November to the end of the research period
Receive information about BECTa Research Bursaries: money to fund individual research projects. I have a couple of weeks to put together a proposal for funding.
Also note that the BPRS site has changed to TEACHERNET location, and print off details of how I can upload my report to the website by December 2002.
19th July
A busy fortnight, not the least because Geographypages was dumped by host DREAMWATER because they've started charging for the space. It was goodnight History Dog too at the same time. Meant that I had to rebuild and upload 12 Mb of files to recreate GeographyPages, and that a lot of the GOOGLE search results are wrong - no doubt they'll be updated in time.
4000th visitor right about now.
Today I broke up. Hurrah... 14 years done.. Yesterday sent off my expression of interest re one of the new ICT research bursaries. Think my focus is perhaps a little too narrow, but what I want to investigate is the expectations that teachers have of websites. Are they disappointed by what they find ? What is it that they hope to find ? A little speculative..
Post a query along those lines on a few forums to see what comes back in the way of replies.
To the present: the next couple of weeks are when I want to get stuck in to writing up the BPRS, and analyse the results - a spot of number crunching, and send the results to Tim to see what he thinks. Also need to get Adobe Acrobat ordered to create the PDF files for the final CD-ROM. A lot of money to shell out up front though.
Summer is coming to an end again, but at least to cheer myself up I bought myself a laptop: rather good Dell Inspiron 2600. To find details of the latest deals, go to the DELL website. Also got a copy of Adobe Acrobat so when I've got a weekend I can start turning the files into PDFs. I'll do a few trial files shortly to see how they work on the site.
Now hosting the site with 123 CONNECT as the free hosts are all getting a little dodgy - the school filtering doesn't like a lot of them, and refuses to show ANGELFIRE or GEOCITIES sites.
I intend putting all my lessons on the website as they are completed, and use it to do all my lesson admin: production of reports using Access etc., and to take people through the process via the website.
The report is taking shape, and the next stage is to use Adobe to produce a PDF version of key parts of the site, and arrange the files so that people can use the site offline, and also get a boot file produced so that the CDs I burn will autorun to some sort of splash screen. I've been getting lots of e-mails from the TOPS and ICTRN forums that I subscribe to, and also been keeping up a presence on the SLN and TES forums. Went to a barbecue and a colleague had been sent an e-mail from elsewhere in the country recommending my site to her. Good to see my notoriety increasing, and the visitors are continuing to arrive - not many of them seem to e-mail me though. Had 250 visitors over summer which is quite good.
There haven't been many major developments research-wise, as it's the summer. Google has caught up with the renamed pages as well.
End of first week of term. Managed to produce final assignment for Online course at UEA. I've found it an effective means of distributing material, but I'm a well motivated student... Still have to add the results of my questionnaire analysis to the site, hopefully I can do that tomorrow. Also need to get back in touch with Tim to ask for his opinion on what I've produced so far. Also started to sketch out an article on what I've done so far, and re-read an article from a Geographical magazine from 1994 when the Internet was still relatively unknown, and its potential wasn't fully developed.
20th October
Half term, and chance to draw breath - just. The first half term has been a bit of a blur. I haven't had the chance to update laptop life as often as I wanted, and the report has been limping along, but I'm getting there. GeographyPages has surged through 5000 hits, and is averaging around 200-250 hits per week.
Started to write up the report, and putting it on draft page of website. Also start to purchase what I need for the CDs to distribute to the people who contributed to the report. Purchase a new printer to help with the production of materials for the report.
I seem to have confirmed some of the uses that teachers make of ICT (although of course my focus is on the Internet) which have been pointed out by the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) in their document:
"ICT has the potential to make a significant contribution to pupils' learning in Geography throughout the secondary phase"
- it can do this by:
"ICT has the potential to offer valuable support to teachers themselves"
- it can do this by:
- this is one of the main uses of the Internet: one might say the 'killed app' - I use this aspect on a daily basis: earthquakes, weather forecasts, Census 2001 etc. are referred to an almost daily basis
"providing a flexible resource"
"providing a source of resources for use with pupils"
"using ICT to teach the whole class or a large group"
I have had a series of lessons where I have posted the lesson 'online', and directed the students to the URL where they can find the lesson, and hyperlinks to the relevant resources.
Also had chance to read a report on a piece of research by Professor David Wood. This was reported in the TES Online in September 2002, and makes very interesting reading. Professor Wood, who did some work for BECTa on ILS (Integrated Learning Systems), has several visions for the future of ICT. He considers the idea that
"although ICT will enable us to learn and to teach in radically different ways, innovation with ICT is inhibited and stifled by a failure to rethink the curriculum. Isn't this where we are: using ICT to enhance what schools and teachers have always done ?"
there is an implication that:
"what is covered in traditional school curricula should be reduced because much of it will be redundant....computers are used to bolster the traditional curriculum"
October 28th
Clearing up after the storms of the weekend, and fighting off a cold. Bought all the materials for producing the CD ROMs over half term, and also started on the packaging layout and contents. Started the first few .pdf files.
Also downloaded the text of a report that was printed in the Guardian by Joshua Angrist, which provoked a lot of e-mails on the ICT Research Network postings.
It prompted the following responses on ICTRN 'board':
From: Niel Mclean
Unsurprisingly I agree with Colin Harrison. The research in Israel looked
at:
- computer aided instruction
- in mathematics and Hebrew
- in schools in Israel.
It did not look at:
- other uses of ICT
- in other subjects
- in other countries.
The first distinction brings in pedagogical issues, the second curriculum
ones, the third cultural ones. Hopefully we can draw these distinctions out
further. If the apparent tensions between that research and ImpaCT2 lead
to a greater understanding of these three sets of issues the it will achieve
something useful. However, I lose confidence in the ability of the press to
understand. (My father believes that 'they've proved alcohol is good for
you' because some studies point to the beneficial effects on stress of a
single glass of wine a day.)
Niel McLean
From: Marshal Anderson
Colleagues
I guess you will have seen the story suggesting that "computers do not improve pupils' performance".
Just to say that there has been a thread of research over the years, loosely
grouped under the heading "no significant difference" (e.g.
http://nt.media.hku.hk/no_sig_diff/phenom1.html ) that suggests that each
new technology - radio, TV etc. - has had little impact on learning. There's
a lot of people who don't want to hear about it ;-)
Marshal
From Deborah Mallender
Hello
I am an ICT teacher in England.
The terminology used in the report below is not transferable.
We do not have anything called a 4th grade. What is meant by test
scores? What tests exactly.
Perhaps the real problem is the cultural nature of education. Trying to
apply one country's technical educational experience of computer
application to another's is the real problem. It is far better to rely
on home grown research which can be easily verified.
I speak from experience having conducted research into use of the
internet both in the U.K. and Canada using conventional research
methodology.
Only after some considerable study of the hypothesis; are we able to
formulate a worthwhile critique.
Regards
Deborah Mallender
Keith Jones wrote:
Colleagues
I guess you will have seen the story.
The original research report is online at:
http://ideas.uqam.ca/ideas/data/Papers/izaizadpsdp362.html
Looks to me like the research didn't look, with any great sophistication
into what the teachers used the computer for. The report seems to make
no mention of this. In fact the report says "Our teacher survey included
questions that we used to explore possible program-related changes in
teaching methods and educational inputs. ... we found no evidence of a
significant change in educational inputs, instructional methods, or
teacher training in 'Tomorrow-98' schools" (page 20).
I would have thought that the authors would have known to look at the
type of computer use before concluding that "the results reported here do
not
support the view that CAI improves learning, at least as measured by
pupil test scores. Using a variety of estimation strategies, we find a
consistently negative and marginally significant relationship between
the program-induced use of computers and 4th grade math scores. For other
grades and subjects, the estimates are not significant, though also mostly
negative" (page 20).
Keith Jones
University of Southampton
Centre for Research in Mathematics Education
On the same day as receiving all this information, there's also the chance to
download the latest report from BECTa as part of the IMPACT2 study.
October 31
Receive a very complimentary e-mail from a teacher near Bristol regarding the usefulness of GeographyPages: good to know that someone else is finding the site useful. Also some more from the ICTRN on the research on Computer use.
A number of issues are raised in recent mailings not least of which is (in the
words of the song) "it's not what you do it's the way that you do it".
I think there has been a mis-conception that simply having ICT in schools
will enhance teaching and learning. It is almost on a par with saying
'surround children with books and they will learn to read'.
The effective use of ICT, in my opinion, has a number of components:
* hardware which is stable
* software which is intuitive
* clear objectives for its use
* a clear rationale for using ICT compared to other tools and
materials
* and last but certainly not least - GOOD TEACHERS WHO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND HOW ICT CAN FACILITATE LEARNING.
ICT is not a magical tool.
I would like to hear of any research which compares the cost of a
computer and associated software and the effect on learning and standards
with a similar sum spent on other tools and materials and their outcomes.
Thanks
Graham Jarvis
This is a good point made. Would the same results be produced from text-based
sources than from groups using the Internet to find their material ? Had I the
time this could be a possible action research project: I would need to come up
with criteria for assessment however. The next posting on the ICTRN mentioned
this particular issue:
From: P. Twining
I.... have been critical of the Becta reports (eg Becta
2000; 2001a; 2001b; 2002) on the 'relationship between ICT and attainment'
(Twining 2002) because of the way in which they at best imply and at worst
explicitly claim that ICT use enhances attainment on the basis of
correlations of the sort Peter H mentions.
In response to his question re correlations between books and achievement -
yes there is a study by the UK Publishers Association (Watson 2001) which
replicates the analysis that Becta used, but subsituting expenditure on
books in primary schools for ICT. This study found that "This [the
relationship between spending on books in primary schools and student's
attainment] is a stronger positive relationship than that between ICT
provision and school attainment as calculated by Becta" (p.1)
Nuff said!
Peter T
References:-
Becta (2000) A preliminary report for the DfEE on the relationship between
ICT and primary school standards, Coventry: Becta.
Becta (2001a) Primary Schools of the future - achieving today: A report to
the DfEE by Becta, Coventry: Becta.
Becta (2001b) The Secondary School of the future, Coventry: Becta.
Becta (2002) Primary Schools - ICT and Standards: A report to the DfES on
Becta's analysis of national data from OFSTED and QCA, Coventry: Becta.
Twining, P. (2002) Enhancing the Impact of Investments in 'Educational' ICT,
PhD Thesis, Milton Keynes: The Open University. (Submitted)
Watson, R. (2001) Relationship between School Book Spending and School
Results, London: Publishers Association.