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Action
research for ICT in the classroom
first announcement about TforT.net
from the TES ICT supplement
Teachers for teachers. ICT Action research
Rummaging through the National Archive of Educational Computing, at Ultralab earlier this year, I stumbled across a video of some small children, back in 1985, that we were working with. One little seven year old is showing me how to build and replicate formulae on a spreadsheet (Multiplan on a very early Macintosh). Her confidence is awesome although her vocabulary is clearly a seven year old's; "You tell the computer there's a sum coming" she says as she begins her formula... I showed the clip to a group of university governors as we explored together how higher education might respond to the huge growth in ICT confidence of new students. I think we were all shocked when we worked out that this confident little seven year old with her solid mastery of the spreadsheet had probably graduated last year. On the train home I continued to reflect on why our progression of her capability, and of our curriculum, had failed her. Luckily, the "teachers for teachers" project I was working on during the journey might just be the solution we have needed since 1985.
Why have so many teachers' great ideas and children's exciting new work not moved us forward quicker? There have been three difficulties: the fundamental problem is familiar to all those who have used a computer to delight and engage young learners because these new things that learners do with ICT are not easily compared to the old things they used to do and are thus undervalued; new ideas are lost. A second problem is that opportunities for the exchange of good ideas are scarcer in 2001 than they were in 1985; teachers are busier, we don't have HMI pollinating ideas from school to school, more CPD is run in-school. It's ironic that in an era of Information and Communication Technology we haven't done a better job in harnessing that technology to swap good ideas and good practice. The final problem is that the gains from new ideas need to be observed in the medium or long term. Ever teacher who has seen ICT make a real difference tells the same story; it is not the quick impact of "one great afternoon" from the early days of ICT but a longer term progression, often over terms or years, that needs reporting and exchanging.
More than a year ago, a Standards Task Force sub group exploring the exchange of good ideas and good practice noted all this and a simple idea began to take root. There should be a place where teachers' good ideas and the evidence that those ideas had worked might be gathered together as a huge resource for teachers, as evidence for parents that this new fangled stuff was working and as evidence for politicians that their commitment has not just generated a bit of learning productivity but has genuinely moved learning forward. Six months ago another Standards Task Force standing group, on ICT, collected good evidence that showed how much an engine for the exchange of good ideas and good practice was needed. So, with both funding and support from the DfEE, at Ultralab we have been able to build an on-line place to house a collection of just those ideas and that practice. Best of all the collection is to feature teachers' reflections over time about what got better, in their judgement, in their classrooms. This is action research, by teachers for teachers.
So what is the collection to feature, how will it work, why should busy teachers bother to find time to contribute? Is it just for geeks? Comfortingly, it's a geek free zone, you need to know about learning not HTML to contribute. The collection asks teachers to reflect on one thing that they are doing with ICT that others might learn from. They are asked to contribute several key components: obviously their context, an image (a picture always helps set that context), the period of time that their observations cover from start to finish, details that validate their status as teachers and, finally, their judgement about why the activity was worthwhile. Interestingly, examples on the website include "the children seemed more reluctant to leave at the end of the day", "they lined up quicker at the start of their lessons", "their oral science questions and contributions leapt upwards afterwards" as well as the more conventional "their test scores improved in both years" and the unexpected "my three slowest readers became my three best movie producers". In other words good ethnographic evidence is welcomed and their is plenty of help on the site with practical methodology which recognises how busy teachers are. If children are doing new things in the classroom the person most able to judge whether it was worthwhile or not will be the teacher in there with them and if standards are not to become standardisation we need this evidence. But, why bother? In an elegant use of technology once a contribution is posted (and there is a simple moderation process to ensure that it is teachers and not salespersons posting the research!) the site generates a certifcate of action research with a host of worthy bodies' logos fringing the sheet, including the DfEE and the TES. Also a sense of audience is enhanced by feedback from the site showing how useful, and how visited, your contribution was. An impact on policy, accreditation and a global audience add up to plenty of motivation but teachers all know that it is the chance as a professional to exchange ideas with others that is the most welcome.
Threads can be build through the collection by organisations like BECTA, LEAs or maybe subject groups like the Association of Science Education to exemplify their view of a useful progression of ideas; teachers too can build their own pathways through the materials. Hidden meta tags link to other useful collections of resources or lesson plans elsewhwere. At last perhaps the promise shown by that little seven year old back in 1985 can be built on, progressed and shared, preferably this time before the next generation of young learners have graduated. If you are using ICT in the classroom, please visit the site to see now what you need to be doing to be able to contribute later in the year when contribution to the collection goes live, initially for those who have passed through NOF training and then for all.
The collection by teachers for teachers can be found, predictably, at: TforT.net
Prof Stephen Heppell, February 2001
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