support students
5.8.3 Focused ICT Tools for Special Needs Students
Table 5.18 shows that 25% of mainstream teachers reported they found Dragon Naturally Speaking useful for project work once the system was trained. Students trained on the system and recorded themselves talking about a topic which was displayed as text. 33% of teachers reported that they used Read and Write Gold with the students who had literacy difficulties within their classroom. Teachers allow students to work on another ICT such as MS Word in a computer lab while students with literacy difficulties opened Read and Write Gold. Teachers reported that there was no stigma attached to students Read and Write Gold as everyone was working at their own computer privately with the teacher walking around helping everyone. This was an interesting finding because the aim of the curriculum-focused project is to move towards an inclusive environment where students work together on materials aimed at different levels.
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ICT When used? Easy to use?
Read and Write Gold 33% Teacher during class
50% Students during class
0% Homework
50% Yes
50% No
Dragon Naturally Speaking 25% Teacher during class
75% Students during class
0% Homework
25% Yes
75% No
Table 5.18: Focused ICT Tools Results – Mainstream teachers
Table 5.19 shows that 25% of mainstream students found it interesting to integrate Dragon Naturally Speaking into their classroom activities. While teachers and students used it for project work, I believe that this particular resource was not needed to enhance an inclusive classroom. There was a lot of training needed on the resource which mainstream students really did not need to be using. During the observation, not a lot of work was actually covered in the class. Too much time was taken up with the process of getting the ICT to work properly.
ICT When used? Easy to use?
Read and Write Gold 0% Teacher during class
0% Students during class
0% Homework
75% Yes
25% No
Dragon Naturally Speaking 25% Teacher during class
75% Students during class
0% Homework
50% Yes
50% No
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Table 5.20 shows that 100% learning support teachers reported using both Read and Write Gold and Dragon Naturally Speaking very helpful for small group sessions or one-on-one. 75% reported that it was difficult to use. While all of the learning support teachers had used a text reader, only 17% used one every day. 100% of learning support teachers reported it is very hard to get these tools as they are very expensive. Both learning support and mainstream teachers reported in the focus groups that they had to do too much extra work to use Dragon Naturally Speaking e.g. training voices. This tool is very expensive and takes a lot of training time on the student’s voice to work appropriately.
ICT When used? Easy to use?
Read and Write Gold 100% Teacher during class
100% Students during class
0% Homework
50% Yes
50% No
Dragon Naturally Speaking 100% Content preparation
100% Teacher during class
100% Students during class
0% Homework
25% Yes
75% No
Table 5.20: Focused ICT Tools Results – Learning support teachers
Table 5.21 shows that the real benefit of these tools was for the student receiving learning support. When the class group is much smaller, there is more time to train the system on the students’ voices. In the focus groups, teachers indicated that this is a good product to use if you have a lot of time to work individually with one student rather than a larger group.
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ICT When used? Easy to use?
Read and Write Gold 75% Teacher during class 100% Students during class 0% Homework
100% Yes 0 % No
Dragon Naturally Speaking 75% Teacher during class 100% Students during class 0% Homework
40% Yes 60% No
Table 5.21: Focused ICT Tools Results – Learning support students