ICT and Learning: Dust or Magic?

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ICT and Learning Dust or Magic?

• Prof Angela McFarlane
• Graduate School of Education
• University of Bristol

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• "An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on
  the talent that rubs against it."
• Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

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ICT improves learningAssessment drives up
standards
Dust or Magic?
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ICT improves learning
Dust or Magic?
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• ICT can make a contribution to educational
  outcomes
• for some learners
• under certain circumstances.

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Impact 2

• 2 Preliminary studies
• Main team at Nottingham, MMU and OU
• 60 schools
• Teacher researchers
• Pupil researchers
• Ended July 2002 funded by DfEE

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Impact 2 - Questions

• (1) What is the involvement of pupils with
  computers and the Internet at home and in
  school?
• (2) Does curriculum centred usage have a
  measurable effect on performance and attitude ?
• (3) Are these effects confined to usage in
  school?
• (4) Are all kinds of computer usage equally
  productive of learning?
• (5) If ICT based learning involves interactions
  between home and school, what are the attendant
  problems and how can these be met?

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Impact 2 Answers?

• 75 primary pupils, 90 secondary pupils have a
  computer at home
• Use in school subjects never or hardly ever
• 5 from 13 subjects show a small positive
  correlation between ICT use and added value of
  attainment
• Use at home seems to correlate to improved
  attainment in school
• The data on types of ICT usage was inconclusive

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Impact 2 Answers?
     There is no consistent relation between the
average amount of ICT reported for any subject at
a given key stage and its apparent effectiveness
in raising standards. It therefore seems
likely that the type of involvement is
all-important.   
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• ICT is not a single entity or experience it has
  many facets which are entirely different from one
  another.

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Aspects of ICT that can contribute to learning
Feedback Automation Representation of dynamic
processes The ability to edit Multiple
representations of knowledge Shared work
space All depend on the prevailing learning
culture and style of the teacher.
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• ICT seems to be at its most powerful in the
  support of learning as part of iterative,
  productive tasks that include assessment for
  learning

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Dust or Magic?

• Assessment drives up standards

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Perspectives on ICT and Testing

• Testing ICT skills/competences
• Testing what we have always tested better/cheaper
• Testing a very different set of achievements
  skills, understanding, digital literacy

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Assessment in Education Assessment for the
Digital Age
Theme One the use of computer-based assessment
tools which broadly replace conventional
measuresalthough they usually if not always in
fact change and/or develop the measure, e.g.
through the use of adaptive testing in
computer-based tests. The key point here perhaps
is that the assessment criteria remain largely
unaltered between conventional tests and the
computer-based versions of them.  
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Assessment in Education Assessment for the
Digital Age
Theme Two the use of computer-based technologies
to assess skills and/or knowledge which are
difficult or even impossible to assess using
conventional media. Here the assessment criteria
will differ from those used in conventional
tests, although they may well apply to formative,
task-based and teacher administered assessments.
 
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Assessment in Education Assessment for the
Digital Age
Theme Three the use of computer-based
technologies in learning, and an examination of
the outcomes and how to measure them. Currently
there is little evidence that the kinds of
learning validated through tests, and the kinds
of learning supported through the use of ICT,
necessarily overlap.    
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It is very noticeable that all the authors, to a
greater or lesser extent, address the way in
which assessment shapes the curriculum. There is
a recognition of the phenomenon of teaching to
the test and the subsequent damage poor tests,
or tests that credit only a restricted range of
valuable learning, can do to education. There
is also a common view that the advent of digital
technologies has led to a shift in emphasis, or
even a complete change, in the skill set that
will serve pupils well when they enter the world
of work. Key learning outcomes are seen as
skills not knowledge, and require a dynamic
environment in which to capture the practice of
these skills in action. McFarlane 2003
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From Ridgway and McCuster 2003

• Promoting meta-knowledge
• Using new representations and symbol systems
• Finding rules and relationships
• Constrained decision making
• Handling complex data
• Modelling complex processes and problems

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Speed is a task for 13 year-olds which presents
students with a video of a car travelling along a
road. They are required to represent the journey
as a graph, which they build from line segments.
Students find this task easy.  Ridgway and
McCuster 2003

• Understanding and representing problems

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SUNFLOWER is a task for both 9 and 13 year old
students which presents students with the task of
growing the worlds tallest sunflower, using some
combination of the two nutrients that are
provided. The task rewards systematic work such
as controlling variables, recording results, and
careful exploration of the search space.

• Problem exploration

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ICT and Assessment for Learning
.research indicates that improving learning
through assessment depends on five, deceptively
simple, key factors          The provision of
effective feedback to pupils         The active
involvement of pupils in their own
learning    Adjusting teaching to take account
of the results of assessment          A
recognition of the profound influence assessment
has on the motivation and self-esteem of pupils,
both of which are crucial influences on
learning          The need for pupils to be
able to assess themselves and understand how to
improve. From Assessment for Learning 1999
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• The Magic Ingredient?
• The intended outcomes must be part of a wider
  vision of the curriculum and its assessment,
  which are compatible with the chosen application
  of ICT to support learning.
• There must be a shared model of valid learning
  and its manifestations.

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There has been a chorus of pronouncements that
"the information society" both requires and makes
possible new forms of education. We totally
agree with this. But we do not agree that
tardiness in translating these declarations into
reality can be ascribed, as it often is, to such
factors as lack of money, technology, standards
or teacher training. Obviously there is a need
for improvement in all of those areas, But the
primary lack is something different - a shortage
of bold, coherent, inspiring yet realistic
visions of what education could be like 10 and 20
years from now.
Papert, S. and Caperton, G., 1999
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Key Texts Becta (2002/3) Impact2 reports see
http//www.becta.org.uk under Research Burns,
T. C and Ungerleider, C. S, (2002) Information
and Communication Technologies in Elementary and
Secondary Education. International Journal of
Educational Policy, Research and Practice, Vol 3
no 4 p 27-54   Harlen, W and Deakin Crick, R.
(2003) Testing and Motivation for Learning
Assessment in Education, Vol 10 no 2   Kozma,
R.B. (ed) (2003) Technology, Innovation and
Educational Change a global perspective. ISTE
ISBN 1-56484-230-4   McFarlane, A.E., (2003a)
Learners, Learning and New Technology.
Educational Media International (Routledge) Vol
40 3/4 McFarlane, A..E. ed (2003b) Assessment
for the Digital Age, Assessment in Education vol
10(3)
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CAL 05 Virtual Learning?www.cal-conference.els
evier.com
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ICT and Learning Dust or Magic?

• Prof Angela McFarlane
• Graduate School of Education
• University of Bristol