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My CV Publications Occasional    papers Services Steam pages Home	© Paul Heinrich 1997 In what ways does Information Technology promote learning across the curriculum? Learning is consequence of thinking (John Abbott,Education 2000 (1996)) What is information technology. More correctly, what is information and communications technology - ICT and what does it do for learning? Desktop and laptop computers are simply the most visible part of ICT to the ordinary person yet the term encompasses all digital technologies, computers, fax, mobile phones and shortly digital broadcasting, the real revolution. ICT itself is a National Curriculum subject and its Programme of Study must be taught in schools, though standards of both teaching and learning are inadequate, according to the most recent HMCI report. The position of ICT in the curriculum has changed. In the early 1980's IT capability largely meant the ability to program in now almost forgotten languages. The first National Curriculum hid IT within Technology, thus largely ignoring its importance as a learning tool and ensuring that many teachers were able to, or chose to, ignore it - after all, they only needed to use computers when teaching technology. Wiser teachers recognised the true potential of ICT as a tool for learning. The current version at least defines a basic capability that can be reached quite easily by most pupils, given access to modern equipment and good teaching. Yet even this pays little heed to the potential of the technologies that will be with us when this years intake of student teachers enter the profession in 2001. There is a danger in viewing ICT simply as another subject of the curriculum, a trap into which secondary schools tend to fall, a trap in which IT is taught in isolation and its potential to enhance learning, raise pupil attainment and alter teaching strategies across the curriculum, is lost to a narrow skills focus divorced from the real needs of the learner. Yet the development of a pupils ICT capabilities is a requirement for all NC subjects except PE, though with the caveat of "where appropriate". Some ask why, when in many schools, neither teacher skills nor technical infrastructures are yet capable of meeting this expectation. Arguments are even made in discussion fora on the Internet for the removal from the primary curriculum of supposedly difficult areas such as control technology. Unfortunately for the luddites ICT will not go away, though we all have reservations - there is no such thing as perfect software for example. If simple software on a school PC can crash should we have confidence in the fly by wire systems on an Airbus. We know, that used appropriately ICT is a wonderful tool to both deliver and support education whether in or out of school. Well used by pupils, either independently or under guidance by teachers, and in constructive and imaginative ways ICT encourages thinking and hence results in learning. yet we are at an early stage in developing such uses. While there is evidence of the use of word processors, spreadsheets, and to a significantly lesser extent, communications applications other aspects are neglected. These include modelling, beyond the use of simplistic adventures and simulations, measurement and control technologies. There is a place for all of these, though teachers are often slow to identify topics that can be supported by the use of ICT. However, as teachers we must be concerned with the future needs of our pupils, the skills they need to be useful citizens in a technological world. These will include: communications skills: speaking and listening, whether face to face, over a telephone or in a video conference and of course all forms of graphical communication. literacy, which will include the ability to read and write both information texts and texts containing graphics and sound appearing on a screen. numeracy, including skills of estimation and a sense of quantity as well as basic arithmetic. higher level information handling skills, especially how to refine, expand and cross-relate searches. These capabilities cannot be taught in isolation. They are best developed through using them as an integral part of the wider curriculum. Learning with IT: The use of ICT both encourages and enables many learning processes to take place in a wider range of contexts and for more purposes than ever before. Most importantly it supports learning that is, intuitive, inferential and often tentative and informal. Thus learners are able to: access and engage with concepts. ideas and knowledge that they would otherwise not have access to. They can do this collaboratively and develop their understanding through local or distant discussion with their peers. use the computer as a machine to think with, through experimenting with "what if" questions, collective discussion and enquiry approaches. working with text, images and sound: selecting, adapting and adding both to their own work and that of others in the school and elsewhere across local and wide area networks. become real researchers or designers, investigating problems and seeking solutions locally and from the world at large. use computer aided design and manufacturing methods in their design and technology work. Using such systems all children, including those with physical handicaps are able create appropriate artefacts of quality using the sophisticated methods of the commercial world. develop a critical view and understanding of the role and nature of ICT systems by reflecting on and analysing their own learning. The generic qualities of ICT, relevant to the whole curriculum are ease of information and data transfer from one source to another, the facility to draft, redraft, refine and transform that information and the speed with which this can be achieved. Integrated learning systems can provide tuition with feedback, support and privacy, important where pupils self esteem as learners is low. ICT also fosters teamwork, since information may be easily shared and developed within the team. Many consider that the "National Curriculum does not as yet fully reflect the skills, knowledge and understanding which are made possible through the new technologies and which are likely to be a requirement for learning in the future." (NCET 1993). What we cannot do is deliver these future requirements through a system of "chalk and talk, show and tell technology in which teacher time rather then pupil opportunity to learn, is seen as the main variable," (Abbott 1996). Young children in particular are not only enthusiastic learners, they adapt to whichever style of learning suits them at the time. They must be encouraged to become independent learners, lifelong learners within a "Learning Community", using a range of learning resources both in school and elsewhere. Most will respond well to this expectation. But to present realities and some illustrations of IT promoting learning within the subjects of the present curriculum. In the best ICT practice the principles noted above apply as these three examples show. English: Pupils may use word processors to draft and refine text. No longer is the first draft the last. Ideas can be returned to, developed, further explored. Groups of pupils can write collaboratively, each developing their own character or sub plot and in so doing ensuring that the ancient traditions of story telling continue. Documents need no longer be mere text. Graphical illustrations (still or moving), and created by the pupils, can be included, perhaps with sound samples as well. The simple document rapidly becomes a multimedia presentation. Classroom examples include Y2 pupils writing branching multimedia stories (NEMA award materials illustrate this use very well) or Y4 students writing newspaper reports for a school magazine, with the pupils learning page layout, story research and writing as well as use of scanners and digital cameras. As to the future, pupils will expect to publish examples of their work on the Internet eg school newspapers, pupil views on local issues related to leisure facilities or the environment etc, giving then a chance to be heard and their views valued in a way not otherwise possible. Geography: Investigative work is more meaningful when the data can be analysed and evaluated quickly and accurately. Once data is entered into a database the geographical questions can be asked, the hypotheses proved or disproved with speed. Even simple geographic information systems provide mapped data as well as simple graphs. And more, the results can be ported to a document processor, to be incorporated with text, digital maps and pictures to produce a smart report. Traffic flows can be recorded and entered on a spreadsheet. A tool now exists for modelling the effects of moving traffic from one route to another by road closures or weight restrictions. Real world, real activity. Email links with schools abroad are not simply about electronic pen pals. Swapping information on weather, pollution, environmental debates etc are of equal importance for the children of the global village. Through these activities the pupils handle real data, focus on spatial contexts, consider evidence and causation, and have opportunities to reflect on the ways in which the media distorts geographical information. They are helped to become thinking, critical citizens. History: Already software exists that enables pupils to explore virtual worlds (e.g. Anglia Multimedia: Romans), to interact with people from the past and to question them. New developments present source materials and evidence and encourages pupils to question it, to examine the validity of the evidence, to explore relationships and causality and to reach their own conclusions. Such software can provide individual support and feedback. Document processors allow the creation of historical narrative, perhaps linked to work in drama exploring roles in medieval society. Information can be organised and presented. Newspapers or articles written to present different viewpoints on an event. Towards the Future: Independent, open, life-long learning requires us as teachers to provide our pupils with the skills to learn. One of those skills is the creative and imaginative use of ICT. Shortly, with digital broadcasting, broad band cable communications and other developments we will all have easy access to information on any topic we desire, perhaps through cheap Network Computers linked to our televisions. Already some pupils use the Internet as their first source of information, rather than traditional books. Simple access to communications directly relevant to education, such as are illustrated by the Highdown Hub and Cambridge Online trials will become commonplace. We must prepare the learners of today to use these systems for as Heppell (1994) notes' "pedagogic evolution requires us to be aware that computers not only bring us something new to the learning environment but that they change it and they change learners too." And teachers also. Home    Other essays and publications Last updated: 16th September 2001 This article may be freely copied provided that its source is acknowledged. The copyright remains with the author at all times