SUMINISTRO Y COLOCACIÓN DE MULCH DE CORTEZA DE ÁRBOL

The important issue is not just providing schools with ICT resources, but how these can be used to enhance learning and teaching environments (Romeo, 2006). This section gives more details about what teachers report doing, to develop their teaching and how teachers had been using the available new technologies in their science classrooms, from the perspective of both science teachers and supervisors.

As explained in the literature review (Chapter 3), several ICT tools can be utilized in primary science classrooms. The literature generally provides classification of the use of ICT in different ways. I adapted the categorisations of Ball (2003) and Murphy (2006), which I use in this section, because it was designed in particular for primary science. There are four ways in which ICT is used particularly to promote primary science: 1) as a means of communication; 2) as reference sources; 3) as supportive tools and 4) as a means for exploration.

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In this section, the participants‟ views about how science teachers used ICT in their teaching are presented. According to the above classification, I present examples of the participants‟ responses in a table (see ‎Appendix M) because of the similarity in most of teachers‟ responses and to make for more fluent reading.

Most of their uses reportedly were focused on using ICT as communication with students in the classroom and with other teachers, reference sources (c.f. Murphy, 2006) and supportive tools. A few teachers reported using ICT for student assessment and a few supervisors suggested that teachers used ICT for self-training.

ICT as a means of communication

The literature suggests that one use of ICT in primary science education may be communication (Ball, 2003; Chen et al., 2000; Lim & Tay, 2003; Murphy, 2006). As shown in ‎Appendix M, some of the participants reported that science teachers used ICT for communication with other teachers, with benefits for science teaching.

Science teachers seemed to be using new technologies for communication with their colleagues via email, electronic forums or online discussion. They reported connecting with other teachers to exchange some science information or ready-to-use topics for preparing their lessons. For example three teachers, Saud [MT2], Mohammed [MT3] and Waleed [MT1], reported that they communicated with other teachers via electronic forums or email to get some useful presentations and take advantage of each other‟s work.

However, they reported limited communication with their students using new technologies. Most of them reported that students did not communicate with each other in this way. It should be noted that male teachers talked about communication via the Internet more than females.

The majority of teachers also reported using ICT as a means of communication with students inside the classroom via PowerPoint presentations (c.f. Murphy, 2006). Apparently, the most frequent ICT resources used in the classroom were computers, data projectors and PowerPoint software. These were reportedly used for presentation of information during science lessons in the classroom. Some others

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reported that they designed scientific PowerPoint topics including text, images, animation, multimedia, pictures and videos. Mohammed [MT3] for example, said “many things can be implemented via PowerPoint” and described how he always used ICT in his daily classroom lessons. He reported that he designed different PowerPoint presentations to be ready for different science lessons every day. He reported using collective presentation techniques, which engage students in discussion during PowerPoint presentations. He described himself as a professional user of computers and he designed some game activities using ICT in the classrooms. He reported that he designed scientific TV animation. However, it seemed that he used PowerPoint presentations to show these animations to his students, without interactive action of students.

A few teachers, like Yasser, asserted the importance of the teacher in presentations with the use of ICT. In other words, he thought the new technologies themselves could not present lessons for students. He said,

I use new technologies as helping tools, but the role of a teacher remains to be the basis. I do not see a reason for the dominance of the role of new technologies over the teacher role because this will harm the educational process. [Yasser, MT4]

In conjunction with communicative tools, digital cameras were reportedly used in science teaching (c.f. Murphy, 2006). A few teachers reported using ICT tools such as digital cameras or digital video cameras for photographing and recording experiments, particularly those experiments which were unlikely to be successful every time.

Although some teachers reported using ICT as communication tools with their students inside the classroom, the communication outside of the classroom was different. As can be seen in ‎Appendix M, teachers did not report using ICT to communicate to their students outside of school. For example Nora [FT7] and Saud [MT2], commented that they had not used ICT for communication about science with their students. Saud also thought students did not use email to communicate with each other regarding science education. However, some teachers reported using ICT to communicate with their colleagues and other teachers. Waleed [MT1] and

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Mohammed [MT3] for example, reported connecting with other teachers via electronic forum or email.

Like teachers, most supervisors reported that the teachers under their supervision often used new technologies as a means of interpersonal communication. Teachers seemed to be not communicating electronically via email or electronic forums with their students from the viewpoint of supervisors. However, there seemed to be on-line communication among teachers, about science teaching. Some supervisors reported that science teachers benefited from electronic forums to have some ready-to-use science topics.

The supervisor participants suggested that science teachers accessed the Internet for preparing science lessons. Sometimes teachers reportedly used the Internet to access electronic forums to borrow, take or quote some prepared lesson topics from their colleagues, from other schools. Adel explained that some teachers accessed informal electronic forums, which could be designed by unknown groups of teachers and they got useful materials.

Teachers prefer to access the Internet at home and access scientific forums and the educational forums concerned with teaching strategies. From these forums, teachers prepare science lessons easily for their classrooms. Sometimes, science lessons are interchanged among teachers through these forums. [Adel, MS1]

The majority of participating supervisors supposed that teachers used PowerPoint as a means of communication with their students in the classroom (c.f. Murphy, 2006). Teachers reportedly presented texts, pictures or videos for their students. A few supervisors, such as Faee [FS7], asserted that some of their teachers used video cameras to record scientific experiments during practical activities. The participating supervisors commented that when using ICT in the classroom, the teacher was the one who spoke, explained and asked, while students occasionally participated in answering questions. Hence, it was generally used to support a traditional approach rather than allowing more constructivist, student-centred approaches.

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ICT as reference sources

Besides their use as a means of communication, science teachers appeared to be using new technologies as reference sources (c.f. Ball, 2003; Murphy, 2006). The literature indicates that ICT can be used for gathering information (Chen et al., 2000; Lim & Tay, 2003) by the use of CD-ROMs or through the Internet (Murphy, 2006).

As can be seen in ‎Appendix M, teachers reportedly used ICT for gathering scientific information by using CD-ROMs including local programs and generic software packages. Some teachers reported using ready-to-use CD-ROMs, sometimes including the science textbook with a data projector during the lesson. Waleed [MT1] and Sana [FT6] for example, reported using local software such as Manahij and Knowlogy, which had been provided by the General Directorates of Education, to show their students scientific pictures, texts and/or films. However, these programs were criticised by some teachers such as Saud [MT2].

Teachers also reported accessing the Internet for searching and collecting science information. They reported looking for something that might assist them in their teaching, such as images or pieces of video and texts via science websites to get ready-to-use materials. A few teachers, such as Hind [FT8] and Nora [FT7], reported using Semanoor, which needed to connect to the Internet for downloading activities and collecting information, photos and video clips. Teachers commented that Semanoor cost them money and the General Directorate of Girls Education did not pay for it.

When teachers gathered scientific information, whether by CD-ROMs or the Internet, usually their use of these activities seemed to be presentation conducted by teachers. However, a few teachers reported that their students sometimes used the Internet at home. For example, Fatima thought her students used the Internet for searching and writing scientific topics such as “a message to a smoker” [Fatimah, FT5]. Similarly, while Waleed [MT1] and Saud [MT2] reported that students did not use ICT in the classroom, they asked them to prepare a particular topic related to a new science lesson at home. Although Saud thought that his students did not use email for communication with each other, he reported that his students joined

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electronic forums and told him that they accessed the forums and sometimes found interesting topics, which might be discussed in his class.

A few teachers reported gathering information from another way. Sana [FT6] took photos from the local environments to present them to her students in the classrooms.

Regarding supervisors‟ views, some supervisors suggested that teachers often benefited from the Internet for preparation of new science lessons, through bringing appropriate photos and video clips for the lesson, or obtaining prepared references and ready-to-use materials, which had been uploaded online, by other teachers from different schools.

ICT as supportive tools

Besides communication and reference sources, ICT was reported as being supportive tools. Many teachers reported using generic software such as word processing as supportive tools for writing (typing, editing and layout) tasks and activities. For example, Hind [FT8] and Sana [FT6] commented that they used MS Word for preparing activities or writing tasks, such as assessment quizzes.

A few teachers, like Sana [FT6], reported using scanners to show her students optical images. Some teachers, such as Mohammed [MT3], reported using digital video cameras for recording science experiments that may be difficult to be done in the classroom. Other teachers reportedly collected pictures from local environments showing them to their students.

In general, the above findings indicate that most teachers reportedly used ICT for interpersonal communication with other teachers and sometimes with their students in the science classrooms. They also reported using CD-ROMs and the Internet for gathering information as reference sources. A few teachers seemed to be using ICT such as generic software as supportive tools. Other uses were also reported by a few participants.

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Other uses

Other uses related to science teaching that were mentioned by a few teachers during the interviews, included student assessment and self-training. For example, Mohammed [MT3] reported that he had designed competitions through PowerPoint involving enthusiastic students during the science lessons. In addition, it can be noted that the teachers suggested using ICT for assessment reported using common ICT tools for writing quizzes or showing discussion questions though PowerPoint. Hind‟s [FT8] comments showed local programs such as Semanoor being used for student assessment.

Another use of ICT reported by a few supervisors was that teachers used the Internet for self-training. A few supervisors reported that some science teachers had been endeavouring to develop themselves by the use of new technologies. Sara [FS6] for example, thought that science teachers used the Internet at home for self- development. However, it seems to be limited to only connecting with other teachers to exchange some information or ready-to-use lessons.

From the above-mentioned reports, most uses of ICT in the primary classroom seem to be by teachers. However, there were a few reported uses of ICT by students themselves.

Students’ uses of ICT

From the previous section, seemingly most ICT uses in Riyadh primary schools were one-way communication by teachers. Teachers always appeared to be presenters and speakers, and students were the listeners. However, a few participants reported that students used ICT themselves in relation to science subjects. In this regard, there were two stories mentioned during the interviews from two teachers, Mohammed [MT3] and Saud [MT2].

Mohammed reported that he designed a room for his classes including a small library with some CDs and DVDs, which had a wide range of scientific games and programs and a connection to the Internet. In detail, he explained that the use of ICT by his students for getting information from CD-ROMs playing games using

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PowerPoint presentations in the classroom and doing research on the Internet at home.

In my science room, I allow my students to borrow CDs and DVDs periodically. The method I use is that the student who is remarkable in my class is given a copy of CD, which has several games and programs on science. The students excitedly compete for that. At the end of lessons, I often get both prominent and polite students come beside me and use a computer in some games on the subject of science. I designed some games. I let them have the game themselves. The other students watch what their classmates do on the data projector. Also, I sometimes ask them to do small research tasks on science (such as plant classification). They tell me that they use the Internet in the search of the topic and bring me some excellent photographs included in the research. [Mohammed, MT3]

Mohammed [MT3] asserted that he had his own computer connected to the Internet and allowed a group of his students to browse websites during lesson activities, searching for certain topics depending on the lesson. He also reported that he planned to use the Internet for showing primary students more broad scientific experiments. He reported planning to build his own scientific website and allow all primary students to benefit from the website.

I am currently planning to construct a website on the Internet containing all the scientific experiments and lessons so that all students of elementary can log on it and benefit from it. [Mohammed, MT3]

Similarly, Saud [MT2] thought students used computers and the Internet in different ways. He reported asking his students to write a scientific essay. He suggested his students used the Internet at home for doing research about certain science topics. Although he thought his students did not use ICT for communicating with each other via email for example, he thought that the students joined public electronic forums to discuss some scientific information, but it was not often. Also he reported that his students sometimes borrowed his scientific CD-ROMs for one or two days and that they could be very creative.

In fact, a group of students interact with new technologies and the Internet for research but that is not available to everyone. My students sometimes use the Web at home when I ask them to do research on a particular topic, but in school, there is no Internet. .... Some students are excellent in the use of new technology and surpass me. [Saud, MT2]

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With regard to supervisors, the majority of them suggested that students rarely used ICT in science learning. They asserted that the teacher was the person who used the available new technologies in the classroom. For example Sami [MS4] and Haya [FS9], reported that students often did not use new technologies and they just saw their teachers sometimes demonstrating the lesson using PowerPoint presentations which had good material and assessment.

However, a few supervisors expected that students utilised the available new technologies in the school. Some individual examples were mentioned by the interviewee supervisors. One supervisor Salman [MS3] told a story of one primary teacher whose students used new technologies themselves. He reported that his students were allowed to play some computer games in front of their peers but it was not often. Salman reported some students used the available programs such as Almanahj at school in the science laboratory or the LRC during the break. He commented that teachers sometimes allowed their students to borrow CD-ROMs. Another example from a supervisor is that some teachers reportedly asked students to engage in searching on science topics or preparing science presentations and presenting them to their peers. One supervisor Ali [MS2] explained a project supported by the Supervision Centre he worked with. He commented that because science teachers were not allowed to use computer laboratories, the science supervisors in the Supervision Centre with cooperation of computing teachers suggested utilising the computer classes in science learning. They asked students to prepare science slideshows using PowerPoint when they had computer classes. Then students could present their work during the science classes. Ali asserted that it was a great project but computer laboratories were not available in all public primary schools; only some private primary schools had them.

Although students seemingly had few opportunities for using computers in the classroom, some supervisors reported that students sometimes got benefits from the Internet at home and shared the information with their peers during class lessons. Adel [MS1] reported that because the official science textbooks sometimes showed useful related websites at the end of science topics, sometimes teachers encouraged their students to access the Internet at home. Wafa [FS8] a female supervisor, also

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suspected that a few students may use the Internet at home. Salman [MS3] also suggested that some teachers asked their students to engage in processing the lessons of sciences by asking them to write a small essay about a certain topic such as „a report about the human body‟. In this case, students used the Internet as a source at home with the help of parents. Ali [MS2] asserted that students used PowerPoint at home to prepare science presentations for their peers, when teachers asked them.

Some supervisors suggested reasons for the limitation of students‟ uses of new technologies in Saudi primary schools. For example Ali [MS2], suggested that due to the lack of ICT availability in primary schools, students could not use it frequently. He thought the role of students was just watching and listening to what the teacher was doing. Similarly Sami [MS4] for example, said, “primary students do not often learn by the use of computers and new technology” because they were not available. He asserted concentration of attention on new technologies in primary schools was limited. He stated that science supervisors focused on helping teachers do practical experiments in the science laboratory in the primary stage and encouraged teachers to allow students to carry out scientific experiments by themselves. However, he commented that the integration of ICT into science laboratories had been a project in Saudi Arabia called „computerised laboratories‟ which was in preparation to be in primary schools in the near future:

Most of the new technologies may exist in some secondary schools in what are called “computerized laboratories”, which we will try to spread to all schools later. At the moment, the Education Directorate needs the primary schools to focus on laboratories and doing experiments with students in the laboratory. [Sami, MS4]

Haya also thought some teachers did not encourage their students to use ICT in regard to science learning.

The use of new technology by students at the primary level is still not