ICT for learning

Ed Podestà
Lead Teacher for ICT across the Curriculum, Little
Heath School
PGCE Tutor, Oxford University
 Hopes (and fears)
• Transformation
• Skills
• Personalisation
• Independence
• Relevance
• Motivation
• Access
 Policy
Makers

“Today’s
technology is
profoundly
empowering.”
T Blair (2006)
 Policy Makers
Two thirds of the country has access to the
internet. Millions of people are ordering flights
or books or other goods online, they are talking
to their friends online, downloading music, all of
it when they want to, not when the shop or
office is open. The Google generation has
moved beyond the idea of 9 to 5, closed on
weekends and Bank Holidays.
 Policy Makers
• Passivity of users
• Counsell & Haydn 2002
–Rhetoric-reality gap
–Dominant metaphor of ‘delivery’
• NOF style ‘top down’ training &
implementation models
• Focus on hardware, at the expense of
education of teachers and learners
 Schools & Teachers
• Demands
– On teacher time
– On support resources
– On budgets
• Polarised approaches
– ‘Legacy - v – Future’ content; or
– Ignore, or use minimally
 Students
• Conflict between use of ICT at home and at
school;
• False and debilitating preconception of ‘digital
natives’;
• Passivity.
An analogy
 An analogy
• “many have claimed television to have a negative
effect on learning, while others show neutral or
moderately positive effects”;
• “These systems are effective as teaching aids, not
as a replacement to teaching”;
• “they cannot just be "turned on," but require
preparation by the teacher, and incorporation
into on-going classroom lessons”; and
• “There must be a close "fit" between the
television component, the school curriculum, and
the student”.
Television in the Classroom: What Does the Research Say? (1991)
 A remedy?
‘man’s life cannot “be lived” by repeating the
pattern of his species; he must live’
(Fromm 2003, p.29),
 A remedy ?
‘man’s life cannot “be lived” by repeating the pattern
of his species; he must live’

• teachers using ICT increasingly see themselves as

facilitators of learning
• teachers and pupils were reported to be interacting
more than in traditional classroom situations
• There was also an increased desire for interaction
on the part of pupils ;
• Too much freedom, independence that is not well
planned, well “scaffolded”, or well understood
leads to problems and disengagement.

Hennessey et al. 2003,

 A remedy?

Good teaching and learning [with ICT] starts

with good planning.