DRAFT REPORT

Layout as suggested on BPRS website.

Draft report submitted December 21st - Posted January 2003

Name of Teacher researcher: Alan Parkinson

Title of Research: 'Improving the use of the Internet in the teaching of Geography'

Data collection: September 2001 - May 2002

Contact address:

King Edward VII School

Gaywood Road

King's Lynn

Norfolk

PE30 2QB

01553 773606

apea@cheerful.com - http://www.geographypages.co.uk

Uploaded to BPRS Site: December 2002

Geographical area / Age range: Norfolk / Secondary Geography teachers / pupils.

Mentor: Professor T.P. Burt, Hatfield College, University of Durham

What were the original aims ?

• Investigate current use of the Internet by Geography teachers in Norfolk.
• Examine online material used by teachers, and extent to which the validity is questioned.
• Examine the use of online material, and the 'turn-off's which dissuade teachers from using the Internet in their lessons.
• Gather examples of 'best practice' from practising teachers.
• Carry out an audit of the present 'state of play' as regards the use of the Internet in teaching Geography and advice included in textbooks and other sources.
• To produce a CD ROM of the best materials found as a result of the research, and develop my personal website as a source of 'best practice' advice and materials.

In what way were the aims refined ?

• Extended geographical area of study to other areas of the UK after Norfolk Geography teachers didn't all respond to questionnaire producing a smaller than hoped for sample.
• Carried out pupil assessment of a Year 9 piece of work on the Kobe earthquake which involved the use of the Internet for information gathering. This came out of a conversation where it was pointed out that the focus of the research was a little skewed towards the teacher rather than the pupil.
• Added some interviews with people in various roles: University academics, examiners, teachers, ICT technician.

What research processes were helpful ?

Questionnaires: posted / handed out at INSET courses / downloaded from website. 102 replies were received overall.

Questions which I wanted to try to answer were:

• Did teachers use the Internet in their teaching ?
• Did they have home access to the Internet ?
• Had teachers downloaded teaching materials from the Internet ?
• Did teachers who were new to the profession use the Internet more in their teaching ?
• Which sites did teachers find particularly useful ?
• Of a number of sites I'd identified as being valuable, how many were teachers aware of / used ?
• What were teachers' opinions on the use of the Internet ?
• Had teachers ever abandoned lessons due to technical problems ?
• How did teachers classify the success of lessons using the Internet ?
• Was use of the Internet increasing ?
• Were students made aware of the nature of some of the material ?
• What were the average skills of the teachers asked ?

What research processes did pupils find helpful ?

Self assessment questionnaire - helped the Year 9 pupils to clarify their ideas about lessons.

Learning points I gained from undertaking the research and evidence I had to monitor this

• Led to invitation to attend BECTa seminar. Improved my personal knowledge of research techniques: had a chance to participate in a DfES funded session to influence future research areas.
• Joined 2 web based forums: BECTa's TOP TEACHERS and ICT Research Network. Also post regularly to Staffordshire Learning Network.
• It was clear that there is a variety of knowledge and usage of the internet.
• Collected a selection of comments on the reasons why teachers didn't use the Internet, or had problems - listed later in this section.

Other issues:

• "Finding the information isn't always the problem in practice: teachers need help in adapting and working though to make it engaging for students." (Webster, 1998)
• "Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is most important" (Bill Gates, quoted in the Independent on Sunday, 12/10/97)
• Several teachers were enthusiastic about the use of video conferencing, and e-mail contact to bring studies of distant places to life. This is a possible area to develop further.

Questions for my future practice

• How can I further improve the integration of ICT into schemes of work Have already started to renew Schemes of Work, and post them online so that people can comment on them, and use them.
• What changes will the introduction of 'Curriculum Online' bring ? When will the e-credits arrive, and what will there be to spend them on?
• How can I increase the efficiency of use I make of the Internet, and encourage colleagues to do the same.
• To what extent do technical problems act as a barrier to greater ICT usage.

Questions for my school

• Integration of ICT into schemes of work: ICT is now being incorporated into mark schemes for GCSE Geography coursework. How can this be increased or introduced into other areas.
• Cross-curricular ICT / subject specific training ?
• Would increasing the amount of open access to students improve skills ?
• How should the impetus produced by NOF be continued and built on ?
• Need to introduce more ICT work as part of the general increase in taught ICT lessons, but also as part of the introduction of Foundation Subjects: can be used to deliver Thinking Skills activities.

Questions for further research

• Development of school Intranet ?
• Curriculum Online: how will teachers use the materials which are produced for this initiative. Many teachers expressed the view that they preferred to develop their own materials.
• How do we know that we are getting 'value for money' from our hardware investment ?

RESULTS of primary data collection

Questionnaires

 (from a sample of 102 teachers)

93% used the Internet in their Geography teaching

(83% of those teaching for more than 30 years, 97% of those teaching between 20 and 29 years, and 100% of those teaching less than 10 years)

83% had access to the Internet at home

75% had downloaded teaching materials from the Internet

55% had abandoned a lesson using the Internet at some point due to technical problems

Of most lessons using the Internet:

6% were very successful

75% were successful

19% were unsuccessful

Of the teachers

12% thought they would use the Internet less this year than last year

35% thought they would use it about the same, and

53% thought they would use it more

Of the respondents, 72% had either started or passed their NOF training

90% had been given Internet printouts as homework materials

When asked to rate their personal ICT skills from 0 to 10 the responses were as follows:

0    =    1

1    =    1

2    =    4

3    =    8

4    =    6

5    =    23

6    =    13

7    =    17

8    =    22

9    =    5

10    =    2

USEFUL SITES

Many teachers were unaware of useful sources of information.

There are many free sources: such as the Windows on the World CD Rom given away by the Sunday Times

From a sample of 15 useful sites, and uses of ICT, the following results: (please note that some people ticked both 'Aware of' and 'Used'

 (numbers are percentages)

On average, teachers were aware of / used an average of just 3 out of the 16. I spoke to someone from the Teachers Resource Exchange at BETT 2002, and he confirmed that many more teachers have registered than have actually contributed themselves. Only 14% of the sample had actually used the Virtual Teachers Centre.

Over half had used online mapping sites, and almost three out of four had used the Internet to get the day's weather forecast information. Over two thirds had used the BBC's Bitesize site.

Teachers who have put in the time tend to feel that it has been worth it. Keith Phipps, a winner at the 2001 National Teaching awards confirmed the benefits.

Which sites did teachers find particularly useful ?

The teachers recommended a total of 69 different sites - see the BPRS page for more details.

Of the sites receiving multiple recommendations, the most popular sites were:

http://www.multimap.com

http://www.news.bbc.co.uk

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize

http://www.learn.co.uk - who have recently had press adverts promoting their Curriculum Online content

http://www.georesources.co.uk

http://www.usgs.gov

http://www.sln.org.uk/geography - a personal favourite of mine too

PROBLEMS

46 of the sampled teachers had experienced problems using the Internet at school while teaching Geography

The most common problems included:

1 in 10 teachers had a problem with the speed of their connections - this ties in with a recent report from BECTa which suggested that many schools had connections which could not cope with the number of machines connected, and that users above a small number had to wait for their chunk of router time

3 had experienced problems with a virus or 'worm'

3 had problems with printers

5 had problems with the server, or network connection

4 had problems with their ISP

2 mentioned that their ICT technician was not particularly 'user-friendly'

Several mentioned 'over-zealous' filtering which didn't allow them to see perfectly legitimate sites, particularly on the theme of population

Although not strictly relevant, the poor quality of NOF training was mentioned on more than one occasion

THOUGHTS

Teachers were asked to give their thoughts, whether positive or negative on their use of the Internet: 83 people filled in this section

To begin with the positive: several teachers commented on the following:

"a vast resource"

"a key tool for Geographers"

"an exceptionally flexible resource"

"an excellent resource"

"useful tool for individual project work"

"the up-to-date nature of the material on official sites makes this an unsurpassed resource for 'A' level and beyond"

These positive comments were in the minority however, and most comments were negative. Several key areas emerged:

Of the 83 respondents:

19 mentioned that it was too time consuming to find the right material

9 questioned the appropriateness or accuracy of the information that was found

5 had problems with plagiarising or copyright issues - they found that often students were simply 'cutting and pasting' rather than synthesising the information and using it as just one source from several

2 had problems with certain sites appearing and disappearing - the 'mobility' of sites can be a problem: it is worth checking all the links when reusing a lesson that has not been used for some time - sometimes there can be server problems which mean that sites can be down for maintenance. It was only when I visited my WEBSTAT page and discovered that no-one had visited my site for 2 days that I discovered it had been taken down and junked by a previous hosting service

10 people mentioned this need to check in advance and prepare lists of links rather than simply let students surf randomly. School filtering could still throw out your plans as home connections may not be subject to the same 'nanny' checks. There is a risk of 'information overload'

Some teachers it seems are still going into computer rooms without a 'Plan B', or without having really prepared before hand. I have certainly seen teachers looking at the end of break, seeing the computer room is free the next lesson and booking it with 5 minutes to go before the lesson starts

A few teachers still preferred to use CD ROMs with groups rather than the Internet as the content is fixed and known.

7 people had experienced problems accessing the computer room with large groups

Several teachers mentioned training issues (NOF was mentioned again...)

Finally, it seems that teachers need to have a few positive experiences to 'convert' them, or give them the confidence to go into the computer room again. Be a pragmatist: ICT is a tool, but won't solve all your problems, or answer all those queries.

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