Learning how to Learn Technical Team

1
ICT and the Management of BIG Educational
Research Projects

• Patrick Carmichael and Richard Procter
• Learning how to Learn
• A project of the Teaching Learning Research
  Programme

2
Part 1

• Some Background

3
The TLRP

• a coordinated research initiative whose
  overarching purpose is to support and develop
  educational research leading to improvements in
  outcomes for learners of all ages, in all sectors
  and contexts of education, training and lifelong
  learning throughout the UK.
• 32 projects in 3 Phases
• Research Fellowships
• Research Capacity Building Network
• Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Extensions

4
The Role of ICT in TLRP

• Support for Programme Management
• Role in Communication and Impact
• Development of a Programme-wide strategy of
• Data Archiving
• Data Description
• Data Reuse

SPSS/SAS/Minitab Files
Survey Data
Qualitative Data Codesets
Audio
Video
Diaries and Biographies
Bibliographies
Images
Instruments
Codes of Practice/Protocols
Outputs
5
Learning how to Learn Project

• Phase II of TLRP 2000-2004
• Student, Teacher and Organisational Learning
• Focus on Formative Assessment
• Involves
• Four Universities
• c.20 HE Staff
• Five Local Education Authorities
• Two Virtual Education Action Zones
• 43 Schools
• Hundreds of teachers, thousands of children 5-18

6
The L2L Websitemultiple roles

• provision of information about the nature and
  scope of the project
• provision of materials for use by LEA and school
  coordinators
• data collection and monitoring
• data storage
• project management and data analysis tools
• provision of exemplification of best practice
• a test-bed for tools and techniques for other
  projects

7
Part 2

• Online Data Collection

8
The Requirement

• As part of the research design, we wanted school
  and LEA coordinators to report and reflect on the
  roll-out of the project in their schools.
• And wanted to maintain contact between

9
Our Solution (b)logging

• We built a dedicated log system
• Similarities to blogs, discussion boards and
  research diaries
• Coordinators, Researchers and CFs able to add to
  a running record
• Per-school access
• Stored on secure server in XML (interchange
  format)
• Searchable across schools or events by
  researchers
• Why another project school?

10
Two elements of the log
Read Log
Data Entry
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Part 3

• Over to You

12
Two sets of questions

• As a Respondent
• What are your responses to the idea (and the
  reality!) of an online logging system?
• What questions might you have about the system?
• How might it compare to other approaches such as
  a reflective diary or field notes?
• As a Researcher/Research Manager
• What are your responses to the idea?
• Affordances? Barriers? Concerns?
• Again, how might it compare to other approaches?

13
Part 4

• Some Findings and Questions

14
Some Initial Findings

• Response to the system generally positive
• Welcomed by researchers and research managers
• Some school coordinators restricted comments to
  statements about management of the project
• Minority (including experienced
  teacher-researchers) used logs in reflective
  mode
• Minority established responsive dialogue with CF
• Need for reminders to log it!
• Few concerns about privacy/security

15
Some Emerging Questions

• How do data collected through the logs relate to
  other data from interviews and observation in
  schools?
• Can log data be used as a focus for interviews
  and further enquiry?
• What does nothing mean in the context of a
  novel data collection technique?

16
The End

• This presentation available on the Learning how
  to Learn website at http//tech.learntolearn.ac.u
  k
• You may also be interested in our paper
  Carmichael, P., Procter, R. and Honour, L. (2003)
  Network Tools across a Distributed Research
  Project Reflections on the first two years of
  'Learning how to Learn Paper presented at BERA
  Conference, Edinburgh, September 2003
• You can also see some demonstrations of our other
  tools and prototypes.