Action Research and Innovative Pedagogies with ICT 1

8 Action Research and Innovative Pedagogies with ICT 1

Could we organize teaching and learning in radically different ways now that we have the internet, internet-look-alike CD/DVD materials, digital imaging, video and other new technologies? What kind of action research partnerships can support this kind of radical change? Since 1984, when I first took a BBC ‘B’ computer into my classroom and worked with children on how it helped them improve the quality of their writing, I have known that computer-based technologies disrupt classroom behaviour patterns and have the potential to change teacher–learner relationships and give learners greater autonomy. Over the intervening 20 years I have traced the process of promise and disappointment, been excited by Papert’s claims that through logo programming children could develop high-level thinking abilities (Papert 1980), been fascinated by exploring with teachers how computers could enable pupil autonomy (see Chapter 4) and delighted by the innovative work of teachers and students in the Apple Classroom of Tomorrow schools (Sandholtz et al. 1997), become inspired by Alan November’s vision for transforming schooling (November 2001), but have been forced ultimately to recognize the reality that in the majority of schools very little has actually changed. At the IT in Education conference in the USA in 2000 I heard a keynote presentation launching the US federal government’s Teachers Training with Technology (T3) initiative in which the programme’s director spoke of ‘being on the launchpad’ to begin using technology in education. It was as if the previous 15 years of investment in computers in schools, and support and action research by people like myself, had never been. I felt incensed by his assumption that we had achieved nothing. Yet, the ImpaCT2 evaluation of the impact of the UK government’s substantial investment in information and communication

1 The research reported in this chapter was carried out jointly by myself and Matthew Pearson. I would like to thank Matthew for his enormous contribution to the ideas contained here. I

would also like to thank Lesley Saunders of the GTC for her great encouragement and support.

ACTION RESEARCH technologies for schools (ICTs), which I co-directed in 2000–02, found little

evidence of gains in pupils’ educational attainment resulting from ICT (Harrison et al. 2002); indeed, most pupils across the age range 9–16 ticked the ‘never’ or ‘hardly every’ boxes when asked how often they used com- puters in English, maths and science lessons.

Many social scientists have written about this mismatch between vision and practice: Becker’s US-wide survey in 1998 found that computers were hardly used in the teaching of academic subjects in schools (Becker 2000); Cuban (2001) provided evidence of widespread failure to implement technology innovations; and this American work has been replicated in the findings of Selwyn (2002) in the UK as well as in the ImpaCT2 study itself. Meanwhile ICTs have made an obvious, extensive impact on all other aspects of social life, with computer networks changing working practices, on-line access removing the need to go physically to offices, banks and shops, and mobile cell phones and internet messaging services radically changing the patterns of social life. Take up of these changes remains very variable depending on individuals, but schools are the only institutions that appear to be largely resistant. Moreover, there is considerable evidence that many children are making extensive use at home of the internet, commu- nication technologies and other digital technologies such as cam-corders and digital cameras. They are developing high levels of ICT skills and many aspects of their lives outside school are being transformed (through extended ‘connectedness’ with friends and easy access to popular culture, leading to increased personal autonomy). By comparison, ICT as presented to them in school is seen by many as boring and irrelevant (Somekh et al. 2002b; Facer et al. 2003: 26–33).

Contemplating these strange mismatches, I felt both frustrated and fas- cinated. What was it about schools which made the impact of technology investment so disappointing? Could human agency – supported by so many policy initiatives – overcome this settled resistance? The Pedagogies with E-Learning Resources Project (PELRS) was designed as an action research project to see how radical change in teaching and learning with ICTs could be realized in English schools.

This chapter explores the process of change through discussion of the PELRS work in progress. PELRS is an experiment in focused experimental intervention in the English school system, adopting action research methodology. It is a qualitative empirical study that is exploring the nature of transformative learning through investigating what it might look like in practice for children in schools. It draws on cultural psychology and activity theory to provide an underpinning theoretical framework for understanding change for individuals and organizations. Its research design is innovative and perhaps inherently problematic, but the knowledge it is generating is a powerful basis for scenario building to show what is possible.

ACTION RESEARCH AND INNOVATIVE PEDAGOGIES WITH ICT