Rethinking Teaching using ICT and Action Research

1. Rethinking Teaching using ICT and Action Research • Margaret Farren • Computer Applications • February 28th, 2002

2. Setanta Overview • Collaborative Project: C.A., DCU and Schools • Teachers and pupils, C.A. Teacher and students • Schools need real, usable applications of ICT – pupils learn context based ICT skills • C.A. need real world projects for undergraduates – students develop technical skills and team work

3. Key challenges of ICT • More than basic computing skills • Development of appropriate software • Appropriate content difficult to find on Internet • Access speed to Internet - schools

4. Setanta Aims • To develop courseware for School curriculum and store on school intranet • To make the Intranet available in the classroom, tailored to needs of the curriculum • To target particular subject areas to test the viability of project

5. Setanta Courseware Projects • Virtual Art Gallery • Multimedia Environments for Specific Learning Difficulties • Interactive Maths Tutorial • See http://www.compapp.dcu.ie/~mfarren/research.html

6. Masters in Computer Applications for Education • Two year part-time course • Teachers from different subject disciplines • Teachers - different levels e.g. primary, secondary, higher education • Linked modules: Multimedia, Computer Applications in Education, Network Information Management

7. Action Research • Practitioner based research • Systematic enquiry made public • Improving student learning • Developing teacher as learner • Through action research I • Understand what I did not know before • Show improvement in practice

8. Action Research • Living our values/criteria in our professional practice – you need to be clear about what you are doing and why your are doing it • Empowering us as teachers to bring about improvement (Praxis versus techne) • Teaching as a form of enquiry, leading to knowledge and understanding of practice • Developing awareness of practice by being critical of practice • Helping to bring about a more participatory/collaborative view of teaching and learning

9. Educational Values/Standards of Practice • Teachers should be engaged in the learning process • Teachers as designers of curriculum artefacts and not passive users of technology • Teachers as knowledge creators and not users of anothers’ body of knowledge • Modules should impact on educational practice • Integrate technology into my own teaching and learning

10. Scholarship of Teaching • We should think about practice as the setting for not only the application of knowledge but for the generation of knowledge. We should ask not only how practitioners can better apply the results of academic research, but what kinds of knowing are already embedded in competent practice. Schon (1995)

11. Action Research process • Review current practice • Identify aspect worth investigating • Imagine a way forward • Try it out • Take stock • Modify in light of what we find • Monitor • Review • Evaluate

12. Living Educational Theory • Whitehead (1989) formulated action reflections cycles into these statements: • What am I concerned about/what do I want to improve; • What am I going to do about it • What data will I need to collect to enable me to make a judgement on effectiveness in terms of student learning • Act and gather data • Modify concerns, ideas and actions in light of evaluation • Submission of descriptions and explanation of my learning in the educational enquiry, ‘How do I improve my practice?’ to a validation group.

13. Learning with and through technology • Presentation of curriculum/multimedia artefacts to teachers in Community College, North Carolina using Netmeeting videoconferencing - paper • Link to International experts to share action research and ICT work in progress using iVisit videoconferencing • Educational development on WebCT (online learning environment) • Curriculum artefacts/Action Research - See Website