Alan M Pritchard Effective Teaching With Internet Technologies Pedagogy And Practice 2007 [603869]

Effective Teaching
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Effective Teaching
with Internet Technologies
Pedagogy and Practice
Alan Pritchard
Paul Chapman
Publishing
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© 2007 Alan Pritchard
First published 2007Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or
private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under theCopyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publicationmay be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or byany means, only with the prior permission in writing of thepublishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, inaccordance with the terms of licences issued by the CopyrightLicensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outsidethose terms should be sent to the publishers.
Paul Chapman Publishing A SAGE Publications Company1 Oliver’s Yard55 City RoadLondon EC1Y 1SP
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Dedication
This book is dedicated firstly to a large group of creative teachers for allowing me to
share their ideas, secondly to Jackie, my wife, for allowing me to go missing so often,and lastly to my daughters, Maria and Frances, for allowing me occasional use of mycomputer. I love you all.Prichard-Prelims.qxd 5/22/2007 8:13 PM Page v

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Contents
List of Figures viii
List of Tables ix
Acknowledgements xi
Companion Website xii
1 ICT, the Internet and Theories of Learning 1
2 The Internet, Pedagogy and Learning 13
3 Working Individually 28
4 Working Collaboratively 48
5 Longer Term Projects, Communicating and Problem Solving 72
6 End Word: Effective Teaching with the Internet 116
Appendix 1 Pedagogical and Theoretical Considerations: Explanatory Notes 123
Appendix 2 Case Studies 125
References 127
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List of Figures
3.1 Part of the activities list in Quia for mathematics 30
3.2 An example screen from a matching activity in Quia 32
3.3 An example of a Quia screen 35
3.4 The opening screen of a Builder Ted activity, showing the ladder
where the bricks have to be placed in the correct order 36
3.5 Some of the “Tips” from the activity 37
3.6 Part of the background information from the activity, which was
used with the whole class as an introduction 38
3.7 A part completed map-labelling activity 43
4.1 Example of an introductory page to the virtual war room tour 50
4.2 The map room worksheet (a simplified version of this sheet was
produced for the lower ability group to use) 51
4.3 Part of the Virtual Synagogue site 58
4.4 The beginning of the Musical Mystery 64
5.1 Welcome to Welltown 74
5.2 Games section of the Welltown site 75
5.3 A completed worksheet made by the teacher using artwork copied
from the website 78
5.4 One of the downloadable worksheets from the Welltown site 79
5.5 A completed downloadable worksheet 83
5.6 One of the pages from the developing school website.
The text was composed by the children 84
5.7 View that the teacher has of the remote class that she is teaching 885.8 The view of the teacher that the children have during the lesson 895.9 An example web page with text, images and hyperlinks 98
5.10 One of the recipes from the UK school; evaluated by
the Spanish School 104
5.11 Opening page of the Greek Worship webquest 109Prichard-Prelims.qxd 5/22/2007 8:13 PM Page viii

List of Tables
2.1 Percentage of schools connected to the internet since 1998
(Source: DfES 2004a) 15
2.2 A selection of domain codes 18
3.1 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT
related lessons: Drilling for tables 34
3.2 Drilling for tables: Other considerations/features 34
3.3 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT
related lessons: Builder Ted and decimals 40
3.4 Builder Ted and Decimals: Other considerations/features 40
3.5 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT
related lessons: Find a place in the world 45
3.6 Find a place in the world: Other considerations/features 46
4.1 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT
related lessons: Virtual tour of the Cabinet War Rooms 55
4.2 Virtual tour of the Cabinet War Rooms: Other considerations/features 55
4.3 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT
related lessons: Exploring places of worship 61
4.4 Exploring places of worship: Other considerations/features 62
4.5 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT
related lessons: Key stage 1 music games 69
4.6 Key stage 1 music games: Other considerations/features 70
5.1 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT
related lessons: Key stage 1 health education 86
5.2 Key stage 1 health education: Other considerations/features 86
5.3 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT
related lessons: Modern foreign languages and video-conferencing 93
5.4 Modern foreign languages and video-conferencing: Other
considerations/features 94
5.5 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be
present in ICT related lessons: Children publishing their work 100
5.6 Children publishing their work: Other considerations/features 1005.7 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in
ICT related lessons: International recipe exchange via e-mail 106
5.8 International recipe exchange via e-mail: Other
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xEffective Teaching with Internet Technologies
5.9 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in
ICT related lessons: Using a webquest 112
5.10 Using a webquest: Other considerations/features 113
6.1 Number of times features of constructivist lessons with ICT
recorded in case studies 119
6.2 Number of times other considerations/features
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Acknowledgements
Thank you to all teachers and children who have let me observe and question at will.
Without the access to classrooms and without the time that teachers have freely givenover the last years this book would not have been possible.Prichard-Prelims.qxd 5/22/2007 8:13 PM Page xi

Companion Website
You can find a companion website for this book at www.sagepub.co.uk/pritchard.
The site links you to related websites for most of the case studies, as well as featuringimages of children’s work and other supporting material. There is also some suggestedreading that you might like to follow up, and extracts from some of the author’s otherpublished work.Prichard-Prelims.qxd 5/22/2007 8:13 PM Page xii

ICT, the Internet and
Theories of Learning
About this chapter
In this chapter you will encounter:
•an explanation of the purpose and structure of the book
•a general review of learning theory as it might relate to the use of the internet
•a detailed consideration of constructivist learning theory with particular reference to
the use of ICT and the internet.
INTRODUCTION
This book has been written with the intention of looking in detail at some of the issues
surrounding the increasing use of the internet in schools. The book also looks at the asso-ciated areas of learning theory and pedagogy, which are likely to have an impact on therealisation of the expected learning outcomes that teachers formulate and work towards.
The book provides the background to learning theory relevant to a consideration of
internet use in schools, and presents an overview of current views and developmentsconcerning pedagogy in the light of the advent of new technologies in general, and theinternet in particular.
To exemplify some of the important ideas and approaches considered in the early
chapters of the book a series of case studies, grouped according to learning and peda-gogical principles, is also included. The case studies serve to provide a strong practicalinput, helping to make the book useful for academics and practitioners alike. The casestudies are based on classroom research and as such are examples of the sort of workcurrently being undertaken by teachers. The case studies emphasise the planning andpracticalities of the work and links are made to the theory that is considered earlier inthe book. The case studies also consider the learning outcomes and compare them, asfar as this is possible, to the outcomes which might have been achieved if the work hadbeen undertaken in a more traditional and non-ICT related way.
LEARNING THEORY AND THE USE OF ICT AND THE INTERNET
Naturally everything that teachers do in their planning and their teaching, as well asmost of their interactions with their pupils, is centred on the idea that children learnin certain ways and that teachers plan and design activities to take advantage of this.1Pritchard-3559-Chapter-01.qxd 5/10/2007 3:39 PM Page 1

The arrival of new technologies in schools in the 1980s had little impact on the way
that teachers planned and taught. Many computer applications that were used inclassrooms were copies of approaches that teachers had used, and in some cases, hadstopped using over the years. An example of this is the increase in the number of pro-grams that gave extensive repetition in basic skills and became known as “drill andpractice” programs. There is a place for this type of program perhaps, but to concen-trate the power of a sophisticated and expensive piece of equipment on an outdatedapproach to learning with questionable value is not wholly satisfactory.
With the growing awareness of the theory associated with learning and a growing
interest in the ways that new technologies might change the way that teachers teachand children learn, there is scope, perhaps even a real need, to look at what is cur-rently known about learning, especially in relation to the new possibilities afforded byInformation and Communications Technologies (ICTs).
If we deal quickly with the behaviourist view of learning, we will be able to concen-
trate on the constructivist theories, which seem to give far better representations of thecomplex processes involved in learning. Put simply, behaviourists see learning as aprocess by which learners become able to make specific set responses to particularstimuli. This perhaps sounds very basic, and in some ways it is, but behaviouristsbelieve that all behaviour can be divided into small actions, each of which can be mas-tered by a process of training, rewards and sometimes punishments, and that learningproceeds in that way, often without the all important ingredient of understanding.
To be able to respond with the number 56 when asked the question “What are
seven eights?” is certainly commendable. However, simply responding with thecorrect number cannot give any insight into the level of understanding of the respon-dent. Of course we can say that as long as the answer is correct it does not matter, butunderstanding is at the heart of effective and lasting learning. Some would argue thatbeing able to make the correct response is fine and that understanding may follow onbehind for many, and if it does not, then at least the response is correct.
In many contexts behaviourist style learning may be the answer, reciting multipli-
cation tables may be one of these contexts, and there are others – automatically look-ing both ways before crossing a road; saying “please” and “thank you” appropriately;putting “i” before “e” except after “c”. There are many more contexts when what isreally needed is the flexibility that comes with understanding. Generally speaking wehave moved away from behaviourist style teaching and learning for most learningactivities, and the school of thought that holds sway, though not always explicitly, isthe school of constructivist learning.
Constructivism, in contrast to earlier theories, puts understanding at a high level of
priority. Constructivism, as the name suggests, sees learning as a building activity inwhich individuals build an understanding of events, concepts and processes, based ontheir personal experiences and often supported and developed by, amongst otherthings, activity and interaction with others.
Let us look at this in a little more detail. If we were to distil what has been written
about constructivist learning we might come down to the following four statements.
•Learning is a process of interaction between what is known and what is to be
learned.
•Learning is a social process.2Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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•Learning is a situated process.
•Learning is a metacognitive process.
We will look at each of these in turn.
LEARNING AS A PROCESS OF INTERACTION BETWEEN WHAT IS
KNOWN AND WHAT IS TO BE LEARNED
We all have a wealth of prior knowledge and understanding, which we can call upon
and bring to bear on any new situation in which we find ourselves. This need not bea formal learning situation, it could be anything: problem solving, choosing a route,interpreting a coded message, but for this discussion let us think more about situationswhere learning is planned, and indeed, expected.
Whenever we begin a new learning topic in school we bring to it what we have
already learned, our factual knowledge – sea water is “salty”; our understanding –energy is transferable and can be neither created nor destroyed; and our skills – theability to multiply two-digit numbers together. We are also quite likely to bring to
the new learning some misunderstandings, or “incorrect” facts – the sun travels aroundthe Earth in space; swans are male ducks; steam and smoke are the same things.
The misunderstandings or incorrect facts exist for one reason or another. They may
be misconstruction, they may be misinterpretations based on insufficient evidence.Whatever the reason for their existence, they exist in the same way as the facts andunderstandings that are more accurate exist, and they are the starting point for learn-ing more about the given topic.
Constructivist theory tells us that we build new understanding upon existing under-
standing. In this way, whatever the starting point, learning will have taken place whensomething has been added – something new built upon what exists already. We canexplain this better perhaps in terms of schema theory. We build mental models of thereal world in order to help us to understand what we see, hear or otherwise experi-ence. “Human beings understand the world by constructing models of it in theirminds.” (Johnson-Laird, 1983: 43) These mental models are sometimes referred to as“schemas”.
Beginning with Piaget in the 1920s, followed by Bartlett (1930s), Schank (1970s)
and Rumelhart (1980s), many psychologists have examined and developed the notionof schemas. Johnson-Laird (1983) suggests that mental models are the basic structureof human thought: “It is now plausible to suppose that mental models play a centraland unifying role in representing objects, states of affairs, sequences of events, the waythe world is, and the social and psychological actions of daily life.” And Holland con-siders that “… mental models are the basis for all reasoning processes.” (Hollandet al., 1986: 194)
A schema can be thought of as a theoretical multi-dimensional store for many mil-
lions of items of knowledge. A schema is a framework with numerous nodes and evenmore numerous connections between nodes. At each node there is a discrete piece ofinformation or an idea. The piece of information can be in any one of many differentforms – an image, a sound, a smell, a feeling, an action, and more. Each node isICT, the Internet and Theories of Learning 3
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connected to a great many others. The connections between nodes are made as a result
of there being a semantic link between the connected items. The links are personal,and identical items in the schemas of two different people are very likely to have verydifferent links made for very different reasons, which could account for individualshaving a different perspective on and understanding of a topic. It is the mental processof adding new items to schemas, and forging connections between them and the exist-ing framework, that constitutes constructivist learning.
As there is no limit to the size to which a schema might grow, there is also no limit to
the number of connections within a schema: there are no restrictions on how schemasmight link and interconnect with other schemas. The more connections there are withinand between schemas, the more construction has taken place, and the more it is consid-ered that knowledge and understanding has been gained, and learning has taken place.
Schemas can be characterised in the following ways.
•Schemas are based on our general world knowledge and experiences.
•Schemas are generalised knowledge about situations, objects, events, feelings andactions.
•Schemas are incomplete and constantly evolving.
•Schemas are personal.
•Schemas are not usually fully accurate representations of a phenomenon.
•Schemas often include inaccuracies and contradictions (misconceptions).
•Schemas provide simplified explanations of complex phenomena.
•Schemas often contain uncertainty but are used even if incorrect.
•Schemas guide our understanding of new information by providing explanations ofwhat is happening, what it means and what is likely to result.
Prior knowledge has a crucial part to play in constructivist learning. An existing
schema represents the sum of an individual’s current state of knowledge and under-standing of the topic in question. New learning concerned with the topic will involvethe processes of assimilation (adding new information) and accommodation (addingnew information and altering existing structures) and the expansion, and increase incomplexity, of the schema in question. For this reason it is very important that aschema which is to be the focus of these processes in the introduction of a new areaof work in school, is activated and revisited at the outset of a new topic, and re-activated in subsequent lessons. The starting point of what is already known andunderstood is very important if any new learning is to be effective. Schema activationis a process that can be encouraged in classroom situations, and teachers frequentlymake use of this idea in their work.
To summarise, psychologists refer to units of knowledge, understanding and skill as
schemas. This is a way of referring to conceptual knowledge that is stored in long termmemory. It is estimated that adults have hundreds of thousands of schemas in place,all of which are interrelated in an extremely large number of different ways. Newschemas are regularly created and existing schemas are constantly updated. The processof creating and updating takes place every time that we read, listen to, observe, tryout, or sense in any other way, anything new. New schemas are created every time onefact is linked to another by a logical or semantic connection. Each schema is a sub-schema of another larger and related schema, and each schema has a set of sub-schemas of its own.4Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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Mayer (1983) sets out four elements that describe a schema.
•General: a schema may be used in a wide variety of situations as a framework for
understanding incoming information.
•Knowledge: a schema exists in memory as something which a person knows.
•Structure: a schema is organised around a theme.
•Comprehension: a schema contains slots which are filled in by specific information.
LEARNING AS A SOCIAL PROCESS
Piaget, possibly the first constructivist, had a view of the growing child as a “lonescientist”. This view depicts a child alone, exploring the immediate environment anddrawing conclusions about the nature and structure of their world. Social construc-tivism gives us an important new dimension to the domain. Social constructivisttheory emphasises interaction between the learner and others. The “other” can comein many forms – parent, peer, teacher, it is the dimension of social interaction that iscrucial. The main proponents of this branch of constructivism are Lev Vygotsky, aRussian whose work was carried out at the start of the twentieth century, but notwidely available in the West until many years later, and Jerome Bruner, an Americanworking and publishing in the second half of the twentieth century.
Social constructivism gives a high priority to language in the process of intellectual
development. Dialogue is considered to be the means by which ideas are considered,shared and shaped. Dialogue is often with a more knowledgeable other, but this neednot always be the case as equally valuable in terms of social constructivism is dialoguewith peers. Prior knowledge, naturally, has a part to play. It is an individual’s priorand current knowledge that forms the basis of any contribution made to a dialogue,and it is with reference to existing knowledge and understanding (schemas) that newideas and understanding can be constructed in the course of dialogue. The moreknowledgeable other need not be a teacher, or a parent, and more knowledgeable neednot imply older, or position of responsibility for learning.
Obviously learning is not restricted to the location of the classroom. Social interac-
tion with anybody, at any time, and in any place may well lead to learning. Thebuilding and exchange of thoughts and ideas which takes place in the course of a
discussion, in any context at all, is likely for at least one of the participants, to lead toa greater understanding of, or insight into, the topic in question.
In formal learning situations, such as classrooms, the role of the more knowledge-
able other is most often taken by a teacher, though peer–peer dialogue is also veryimportant. The teacher has the role of initiating dialogue and maintaining its momen-tum. In a very real way, the teacher engages pupils in dialogue and supports thedevelopment of understanding. The undertaking of this role, in a planned way, has aparticular name: scaffolding. To fully understand the concept of scaffolding we needto first look at an aspect of Vygotsky’s work, which is the notion of a zone of proxi-mal development (ZPD).
The zone of proximal development is a refreshingly simple description of something
that many teachers and other adults understand and work with, although they maynot necessarily realise that they do. It is an aspect of Vygotsky’s work which has madeICT, the Internet and Theories of Learning 5
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considerable impact on practice over recent years, particularly as greater importance
has been given to the notion of classroom differentiation.
The zone of proximal development is a theoretical space of understanding that lies
just above the level of an individual’s current understanding. It is the next level ofunderstanding that a learner is working towards. In the zone of proximal developmenta learner is only able to work effectively with support. The zone, necessarily, will bedifferent for each individual at any given stage for any particular topic. In terms of thistheoretical area of understanding the process of learning involves moving into andacross the zone and looking towards the next level of understanding, which willinvolve making similar progress across a new zone of proximal development. Sewell(1990) describes the ZPD as “a point at which a child has partly mastered a skill butcan act more effectively with the assistance of a more skilled adult or peer”.
Making progress through the ZPD is a process that can be assisted by the interven-
tion of another. In formal situations this intervention might be planned, but often atimely and, well judged intervention depends upon circumstances that cannot neces-sarily be predicted, and therefore depends on the progress made by the learner at agiven time, and, in many situations, also upon the skill and experience of the teacher.In many cases a teacher will fulfil this role, but others are equally capable and likelyto do so. In planning work for children a teacher needs to take into account the cur-rent state of the understanding of the children in question, and plan accordingly andappropriately. In an ideal situation this could mean planning for individuals, but in amore realistic situation this is not usually possible.
Scaffolding is the name given to the process of giving support to learners at the
appropriate time, at the appropriate level of sophistication, and in an appropriate wayto meet the individual’s needs. Scaffolding takes place in many ways, some carefullyplanned – the provision of tailored materials for example, others in a more sponta-neous way – a timely question, or reminder perhaps. So scaffolding can be throughdiscussion – a good socially constructive approach, through the provision of materials –perhaps supplying practical apparatus to help in the solution of problems in arithmetic,or by designing tasks that match the level of understanding of the individual andprovide appropriate help – a list of words given to help in the process of completingan exercise designed to assist understanding, or a list of reminders concerning theprocess of undertaking the task in question – a writing frame to support a particularstyle of writing piece is an example of this.
Working collaboratively with others, in pairs or small groups, is an obvious socially
constructive approach to learning. There are times when quiet individual working isuseful and important, but as a core approach this would ignore all that is knownabout learning that is socially constructed.
The role of the computer in general, and the internet in particular may not be imme-
diately clear in the context of socially constructed learning. We will see later that thereare times when the internet is used in a way that is not geared towards dialogue or col-laboration, but there are times, which will also be exemplified, when the use of the inter-net can be clearly identified as a means of promoting this type of learning. For example:
•There are times when a dialogue, though perhaps not an oral dialogue, is encour-
aged, even required when interacting with particular software. Questions mightneed answers, or choices might be required. There are good examples of internet6Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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activities that encourage a level of interaction with the software, which can
amount to the sort of dialogue likely to encourage thought and understanding.
•In a more realistic, though sometimes less immediate way, dialogue can be under-taken by means of electronic communication. We will see that this might be inwhat is known as “real time” communication (synchronous), often referred to as“chat”, or asynchronous, such as e-mail exchanges which continue over a longerperiod of time, involving time delays with responses.
•Also, activities mediated by the internet can be a stimulus for dialogue betweenthose taking part, either at the time, or at a later time away from the computer.
In this more recognisable way, computer and internet use can promote and inspire
dialogue between users. When children are asked to work in pairs or small groups,the reason is often to allow them to discuss ideas related to the work and to worktogether towards a shared end product. The particular activity deriving from theinternet is a stimulus for generating talk at the computer, and even when away fromthe computer, in work related to the task in hand. This aspect of computer use hasbeen investigated in depth by researchers such as Mercer (1994), Phillips (1990) andalso Fisher (1996).
LEARNING AS A SITUATED PROCESS
Situated learning refers to the fact that all learning takes place in a context – learningcannot take place in a “content vacuum”. The context may, or may not, be one whichis familiar to the learner. The importance of this notion is in the belief that if the con-text is unfamiliar to the learner, learning will not necessarily proceed smoothly.
Situated learning (Lave and Wenger, 1991) suggests that skills, knowledge and
understanding that are learned in one context may not necessarily be transferred suc-cessfully to another. Another aspect of situated learning, which is probably more rel-evant here, is the notion that learning is most often situated in social and culturalsettings, and that if a learning context falls beyond the cultural understanding of thelearner then learning is likely, at best, to be less successful than if had it been locatedin a more familiar setting. For example, asking children from a socially deprived areato devise and solve maths problems related to expensive holidays, currency exchangeand air travel might not be appropriate (it might actually be considered highly insen-sitive). In the same way it would be difficult for children from a remote rural area tounderstand and work in a context that is steeped in the mores and conventions of aninner city area with high proportions of ethnic minority inhabitants.
There is a link between the idea of learning being situated, and the need for learn-
ing to be in some way authentic. We are told that authentic tasks are: “… tasks whichchildren can relate to their own experience inside the classroom; tasks which an expe-rienced practitioner would undertake.” (Selinger, 2001: 96) When learning is made upof authentic tasks there is a greater probability of engagement with the task and alsowith the information and ideas involved. Authentic tasks are likely to hold the atten-tion and interest of learners and lead to a deeper level of engagement than withanother similar but “non-authentic” or possibly “less authentic” task. This linksICT, the Internet and Theories of Learning 7
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closely with the ideas put forward by the socio-cultural learning theorists. Bruner
(1996), Brown et al. (1989) and others support the need for culturally linked andauthentic learning tasks, this has the desirable effect of making the difference betweenlearning in school and “out of school learning” less well defined. Children workingwith new ideas in a context that they recognise and to which they can easily relate, arefar more likely to take an interest, and to engage with the ideas than if the same ideasare presented in a context alien to them.
In one sense, the internet provides a vehicle, if not a context, for learning which,
for many learners, is familiar. This, on its own, is not a strong argument in favourof internet use, but it is a contributory factor. The way that the internet can givecontext to school work is in the provision of examples: settings which are cultur-ally recognisable, possibly in the guise of stories, locations, maps, products andpopular cultural artefacts. The internet can also provide authenticity by present-ing real places, real statistics, real events, real people to communicate with andreal problems for consideration. Much of this – context and authenticity – maywell have been available before the advent of the internet, but never has it beenso easily accessible and so freely available.
LEARNING AS A METACOGNITIVE PROCESS
Metacognition refers to the idea of an individual considering, being aware of, and oth-erwise understanding their own mental (cognitive) processes and ways of learning.Cognition is an overall term that includes all of the mental activities that facilitate theacquisition, storage, retrieval and use of knowledge. Cognition also refers to the abil-ity to think, to process and store information, and to solve problems; it is consideredto be a high level behaviour that may be unique to humans. Obviously the role of cog-nition in the process of learning is crucial. Metacognition can be thought of as cogni-tion relating to cognition – it is an individual’s awareness of their own thoughtprocesses. This awareness can make a difference, sometimes a profound difference, tothe way that individuals view their own learning. An awareness of one’s own thoughtand learning processes is likely, with encouragement, to lead to a recognition of theways in which personal learning might proceed effectively.
We can define metacognitive knowledge as the knowledge that an individual has
about their own cognition, which can be used to consider and to control their cogni-tive processes. To be metacognitively aware, and to work metacognitively, is to con-sider and take control of the processes involved in learning and thinking as they arehappening.
John Flavell (1976, 1977) first made use of the term “metacognition”. He tells us
that metacognition consists of metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive experiencesor regulation. Metacognitive knowledge is knowledge about cognitive processes, whichan individual has come to understand, and can be used to control mental processes:“Metacognition refers to one’s knowledge concerning one’s cognitive processes andproducts or anything related to them … metacognition refers, among other things,to the active monitoring … regulation and orchestration of these processes.”(Flavell, 1976) Brown (1987) offers a simpler version of this when he says that8Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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“Metacognition refers loosely to one’s knowledge and control of his/her own cognitive
system”.
An example of when some small measure of metacognitive understanding can be
of benefit might be when a “learning” task is set, possibly for homework. For somelearners, to be told “Learn this for homework”, might be as helpful as asking themto learn to fly to school. They are likely, in some cases, to have absolutely no ideaabout how to go about doing it. They might resort to staring at words on a page, ifthey bother to try anything at all. Others might have an idea of how to approach atask of this type. They will have, although they would not express it in this way,some personal metacognitive knowledge. They will have devised techniques forlearning – reading, writing, note-taking, closing their eyes and recalling, even thesocial option of asking someone to help, by way of a test of some sort. Whateverthey are able to do in order to help them learn is an example of cognitive activity ofsome sort or another being actively controlled.
Children are, at times, completely lost when it comes to undertaking simple mental
calculation. Individual approaches to mental calculation vary widely and someapproaches seem complicated and difficult to one person and clear and simple toanother. The Cockcroft Report (DES, 1982) found that the ways in which adultsundertook mental arithmetic tasks varied enormously and that idiosyncraticapproaches were widespread. This is wholly acceptable if arriving at the correct answeris the prime objective, but for young children trying to find their way with mental cal-culation, insight into their own approaches and processes can be important. Thisinsight into how to think, in what are for some complex abstract terms, is metacogni-tive, and very helpful in the process of learning how to undertake the task in question.
Teachers encourage approaches to the development of metacognitive awareness in
simple ways. Children can be asked to describe their own approaches, and by givingvalue to the identification of the methods and processes followed by different individ-uals, awareness of different ways of thinking and working can be encouraged. Insteadof being satisfied with a correct answer, a teacher can probe and discover theapproach taken. Teachers and children alike can begin to note when a method is valid,even if an incorrect answer is arrived at.
The process of sharing and experimenting with different approaches to carrying out
mental calculations in an environment which is safe and supportive can, in a sociallyconstructive way, lead to individuals developing both a fuller understanding of theirown processes of thinking, and in this case, an understanding of how to tackle partic-ular tasks that they might previously have considered too difficult for them to attempt.
A consideration of which approaches best suit an individual can be of immense
value at times of “routine” learning – such times as when learning spellings, practis-ing methods in maths, or other factual content which needs to be internalised; it canbe useful at times when revision is undertaken for exams. However, there is more tometacognitive approaches than devising ways of memorising.
Metacognition, when applied in general learning situations might imply asking
the children to consider what they are doing, how they are approaching their work,how they intend to use the information that they have found to meet the require-ments of the task they are undertaking – how they are working out solutions tonumerical problems; how they deal with the responses of others, particularly ifthey contradict something which they believe to be true. Some strategies might beICT, the Internet and Theories of Learning 9
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provided for them to experiment with, but it must be remembered that one strategy
might be ideally suitable for one learner, and of no real use to another.
There are metacognitive strategies that can be of value in computer and internet-
related situations. The ideas above apply equally in situations involving computer useand the use of the internet. Metacognitive thinkers will make decisions based upontheir knowledge of their own preferences and learning inclinations, which will guidehow they use resources found on the internet. They will know, for example, that itis not going to be helpful, at least in their case and in terms of developing understand-ing, to simply copy and paste text from a website to a piece of their own work. (Therewill be some who see this as a satisfactory approach.) They might know, for exam-ple, that if they are to benefit from the exercise they will need to print the text andmark it up with a highlighter pen, drawing attention, for their own benefit, to theimportant points in the text. For another this technique would not be suitable, andthey would have another means of engaging with the content of the text. It is possi-ble for teachers to draw attention to metacognitive concerns and to encourage learn-ers to think in ways that will help them to understand their own cognition andbenefit from this knowledge when they engage in learning activities.
There are several types of internet based activity which, when introduced with the
development of metacognitive thinking in mind, can assist in the process of solvingproblems and with learning in general. Problem-solving activities of different types,mathematical/logical activities and some learning/revision activities all have thepotential to increase a child’s understanding of their own cognitive processes andlearning preferences. There is a connection between the skills and knowledgeinvolved in formulating effective searches with internet search engines and thinkinglogically and, in a sense, metacognitively. Teaching search techniques, possibly inthe context of other content based work, is a valuable undertaking as, firstly, it canmake the child a more effective user of the internet and, secondly, the understand-ing required for formulating effective searches is transferable to other areas of workand is related to other metacognitive strategies.
Finally on the matter of constructivist learning, we can look at a set of important
features that constructivist learning theory seems to be built around, and which aresummed-up below under headings proposed by Jonassen et al. (1999).
Knowledge construction and not knowledge
reproduction is paramount
It is the processes that the learner puts into place and uses that are important for
the construction of new knowledge and understanding, rather than the fact ofknowing something as an end product. A learner is actively engaged and in controlof the learning process.
Authentic tasks in a meaningful context
are encouraged
Authentic tasks, such as problem-solving, are used to situate learning in familiar,
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Reflection on prior experience is encouraged
Learners are prompted to relate new knowledge and concepts to pre-existing knowl-
edge and experience, which allows the “new” to integrate with what is alreadyknown.
Collaborative work for learning is encouraged
Dialogue with others allows additional and alternative perspectives to be taken intoaccount when developing personal conclusions. Different knowledge, points ofview, and understanding can be taken and considered before moving on.
Autonomy in learning is encouraged
Learners are given and accept increasing amounts of responsibility for their own learn-ing. This happens in a number of different ways – by collaborating with others, byworking on self generated problems, and by the forming and testing of hypotheses, forexample.
From what we know about constructivism and about pedagogy it might be rea-
sonable to consider that a pedagogy that emphasises communication in its widestsense, and also encourages communal, collaborative and cooperative work thatleads to the joint construction of new knowledge and understanding is somethingwhich teachers should be encouraged to develop. Indeed, many teachers do use thisapproach, to some extent or another. A pedagogy that embraces social construc-tivism and, with the help of internet-based technologies, takes it further and devel-ops the use of information and the scope for social interaction that would not inother ways be easily accessible is a positive, theory based and practically testedapproach to teaching, which can be promoted in classrooms in the knowledge thatit is a sound and potentially successful approach. This is not to say that all otherpedagogies reliant on other theoretical standpoints should be banished. We will seelater that there are good examples of effective learning that are predicated on, forexample, lone working and semi-behaviourist principles. In these examples, how-ever, the introduction of basic metacognitive thought, the encouragement of asmall measure of discussion and the recognition by teachers that the work mightbe further improved in a variety of ways related to social constructivist ideas pointto the probable value of a varied approach to pedagogy, though with a strongemphasis on what is known about constructivism. One point that has been raisedover the years is that teachers seem to be more effective when working in wayswhich, in some way, suit them. That is, teachers who are experienced in and com-fortable with a particular way of working tend to be more successful than whenthey use an approach that they do not have experience of and do not feel comfort-able with. This is in no way an argument for a no change scenario, but it must beremembered that in some cases teachers need to gain experience of new approachesgradually, and an approach to teaching that encompasses a variety of approachesand pedagogies is not altogether a bad thing.ICT, the Internet and Theories of Learning 11
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SUMMARY
The internet is becoming an important resource for use in schools and as such it
has created the need to look again at what we know about how children learn,and about how teachers approach the tasks involved in teaching.
Of all of the websites that might be used for teaching purposes, some are
specifically designed for schools and include activities and tasks to complete,others can be equally useful but have not been created with educational purposesas a priority. The tasks and other activities presented on websites, and the waysin which teachers choose to encourage children to make use of websites, isunderpinned by certain theoretical approaches to teaching and learning.Sometimes the theory has affected the design of the site, sometimes the approachchosen by the teacher dictates the type and style of learning that is encouraged.Teachers need to be aware of the underpinning theory, which can have a bigeffect on the progress of learning. Teachers need to have clear learning outcomesin mind, and according to these, plan appropriately. Sometimes a behaviouristapproach may be most appropriate, at other times an approach based uponconstructivist principles may be.
Behaviourist learning, sometimes characterised by memorising, or rote learn-
ing, does not necessarily lead to an understanding of ideas, but can be quiteeffective for encouraging recall of facts. Constructivist learning involves morethinking, more activity, and more interaction with others. Constructivist learn-ing encourages and implies understanding.
The principles of constructivist learning, which in many cases are the most
appropriate to apply in learning situations (whether or not the internet is impli-cated) are:
•learning is a process of interaction between what is known and what is to be
learned
•learning is a social process
•learning is a situated process
•learning is a metacognitive process.12 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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The Internet, Pedagogy and
Learning
About this chapter
In this chapter you will encounter:
•background to the use of the internet in schools
•the importance of evaluating internet resources
•a discussion of the key features of ICT as they relate to learning
•an overview and discussion of different pedagogies as they relate to the use of ICT and
the internet
•reference to the essential links between pedagogy and learning theory
•characteristics of constructivist learning, which might be present in effective ICT relatedlessons.
NATURE AND HISTORY OF THE INTERNET IN SCHOOLS
The national curriculum for schools in England (DfEE/QCA, 1999) sets out four
strands which, when combined, make up the notional subject of ICT. The word“notional” is used here because there is a strong emphasis placed on the use of ICT asa means of supporting learning in subjects, rather than ICT for its own end. There isa debate in academic circles concerning the nature of ICT as a subject, but this will notbe discussed here. (See Hammond, 2004, Webb, 2002, Somekh, 2000, Cordes andMiller, 2000)
The four strands are:
•finding things out
•developing ideas and making things happen
•exchanging and sharing information
•reviewing, modifying and evaluating work as it progresses.
Traditionally, insofar as there is a tradition concerning the use of the internet in
schools, it is the first strand of the national curriculum for ICT – finding things out,that has been the focus of internet use. There have been, however, many developmentsthat allow the internet to support all of the strands.
When Tim Berners-Lee (Berners-Lee, in Dern, 1994: 73), sometimes referred to as the
inventor of the internet (even though no one person can be considered to be individually2Pritchard-3559-Chapter-02.qxd 5/10/2007 3:40 PM Page 13

responsible), described the result of his supposed invention as a, “… wide-area
hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a largeuniverse of documents”, he described the mysterious nature of something that many ofus take for granted. The different elements of his definition are considered below.
Wide-area: The World Wide Web spans the entire globe.
Hypermedia: It contains a range of media, including text, pictures, sound and video.The individual elements are connected by hyperlinks that connect pages to oneanother, and allow for swift movement from one internet location to another.Information retrieval : Viewing a web document is very easy thanks to the help of web
browsers, which are the point of contact between the user and the web. Web browsersallow the user to retrieve pages just by clicking a mouse button when the pointer onthe screen is over a “link”, or by entering appropriate web addresses. Information maybe retrieved from the web extremely quickly by any suitably set up computer with aninternet connection.Universal access: No matter what type of computer, or what type of computer thepage that is to be viewed is stored on, web browsers allow for apparently seamlessconnection to and movement between many different internet locations which mightbe stored on many different types of computer system. Increasingly newer mobiledevices, including mobile phones, are adding to this universal access.Large universe of documents : Anyone can publish a web page. No matter what
obscure information you want to find, there is certain to be someone who has pro-duced and published a web page about it. It will not necessarily be exactly what youwant, it might not be accurate or written in an appropriate style, but it will be there.“The Net consists of 2.5 billion documents, growing at a healthy clip of 7.3 millionpages per day.” (Varian, undated)
INTERNET USE IN SCHOOLS
The internet, by means of the World Wide Web, and initially by the use of simplee-mail systems, has become the latest in a list of technological advances to be introducedinto classrooms. In the early to mid 1990s to use the internet in a primary school set-ting was to take a bold move into the unknown. (Only 17 per cent of primary schoolseven had access to the internet by 1998, see below.) At first access was slow and unre-liable and the internet was only a tool for the enthusiasts. To make use of the internetin school was not a particularly obvious option to follow. Certainly information of onesort or another could be sought out for use in lessons, but to rely on the system, whichwas an expensive undertaking apart from anything else, to provide access for the dura-tion of a lesson, was asking too much. The use of e-mail was introduced experimen-tally, and in some schools contact was made, sometimes only locally, with other classes.Examples of contact between more remote locations at home and abroad soon came tolight. As the availability and reliability of the equipment increased, so did the opportu-nities for teachers to try out new communications-based activities.
Official figures from the UK Government give a picture of the current position as
far as schools with internet access is concerned: since 2002 more than 99 per cent of14 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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all schools have had access to the internet. This is not a wholly foolproof measure of
internet use because it gives no indication of the use to which the internet connectionis put, or whether the connection is used at all. However, it does show an incredibleincrease over the preceding few years.
Despite the rapid increase in internet connectivity in schools, it is important to
remember that, “The internet is a generally unregulated environment …” and, “Thereis a wide range of material available covering virtually every aspect of our life or activity,much of it positive, some of it offensive.” (DfES, undated) As well as being very largeand generally of a positive nature, another aspect of the make up of the internet thatmust be held firmly in mind is that a very large proportion of the internet is attempt-ing to sell to the sometimes unsuspecting surfer.
Through access to the internet it is possible for children to “visit” places and take
part in events that would otherwise be too far away, too dangerous, or too costly.For example, the 24 Hour Museum (www.24hourmuseum.org.uk) enables visitorsto take a virtual tour, the Hubble Space Telescope (http://hubblesite.org or http://hubble.nasa.gov) offers full-colour pictures of planets, while the Whole Brain Atlas(www.med.harvard.edu/AANLIB/home.html) gives access to full colour MRI scanimages of the entire brain. Video-conferencing allows for real time communicationwith experts. There are other sites specifically designed to support education in theUK, which offer pupils, teachers and parents access to a growing collection of goodquality, “approved” resources and educational material. Searching for informationon the Web can help pupils to develop information handling skills. The internet isan ideal vehicle for introducing pupils to, and illustrating, concepts such as audi-ence, purpose, authorship and bias. By viewing sites that promote opposing views,the idea of subjectivity/objectivity, fact/opinion and overt/covert bias can be demon-strated in an immediate and powerful way. The internet is also a place for childrento publish their own work.
WEBSITE EVALUATION
When any particular resource is chosen for use in a planned learning activity theteacher, either formally, or more likely, informally, will have made judgements aboutits usefulness. This process of evaluation becomes very important when dealing witha “large universe of documents”. Teachers must be absolutely certain, for example,The Internet, Pedagogy and Learning 15
Table 2.1 Percentage of schools connected to the internet since 1998
(Source: DfES 2004a)
Percentage of schools connected to the internet
Year 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Primary 17 62 86 96 >99 >99 >99
Secondary 83 93 98 >99 >99 >99 >99
Special 31 60 92 97 >99 >99 >99
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that information or activities accessed via the internet are wholly appropriate and in
no way damaging or misleading.
The site Superhighway Safety formerly hosted by the Department for Education
and Skills (DfES, undated) offered a list of website attributes that should be consid-ered when making an evaluation of a web-based resource. Not all of the attributeswill be relevant for every site, but the list makes a useful yardstick against whichsites might be measured. The list of attributes is set out and discussed below.
•Authority
•Purpose
•Audience
•Relevance
•Objectivity
•Accuracy
•Currency
•Format
•Links
•Ease of use
These attributes are elaborated below (the attribute “Ease of use” has been
added). Different sets of questions are presented here and can be asked in order to
establish more information about a particular site, and to enable evaluations to bemade based on more than initial impressions. Some of the questions are taken fromthe same source.
Authority
Who has written the information?What is the authority or expertise of the author?Are there contact details for the author? From where does the content originate?Is it clear who the author is and who has published the site?Are they qualified to provide information on this topic?Is the material biased?Where is the content published? (Which country, for example.)What is the domain name of the website?Is it published by a large organisation, or on a personal website?Does the website cover the topic fully?Does it provide links and references to other materials?If links to other materials are provided, are these evaluated or annotated toprovide further information? Do these links work?Does the site contain any advertising? Does any advertising influence the content?
Purpose, audience and relevance
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Who is the intended audience for this content?
Is the content easy to read and understand?Is the site specifically aimed at children? If so, is the level and tone of thecontent appropriate?Is the site specifically aimed at adults?Does the material provide everything that is needed?Could more relevant material be found elsewhere? (In a book or magazine forexample.)Is the site trying to sell something?
Objectivity
Is the information offered as fact or opinion? Is the information biased in any obvious way?
Accuracy and currency
Does the information appear to be accurate?Are additional references given?Can the information be verified from other sources?Is the spelling and grammar correct?Is the content dated?When was the content last updated?Are all links up-to-date and valid?Are any areas of the site “under construction”?
Format
Does the site contain information in a format that I would be able to make use of?
Links
Does the site give me advice/ideas/other choices?
Ease of use
Is the site easy to use?Is the site well structured?Is it easy to find relevant information?Is the content set out in an easy to use way?What facilities does the site provide to help locate information? Does it have asearch facility? Is the menu navigation logical? Does it provide a site map or index?Does the site load quickly?Is the site attractive in design?Is the content copyright, or can it be used providing the source is acknowledged?The Internet, Pedagogy and Learning 17
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These questions are all pertinent and certainly deserving of attention. Obviously
these questions could not easily be answered on the site of a specific activity (the activ-
ity itself should be evaluated with a set of criteria relating to educational value andsuitability), but the site hosting the activity can be scrutinised and evaluated in thisway. Experienced internet users often run through these points, or at least some ofthem, when they visit a site for the first time. The questions as they are phrased here,are not suitable for use directly by children, but it is possible to introduce the ideasand skills involved in ways which children can understand. A simple sheet to fill in canbe used to encourage children to think about the issues. This need not be done as aregular feature of work with the internet, but can be very useful as a way of intro-ducing the process. Some teachers keep a bank of website evaluations, or mini reviews,prepared by children as a resource for others.
There are many internet resources to help with the evaluation of websites. A key-
word search on any search engine will provide a range of sites, and some useful toolsand checklists. The ICT Advice site (http://ictadvice.org.uk) provides guidance on eval-uating and reviewing websites, including some key considerations for teachers.
The National Grid for Learning provides a gateway to educational resources on the
internet, through a network of selected links to websites that offer high quality con-tent and information. It also provides links to web-based resources that can assist withevaluating websites. The national aspect of the NGfL is now closed, but its work iscontinued by many local versions run by Local Education Authorities.
An important pointer to the pedigree of a website, and a means of answering some
of the questions above, can be found in its address (URL). For example, an addresswhich includes the characters “.ac.uk” has its source in a British academic institution,usually a university. Table 2.2 below gives details of other elements of web addresses,which provide insight into their background and ownership.18 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
Meaning
Commercial body in the UK. Used almost exclusively in the form
“.co.uk”
Originally intended for ”commercial” bodies, but any person or
organisation, commercial or otherwise, may register and use .com
Educational institutions. Mostly used in the USA and Australia.Government departments, agencies and branches. Including local
authorities.
Military bodies.Bodies and computers that represent part of the internet’s
infrastructure.
UK National Health Service trust or department.Designated for miscellaneous bodies that do not fit under any of
the other top-level domains. Mostly used by non-profitorganisations.Domain code
.co
.com.edu
.gov
.mil
.net
.nhs.uk
.orgTable 2.2 A selection of domain codesPritchard-3559-Chapter-02.qxd 5/10/2007 3:40 PM Page 18

THE KEY FEATURES OF ICT
It is widely agreed (published in an initial format in DfES, 1998) that there are certain
distinguishable features of ICT that are important in the educational use of computertechnology. Some, if not all of the features also have an important bearing on the valueof computer technology in all settings where it is used. They are:
•Speed
•Capacity
•Automation
•Communicability
•Replication
•Provisionality
•Interactivity
•Non-linearity
•Multi-modality
All of the above features have a bearing on the use made of ICT, in general, and the
internet, in particular, by children in school. The features which have specific rele-
vance for internet use are discussed below.
•Speed – ICT, and computers in particular, allows for actions and interactions
to be undertaken remarkably quickly. When we consider that one aspect of
computer speed is measured in “millions of instructions per second” (MIPS) wecan begin to understand the notion of speed in the realm of computing. Thenotion of speed measured in this way can appear meaningless in the context ofa child using a particular program, but what it means in practice is that it ispossible to make changes and receive feedback very, very quickly. Manyinstructions can be acted upon quickly, for example, altering a graph, correct-ing a spelling, or any of the many actions involved in specific educational soft-ware. When using the internet there is a sense of immediacy and of control, theeffects of which can act as a motivator for many children. Access to informa-tion from around the world can be gained in very short time frames. Messagescan be sent across the world, and on occasions replies can come back inminutes or even seconds.
•Capacity – The internet gives access to an incredibly large amount of information
across the widest possible range of topics: “… the capacity and range of ICT canenable teachers and pupils to gain access to historical, recent or immediate infor-mation.” (DfES, 1998) Children are able to gain access to images, sounds and textfrom many different and reputable sources. It is widely accepted that the internethas taken on a form that goes far beyond the capacity of any previously accessiblerepository of information.
•Communicability – It is possible to develop means of communicating both within
the classroom (by ICT mediated presentations for example) and beyond the class-room. The internet and its possibilities for e-mail, chat and messaging have openedup many possibilities for long distance rapid communication, which can be used togood educational advantage.The Internet, Pedagogy and Learning 19
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•Interactivity – The ability of ICT systems to offer and promote an interactive
approach to school work is a clear advantage. When we consider the view of learn-
ing that suggests that learning is an interactive, collaborative process, dependingupon communication and feedback, it is easy to recognise the advantages offeredby interactive computer applications, computer mediated communication and thecollaboration and discussion that can be engendered by well planned computer-related tasks. Another aspect of interactivity which ICT and the internet can pro-vide is in the form of immediate feedback to tasks and activities that can beundertaken either from CD- or computer-based software, or via the internet.
… the interactive way in which information is stored, processed and
presented can enable teachers and pupils to:
i. explore prepared or constructed models and simulations, where relevant
to the subject and phase;
ii. communicate with other people, locally and over distances, easily
and effectively;
iii. search for and compare information from different sources;iv. present information in ways which are accessible in different forms
for different audiences. (DfES, 1998)
•Non-linearity – Traditionally, information has been delivered in a linear fashion,
and there are many occasions when this is highly appropriate. With the advent ofhypertext style information systems it is possible for the user to navigate throughwhat can be large volumes of information in a personal and possibly more mean-ingful way. Being able to gather information from a variety of ICT sources thatusers can navigate in their own ways, by following interests or “clues”, gives a free-dom to explore and find out, which has not easily been possible in the past.
•Multi-modality – Sound, pictures (both moving and still) can be used for teaching
activities very easily. When we consider this in connection with the learning pref-erences of different learners, and the emphasis which is often put on what is knownas multi-sensory learning (learning via a range of different human senses – sound,vision, touch and so on), we can see that there are distinct advantages for teacherswhen making use of this particular feature. In some cases children can respond totheir experiences by using the multimodal capability of web page creation software.They could, for example, design and create a web page which incorporatespictures, video, diagrams, symbols, text and sound.
The European Schoolnet project (European Schoolnet, undated) highlights certain
features, most of which are listed above, of ICT that make it particularly suitable foreducation, namely:
•It combines and integrates a full range of media essential for effective learning. ICT
uses sound, vision, text and numeric data.
•It provides teachers and pupils with new opportunities for long distance commu-nication and learning and an involvement in the “real world”.
•There is an opportunity to increase the interest and involvement of pupils by theone-to-one relationship provided by the pupil and computer. Not all learning isnecessarily done from books, and computers via ICT can act as a catalyst tointerest, involvement and enthusiasm.
•It provides students with an opportunity to work and learn on their own.20 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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Some of the features above are able to enhance learning for many. Others can
be seen to work in two ways. For example, saying that ICT allows for more
individual work to be undertaken seems to consider that this is a wholly desirablesituation, which it might not always be. For some learners, at some times, this isperhaps ideal, but certainly not for everyone all of the time. ICT in this case offersthe option for more individual and independent learning, but as we have seen,ICT related activities also allow for more collaborative and communicative workas well.
The features considered above will be evident in later chapters where specific inter-
net use is considered in more detail.
PEDAGOGY
The word “pedagogy” has an important place in the educational lexicon, but it is nota word that is often heard spoken amongst teachers, except perhaps in the context ofin-service training and even then it is not often a topic for discussion. Pedagogy is usu-ally defined as the art, or science, of teaching, and sometimes the profession of teach-ing. For both Gage (1985) and Simon (1994) it is somehow both: “The science of theart of teaching.” At the same time, both Woods (1996) and Reynolds (1998) see it asscience. Pedagogy refers to the teaching of children and its sister word “andragogy”refers to the teaching of adults.
Teachers apply pedagogic principles in a wide range of settings with an equally wide
range of groups and individuals who present many varied challenges. Executing a ped-agogical approach depends to a large extent on the judgement of the professionalteacher and the practical skills that the teacher has learned and practised. This is putsuccinctly by Galton: “… an effective pedagogy requires that educational theory needsto be integrated with teacher’s craft knowledge, that is knowledge of what works inpractice” (Galton, 2000: 1).
Mortimore (1999: 17) describes pedagogical activity as, “Any conscious activity by
one person designed to enhance learning in another”, which clearly includes decisionsmade by teachers, and to an extent by policy makers, concerning the place of newtechnologies in teaching and learning.
So “pedagogy” has come to refer to the skills and approaches used by teachers to
achieve the aims of the lessons that they teach, or the methods which they employ.These methods vary from teacher to teacher and from time to time according to thenature of the subject being taught, or the possible responses of the children beingtaught. When new facilities or equipment are to be used this can lead to a new or dif-ferent pedagogical approach being adopted. This has, to some extent, been the casewith the advent of ICT in schools and with the use of the internet.
Teachers have theories and systems of beliefs concerning teaching, and the way in
which learning takes place that influence their approach to teaching. Decisions whichteachers take before, during and after teaching a lesson have a deep influence on thelearning that takes place in their classrooms. (Fennema and Franke, 1992). Althoughprecisely “what to teach” is often prescribed for teachers, through the medium of anational curriculum or some other mandatory document, precisely how to teach it,how to organise the children and the classroom for teaching is something which isgenerally left to the teacher to decide. (The literacy and numeracy strategies for UKThe Internet, Pedagogy and Learning 21
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primary schools are notable exceptions.) Such decisions as when to work with the
whole class or when to work with a group or an individual, who to choose to answera question, whether pupils should work alone, in pairs or in small groups, what styleof resource to use and what nature of support should be offered and when, are just asample of the decisions that teachers are engaged with on a regular basis. This is whenteachers are involved in the consideration of pedagogy.
Alexander (1992) identifies teaching methods and pupil organisation as the two
facets of pedagogy. Both of these facets demand consideration when a teacher is facedwith making use of a new technology if its full value is to be found.
Teachers tend not to refer to pedagogy explicitly because they are intimately
involved with the practical application of pedagogy through their planning andteaching on a daily basis, and what they plan and implement is closely related totheir internalisation of how to teach and how children best learn. Teachers are atthe place where theory becomes practice and they do not spend time considering theniceties, or otherwise, of theoretical “advice”. They concentrate more on the craftskills which Galton (2000) refers to, and to providing activities and contexts thatwill encourage learning. Teachers do talk about and consider how they introduceda topic, how they approached teaching a particular subject, how they grouped chil-dren, how they explained something, how they expected the children to respond tothe work, and much more. Their thought, discussion and new ideas are based uponwhat has gone before, including theoretical perspectives, and what has been learnedfrom empirical classroom based research, but it is the practical, day to day planningand organisation that engages teachers more than a philosophical discussion. Laterin this book we will see how teachers have applied their knowledge and under-standing of pedagogy, along with well developed craft skills, to provide rich andsuccessful learning environments. All of this, of course, does amount to a consider-ation of pedagogy.
TRADITIONAL PEDAGOGIES: HOW TEACHERS THINK ABOUT
THEIR APPROACHES TO TEACHING
In the traditions of the past, the Victorian age for example, the prevailing view on
teaching and learning was that children’s heads were empty and it was the job of theteacher to remedy that by filling them with information in the form of facts.Mr Gradgrind in Dickens’ Hard Times (1891) makes this viewpoint brutally obvious:
“Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts. Facts alone are wanted in life.” Thisphilosophy is expounded at length by the fearsome school master, but even he even-tually comes to a realisation of the possible folly of this approach.
In terms of pedagogy we have come a long way since the times of Thomas Gradgrind,
but there is still no single pedagogy that is accepted and pursued by all. There is arecognition that for different children, different subject matter and different times ofday even, different approaches to teaching are required. This is partly owing to arecognition that there is indeed more to a broad and balanced education than theacquisition of facts, and also a result of the wealth of knowledge that has been accruedover the last century concerning the ways in which effective learning is facilitated, andindeed by the development of appropriate definitions of learning.22 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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CHILD-CENTRED VERSUS TEACHER-CENTRED PEDAGOGIES
There has been a history of polarisation and of a swinging pendulum between a so-
called “back to basics” approach, where government ministers proclaimed the benefitsof teachers “standing at the front and teaching”, and a more liberal approach with thecurriculum “beginning with the child”. These movements in education necessarily havean effect on the way teachers think about their teaching and the way that they approachtheir work in classrooms. As long ago as the sixteenth century the writer Rabelaisbelieved a child to be: “… a fire to be lit, not a vessel to be filled”. When this is con-trasted with the Victorian view we see a perfect example of the pendulum swing.
At a simplistic level the two extreme positions that lead to an individual teacher
defining a personal pedagogical approach to teaching could be described in terms ofthe belief that either children are empty vessels which need to be filled, or that chil-dren are thinking individuals who are ready and eager to build an understanding ofthe world around them. In reality of course it is not so simple. Many teachers’ beliefslie at a point on the continuum between the two extremes. According to contextualfactors such as the topic being taught, the nature or age of the children, the teacher’sunderstanding of the subject matter, the availability of resources, even, as we havesaid, the time of day, the pedagogy employed by an individual may shift one way orthe other from time to time. Sometimes this change in approach is referred to as “fit-ness for purpose” and supposes that different teaching purposes are better achieved byone particular teaching approach or another.
We will look briefly at four pedagogies put forward by Bruner (1996) before mov-
ing to consider the demands made on teachers’ pedagogical practice by the advent ofnew technologies, including the internet.
Bruner’s folk pedagogies
Bruner points out that there are four views concerning teaching that seem to be heldby teachers and others involved in education. He refers to them as “folk pedagogies”,implying that they are not necessarily based upon research or theory, but developedas a result of personal experience of schooling and of teaching.
Of the four pedagogies that Bruner suggests that most teachers subscribe to, there
are two which can be seen to be in line with constructivist thinking on learning andtwo which cannot. The first two involve children being expected to copy or imitatethose who have successfully acquired a particular skill, or competence, and secondly,children being told specific facts and being expected to internalise them – a far morepassive process than constructivists would advocate, and more definitely within thebehaviourist domain. Bruner’s third and fourth pedagogies take the nature of the childand the child’s state of knowledge and awareness into account and also imply somesort of activity on the part of the learner.
The four folk pedagogies are:
1.Seeing children as imitative learners: the acquisition of “know how”
The learner learns by being shown and then copying others. Referred to as
the “apprenticeship model”, learning is considered to be the transmission ofskills and competences. This model does not stress the passing on of knowledge.Bruner tells us that research suggests that imitation is not enough. ProceduralThe Internet, Pedagogy and Learning 23
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knowledge, which is the knowledge of how to perform a particular task, is best
suited to this style of learning.
2.Seeing children as learning from didactic exposure: the acquisition of proposi-tional knowledge
This pedagogy suggests that learning is a matter of being told; information is
passed on from the one who knows to those who do not. “Knowledge is …‘looked up’ or ‘listened to’ …” (Bruner, 1996: 55). Bruner says that this is themost commonly held view of learning. It ignores learning that has gone before andsees the process as essentially passive. Propositional knowledge is knowledge thata given idea, or proposition, is either true or false.
3.Seeing children as thinkers: the development of intersubjective interchange
According to this notion of learning the learner is actively engaged in the con-
struction of meaning. “The teacher, on this view, is concerned with understandingwhat the child thinks … understanding is fostered through discussion and collabo-ration …” (Bruner, 1996: 56). Learning is seen as a collaborative enterprise bothbetween learners, and between teachers and learners. This view is criticised becauseof its depiction of knowledge, suggesting that knowledge is something learners con-struct for themselves. Intersubjectivity refers to shared understanding, which can beconstructed by individuals in their exchanges with others.
4.Children as knowledgeable: the management of “objective” knowledge
Bruner suggests that “teaching should help children grasp the distinction
between personal knowledge, on the one side and ‘what is taken to be known’by the culture on the other” (1996: 61). Objective knowledge is knowledge thatis universally agreed upon, or at least virtually agreed – we cannot easily takeinto account the views of those who believe the Earth to be flat for example.Learners become aware of the cultural setting of knowledge, and also becomeaware of what is “known” by others. This is done in a variety of ways, forexample, through texts and other artefacts. The process involves dialogue.
It is possible to see a range of different uses of ICT being involved with and being
supported by pedagogies from all four of these models at different times and in vary-ing circumstances.
For example, Rodrigues (1997) looked at the use of Integrated Learning Systems (ILSs)
by able pupils. An ILS is a computer based system of programmed learning which leadsthe learner through a series of activities, tasks and tests, monitors progress and devisesindividualised learning routes. Rodrigues recognised that the use of an ILS is based onthe “mastery” approach to learning and modelled on an “expert’s notion of hierarchicaldifficulty” (1997: 125). The approach taken when teaching with the help of an ILS isbased on Bruner’s first and second models: learners as imitative, and learning from didac-tic exposure. The use of an ILS does not require discussion or consultation with others.
Computer use is often undertaken by children working in groups and there has been
a good deal of research into group work with ICT. This research is, in most cases, setin the context of constructivist learning theory, and in line with Bruner’s third modelin which children are considered as thinkers in their own right. The teacher has animportant role in this style of learning as the planner, instigator and more importantlyas the manager of the learning context. The teacher also takes on the role of partner24 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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in dialogue in many cases, intervening at appropriate times and providing scaffolding
of differing types and levels of complexity.
The Teacher Training Agency (TTA, 1999) studied the approaches taken by a sample
of teachers. They identified the set of characteristics below which teachers using ICTeffectively, in terms of children’s learning, had in common.
•A positive rather than a negative attitude towards ICT.
•A preference for pupil choice rather than teacher direction.
•A preference for pupil control over their own learning rather than teacher deliver-
ing the curriculum by instruction.
•A preference for individual study as opposed to whole group instruction.
We have now seen that teachers’ approaches to their teaching can be wide and varied
and that specific approaches may depend upon a number of factors, some of which aredetermined by training and experience, others by the context of the teaching. The intro-duction of new technologies in recent years, and the increasing obligation to integrate itsuse in the classroom, can be seen as yet another contextual factor. For some teachers thishas presented problems, either of confidence or concerning the understanding of theplace of technology in teaching and learning. It has led to some teachers questioning andredefining elements of their work – their pedagogy. For some teachers the principleswhich they have applied in their work have not altered, and they have integratedtechnology use at the same time as adhering to constructivist principles. This has lead tothe introduction and development of new and valuable learning experiences for pupils,adhering in some cases to less child-centred beliefs. Other teachers have varied theirapproaches and allowed the use of certain computer programs to refer back to morebehaviourist approaches to learning – drill and practice; ILS. One commentator consid-ered that the introduction of computers into classrooms had allowed for a backwardstep to be taken when he said: “The microcomputer is a tool of awesome potency whichis making it possible for educational practice to take a giant step backwards.” (Chandler,1984: 1) Chandler is suggesting that some of the outdated drill and practice style learn-ing situations, for example learning by rote, which often ignores notions of understand-ing, might experience a rebirth through the work of the educational software creatorswho, at the time when he was writing at least, seemed to know little about more enlight-ened approaches to learning. Software design, including the design of activities mediatedthrough the internet, have come a long way since then.
One important development in the pedagogy involved in greater use of the internet
is the increased opportunity for and use of interactive modes of working. There arecertain “… pedagogical changes that electronic technologies make possible. The wordthat captures them best is interactivity.”(Furr, 2003: 2)
The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) provide a list of constructivist
characteristics. The suggestion is that if lessons involving the use of the internet are tobe effective, and at the same time address elements of the national curriculum for ICTconcerning the development of the qualities of independent learning, they shouldexhibit some of these characteristics. Obviously it would not be realistic to expectlessons to include all of these characteristics, but some lessons might well have manyof them present in some measure at least.
Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT related
lessons include:The Internet, Pedagogy and Learning 25
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•multiple perspectives
•pupil-directed goals
•teachers as coaches
•metacognition
•learner control
•real-world activities and contexts
•knowledge construction
•sharing knowledge
•reference to what pupils know already
•problem solving
•explicit thinking about errors and misconceptions
•exploration
•peer-group learning
•alternative viewpoints offered
•scaffolding
•assessment for learning
•primary sources of data.
(DfES, 2004b)
This list, from the arm of the UK government responsible for the curriculum in schools
and for ensuring high standards amongst pupils, is clearly promoting a constructivist
approach to learning with ICT. This coincides with Bruner’s pedagogies three and four:children as active constructors and children as knowledgeable. It also gives a clear steeraway from more behaviouristic approaches to ICT use such as the repetitive drill andpractice, or revision style activities that were so prevalent in the 1980s and early 1990s.It will be interesting and useful to measure the case studies in later chapters against thislist and to consider the characteristics of the teaching that is deemed to have been effec-tive. In this way we will be able to recognise and promote good pedagogical practice inthe area of ICT use generally, and the internet in particular.
NCREL (undated) draws attention to research that is taking place into how to cap-
italise on the increased use of computers in education and the increase in easy internetaccess. The research is focusing on aspects of what seems to be happening already, andinto ways of extending what is considered to be good practice, namely more
•engaged, meaningful learning and collaboration involving challenging and real-life
tasks and
•opportunities to use technology as a tool for learning, communication andcollaboration.
This too is in line with the apparent shift towards the use of ICT in constructivist
learning settings, and towards a pedagogy that emphasises the use of technology tosupport learners in making use of the existing technologies as important tools foreffective learning.
Taking all of this into account, it is important to keep in mind the notion that any
new development in pedagogy deemed necessary to make effective use of new tech-nologies in teaching and learning situations must continue to emphasise learning, and notfall into the trap of emphasising and focusing on the technology. This was recognisedmany years ago by Ellis (1974) when he said that: “Thinking about the computer’s26 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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role in education does not mean thinking about computers, it means thinking about
education.” (1974: 42) This is as true now as it was when it was written. ICT is a pow-erful tool when it is used as an aid to learning and when it has a supporting, not a cen-tral, role in the process of classroom learning.
SUMMARY
The internet is, for all intents and purposes, available to all teachers in allschools. As such it is available as a resource for teaching and learning, and aswith all tools and resources used in classrooms, its use should be carefully con-sidered. Not only should the approaches to teaching and learning be looked atin detail, as we did in chapter one, but the integrity and usefulness of individualwebsites should also be carefully investigated.
There are certain features of ICT which can have a big impact on teaching and
learning. Features such as speed, capacity, automation, communicability, repli-cation, provisionality, interactivity, non-linearity and multi-modality can beused to good advantage, but a shift in the pedagogical approaches taken byteachers to do this, and can make a very big difference to the ways in which bothteachers and children are able to work.
An individual teacher may subscribe to a particular preferred approach to
their teaching that will have been developed in the light of their own learning,and the experiences had in their job. Certain approaches may suit differentteaching contexts, and different individual learners more than others. Teachersneed to be aware that their preferred approach might not always be the mostappropriate when they come to make more extensive use of the internet andother new technologies.
There are some well rehearsed characteristics of constructivist learning that
might be present in effective internet related and other ICT dependant lessons.These include the use of primary sources of data, dealing with multiple perspec-tives, having pupil-directed goals, a degree of learner control, the use of real-world activities and contexts, the construction of knowledge rather than thepresentation of facts, detailed reference to what pupils already know, problemsolving, thinking about errors and misconceptions, scaffolding techniques pro-vided by the teacher and sometimes by others, and well established formativeassessment for learning.The Internet, Pedagogy and Learning 27
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Working Individually
About this chapter
Even with many changes in classroom practice over the last twenty years and more,
individual work is still a mainstay of teaching methodology for many teachers. The internetoffers many opportunities for individual exploration and activity, and some of theseopportunities will be explored in the case studies in this chapter.
The themes that you will encounter in this chapter are:
•children working alone
•constructivism and behaviourism working together to good effect.
Questions to keep in mind when reading this chapter
•Does lone working detract from or add to the learning experiences of the children?
•Would more collaborative work improve the experiences of the children and lead to
increased effective learning?
•When is working alone likely to be of most benefit to learners?
•Were the planned learning outcomes achieved in an effective way, and could they havebeen achieved better by some other means?
Despite much research carried out over many years, and despite the current received
wisdom about collaborative work involving discussion, cooperation and shared goals,
many classrooms are characterised by children working individually and with theexpectation that there is little or even no need for talking. Clearly there are times whenindividual work is necessary and when children should know to work alone and to bequiet. Calm and quiet classrooms can lead to the production of very good work and canlead to effective learning. There is also, as we have seen, a need for sharing and workingtogether. There are times when computer use should be a shared activity and there arealso times for carrying out learning activities alone with a computer.
We will see examples in this chapter of children working alone to good effect. Two of
the case studies are in the area of mathematics, and one in the area of geography. It islikely that all three of these activities could have been undertaken in a shared collabora-tive way, but in each case the teacher involved had made the decision to ask the childrento work alone. In the case study involving Builder Ted, the teacher, quite aware of thevalue of discussion in her normal way of working, was clear that she wanted no talkingand no collaborative working. She wanted a contrast to the way that she usually encour-aged her class to work and she saw the value of a more solitary approach to the workfor the particular aims that she had in mind. We will see that there is a socially constructiveelement to the activities in these case studies, even if the teacher tells us that there is not.3Pritchard-3559-Chapter-03.qxd 5/10/2007 3:40 PM Page 28

Working Individually 29
In all cases there are times when the teacher allows for feedback and reflection on what
has been done – sometimes this is a part of the learning plan, and sometimes it is not. Inmost classrooms today it is natural and allowable for children to speak and to offer theirideas and interpretations, even when not asked for them. For this reason teachers whowould prefer certain times without talk and sharing out loud find themselves allowing itto happen and in many cases recognising its value: “Yes I do want them to get on withit on their own … but when they talk and I listen in I can see that they’re talking aboutthe work and sometimes helping each other.” In situations where talk has not beenencouraged, or even asked for, it is likely that when it does take place it can serve tostrengthen the value of the work which was to have been undertaken alone.
Case study 3.1 Drilling for tables
School
Single form entry primary school.
Teacher
Female, began teaching 24 years ago, took career break in order to be with family.
Class
Year 4 (29 pupils)
Website
Quia: www.quia.comBackground/ContextThe teacher considered that the class had particularly poor knowledge of and ability to make
use of multiplication facts. She pointed to the results of a series of tests from the autumnterm as evidence.
The school had paid for a subscription to Quia, an American based, on-line, resources cen-
tre providing activities and downloadable materials across a very wide range of school sub-jects. Originally the school signed up to Quia for access to MFL resources as part of a pilotscheme for teaching Spanish in a primary school. The year 6 class were taught Spanish by avisiting teacher and Quia was used as reinforcement and extension work. The teacher in year4 became aware of the maths resources provided by Quia by chance in a conversation withher colleague. As a result of this the school staff were introduced to Quia and most of theclasses made at least some use of the resources. The year 4 teacher made extensive use of the“drill and practice” style activities in the maths area.
QuiaThe Quia website makes the bold statement that it is: “The Web’s leading technology resource
for educators.” (2006) Quia, which we are told is pronounced “key-ah”, is an abbreviation for
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30 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
“Quintessential Instructional Archive”. It is a subscription service for schools that provides a
very wide range of online activities and resources for the years of compulsory education.
One of the features of the site is that it al lows for the creation of activities based on templates
that are provided. This feature also al lows any activities created by members to be made available
to others on the site. In practice this means that the resource bank is very large and growing ata steady rate. It also means that the resources are, for the most part, created by teachers to meeta specific need and for that reason likely to be of particular interest to other teachers. This is notto undermine the activities provided by the site owners, which are generally of a high quality.
There is a collection of shared online activities and quizzes in more than 150 categories,
and for each topic there are downloadable resources that can be used in conjunction with theonline activities as reinforcement and in most cases as extension work.
The site is organised around 16 different types of activities, and in general the focus is on
an approach related to rote learning. There is little activity that could be considered as directteaching but, when used in conjunction with other activities and approaches, a blend of dif-ferent types of teaching and learning can be achieved. The behaviourist principles encapsu-lated in the basic approach taken by the activities on the site are supported by opportunitiesto look at correct responses and to revise and recap. Ample opportunity for practice is givenand, indeed, recommended. The resources for each activity include flashcards, matching andconcentration games (many will recognise the matching and concentration games as versionsof the traditional game of pelmanism, sometimes known as “pairs”) and word searches.
A subscription gives access to: templates for creating 16 different types of online activi-
ties, including flashcards, matching, concentration (memory), word search, battleship,challenge board, columns, close exercises, hangman, jumbled words, ordered list, patterns,picture perfect, pop-ups, rags to riches (a quiz show style trivia game, recognisable as thetelevision game “Who wants to be a millionaire?”), and scavenger hunt.
There is also access to tools for creating online quizzes with ten different types of ques-
tion, including multiple choice, true/false, pop-up, multiple correct (where there can be aselection of correct responses), fill-in (requiring free text answers), matching and ordering.
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(Continued)
There are a number of management and reporting tools available which allow the
subscriber to keep a close record on the activities and progress of individual users.
To use some of the basic activities provided by the site there is no need to subscribe.
However to make use of the more advanced features which are provided, such as the exten-
sive record keeping possibilities and the features that allow the creation and sharing of newresources, a subscription is needed.
Teacher’s prior knowledge and experience
The teacher had limited experience of computer use with children except for encouraging,
fairly extensively, the use of a word processor for writing tasks and the use of a spelling pro-gram (Star Spell) for the least able children in the class to practise their weekly spellings.She had been helped in the past to set up a database for a project on minibeasts, but did notfeel confident enough to do it alone. She used the internet for both professional and per-sonal reasons and was in touch with relatives overseas by e-mail.
Children’s prior knowledge/experience
All of the children had access to a computer at home and most reported using it for games and
a few for “chat”. Some had found information for school-related work, and some had word-processed short homework assignments. In school the children had been exposed to word pro-cessing in every year so far, as well as the use of a Logo style program in year 1, painting anddrawing and a simple spreadsheet activity in year 2, graphing results in a science experimentin year 3, and the use of a simple adventure/problem solving game at the beginning of year 4.
In terms of their experience with learning tables, this had been to greater and lesser
degree, a feature of their work in every class. During the current school year they had beengiven learning tasks to complete at home and weekly tests. Despite this the teacher still feltthat the children were not making the sort of progress that she expected.
Format of the use of Quia
The teacher saw the use of the Quia activities as an essential element of the learning of mul-
tiplication facts. By “learning” she actually meant “memorising”. In itself this was not a badaim for this type of activity, but if an understanding of the nature of multiplication and therelationships between numbers and arithmetic operations was to be achieved, many wouldagree that there was need for more than the activities provided by the website. The teacherseemed to recognise this and said that she had viewed it as a small, but important, part ofthe children’s full mathematical experience.
Each week every child spent some time using the site. There was a rota pinned to the wall
near to the computer and the class knew to notify the next person on the list when they hadfinished. The children themselves kept a record of what they had done, and they wereexpected to print out any pages where they had succeeded in getting everything right.
Response of the children
The children were generally enthusiastic about the use of Quia and showed this when told
that it was their turn to use the site. When using the activities there was clear concentra-tion, and for many what seemed like obvious determination to succeed.
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32 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
At spare moments some of the class chose to look through the other options that were
available, including:
1. Computer Basics – How well do you know the parts of the computer? Play this game to
check your level of knowledge of the computer and its related equipment.
2. Hangman.
Many of the games and quizzes looked at during free time were too difficult for most chil-
dren, but they persisted and liked to make wild guesses rather than give up and leave the
computer to someone else.
Views and response of the teacher involved
The teacher had taken to using these activities with some enthusiasm despite her initial
reluctance.
Everyone has a session at least once a week. It is simply a question of practise andmore practise – there is no real teaching going on. They all work at a level wherethey have been having trouble … there was a test before we started and it s howed
them which one (multiplication table) to start with.
We have developed a “Leader Board” something that I have avoided in the past
because of the effect on self esteem for those at the bottom … The way that itworks is to give stars next to names, each child is working at their own level andeveryone has the potential to be successful and get up with the leaders … It hasgenerated so much interest that I can’t keep them away from it.
I think, but it’s not that easy to know … that it has led to an improvement in
the use of numbers in other numeracy lessons … when we started area last termsomeone immediately pointed out that the numbers were being multiplied were‘Just like in Quia’ … it’s making connections like this … that makes a difference.
The teacher asked the children to print out each page that was all correct and put them
in a folder of evidence. Some children had several printed pages of the same page completed
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(Continued)
on different occasions, which she considered a good approach as it meant that they had
revisited the same activity more than once and practised well. She recognised the fact thatthe inclusion of correct pages in a folder was not a measure of success. Trial and error cansoon lead to a page of correct responses, but she liked the idea that the children had a record,and she could see what they had been working on when she collected in the maths folders.She did not make use of the record keeping options within Quia.
Another feature of the software that suited the teacher was that there was no excessive
fanfare of celebration when an exercise was completed successfully:
I can’t stand the commotion that some programs make when a right answer isgiven, which is why I won’t use some of them … (that we have in school).
One point that detracted slightly from the teacher’s enthusiasm for the site was the fact
that the site is from the USA, and therefore littered with cultural references from NorthAmerica, such as the coins referred to, the use of American presidents as examples, and theuse of both American spellings and of American terminology, for example sidewalk. This wasnot a problem with multiplication and other simple basics, and the teacher simply did notuse any activities which were not suitable for any of the reasons above.
Evidence of learning
The teacher was clear that motivation and interest in the use of the computer for these activ-
ities soared, and this had led to an all round improvement in attainment across the whole class.She is able to claim this with some certainty because she had the results of tests that she hadcarried out on a weekly basis and also a more expansive test at the ends of the term. She alsopoints to an apparent improvement in the mental oral starter session of numeracy lessons forevidence. She often used “quick fire” multiplication questions as an introduction and she wassure that both response times and correct answers had improved through the term.
Pedagogical and theoretical considerations
The mathematical activities on the Quia website that the children worked on were essentially
designed for practise and reinforcement, and as such can be placed towards the behaviourist
end of what can be seen as a continuum between constructivist and behaviourist learning.There are, however, more extreme versions of behaviourist learning than these. As we haveseen, behaviourist style learning looks for the ability to recall, in this context, and does notstress understanding. One of the teacher’s aims was to increase this ability, but she also wantedto improve the abilities of the class in using multiplication facts “intelligently and appropri-ately”. To this end she encouraged a little discussion in whole-class sessions and drewattention to methods for working out particular answers if they were not instantly “recallable”.
The teacher said that there was little actual teaching taking place when the activities were
underway, and this too is a feature of behaviourist learning. The element of competition andthe use of a “leader board” is also behaviouristic in nature.
Connections that can be made between different areas of learning, and especially with pre-
vious learning, have an important part to play in constructing knowledge and understandingand the teacher was able to encourage this. It is interesting also to see that children weremaking connections of their own: “It’s like in Quia.”
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34 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
Does the use of the infrastructure of the internet in this example extend the possibil-
ities for learning beyond what would have been expected if the content of the lessonhad been covered in a more traditional way?
The activities that the children use in this example are based on simple games that have
existed for a very long time, easily pre-dating the use of computers in school. It is true thatthe teacher could have arranged for the games to be played with cards and pre-preparedscore sheets, but what is also clear is that the children were very highly motivated by these“computerised” versions of the simple games. The teacher says that “Before using the Quiagames I found it very difficult to generate any interest at all in improving multiplication Table 3.1 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT related
lessons: Drilling for tables
Multiple perspectives
Pupil-directed goalsTeachers as coaches
Metacognition /checkbld Partly – children encouraged to think about how
to “remember” the right answers. Some seen to
be working out answers and not relying on recall.When asked about it they explained how they werecounting on and so on.Some discussion of “method” occasionally in plenarysessions.
Learner control /checkbld Yes, children can choose where to go next –
encouraged to complete each “level” more than once
(five is best) but they choose when to move on.
Real-world activities and contexts
Knowledge construction /checkbld
Sharing knowledge /checkbld Some discussion of “method” occasionally in plenary
sessions (See “Metacognition”.)
Reference to what pupils know /checkbld
already
Problem solving /checkbld
Explicit thinking about errors and /checkbld
misconceptions
Exploration
Peer-group learning /checkbld Some discussion; minimal.
Alternative viewpoints offeredScaffolding /checkbld Not really, but work is pitched at correct level of
difficulty.
Assessment for learning
Primary sources of data
Table 3.2 Drilling for tables: Other considerations/features
Motivation /checkbld Yes, all very obvious.
Enjoyment /checkbld
Excitement /checkbld
Novelty /checkbld
Engagement /checkbld
Development of work away /checkbld Minimal – the facts covered and practised are
from the computer referred to in other number contexts.
Evidence of learning /checkbld Yes – end of term test; evidence in other areas
of maths work.(Continued)Pritchard-3559-Chapter-03.qxd 5/10/2007 3:40 PM Page 34

facts – this has made a big difference.” On its own, as we have seen previously, motivation
cannot be a sole justification for the use of computer technology for something that can bedone more easily without. In this case the teacher is convinced that the improvement in bothattitude and attainment in the area under consideration is a result of the extended use of theonline programs. For her this is all of the justification that she needs to continue in the samevein. Indeed, if the children are better motivated, and if they engage with the work well atthe same time as measurable learning improvements, there is a real justification for its use.
Case study 3.2 Builder Ted and decimals
School
Large three form entry equivalent urban primary school.
Teacher
Female with considerable experience. She is the deputy head of the school and has been a
maths coordinator in the past. She has used computers in her teaching for many years, butvery little in the context of numeracy.
Class
Year 6 (29 pupils), top “set” of three for numeracy.
(Continued)
Figure 3.3 An example of a Quia screenWorking Individually 35
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Figure 3.4 The opening screen of a Builder Ted activity, showing the ladder where the
bricks have to be placed in the correct order
Website
BBC: www.bbc.co.uk/education/mathsfile/shockwave/games/laddergame.html
Background/Context and children’s prior knowledge/experience
The year group is “set” for numeracy lessons and the group in question is a high ability
group. All of the children have good mathematical knowledge and ability. During numeracylessons earlier in the term the teacher found that the group’s understanding of place valuewas generally good, but they found difficulty with ordering positive and negative numberswith two or more decimal places. The teacher used the game “Builder Ted” as a way of prac-tising and reinforcing certain key ideas.
There were two computers available for this work in the classroom, and another two in a
shared work area adjacent to the classroom.
Web-based activity
The activity Builder Ted gives practice in ordering decimal numbers in the form of an
animated game. It is part of a set of games-like activities included on the BBC’s Maths FileGame Show site. (BBC, 2002)
The activity allows children to make choices about the order of numbers in the context of
helping a builder to climb a ladder. The activity can be at one of three levels of difficulty andincludes both background information, and tips for completing the task.36 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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Working Individually 37
The background information was considered important to the teacher because she did not
want to simply present an activity to the group, she wanted something that had the poten-
tial to support and teach. That is, she did not want to put the children in a position wherethey might fail and not be able to learn from the experience. She also wanted to encouragea measure of independence, which she felt this activity would allow.
The site is actually aimed at an older age group, key stage 3, but the teacher was confi-
dent that it was appropriate for this higher ability group.
If a mistake is made the pupil has to go back to the beginning. The third time a mistake
is made the answers are given and the pupil is prompted to start again.
After a successful attempt a prize is offered, as a print out, with the promise of a better
prize if the next level is completed – vinyl washable stool, Elizabethan false teeth, pair ofwooden antlers.
The site offers downloadable support materials to be printed and used as extension work.Builder Ted was used as a contrasting activity and as a reminder about work on decimals and
positive/negative numbers. Everyone had a turn during the week’s numeracy lessons. Thetheme of the lessons was not related to the topic of the game, but work on orderingintegers had been covered earlier in the term as part of some of the mental oral starters.
To introduce the work the teacher used the classroom’s projector and screen to go through
ways of using the software. She also spent a good deal of time looking at and discussing thetwo areas of the site designed to give support. She wanted to use this as a reminder of theprinciples involved, and also wanted to be sure that the children would know where to find
(Continued)Tips
First decide which numbers are positive and which are negative. Then look at the digit furthest
to the left. The largest positive number is the one with the largest number furthest to the left. The rule reverses for negative numbers. All positive numbers are larger than all negative numbers.
Place value
Place value is the basis of our number system. The position of a digit gives it its value. The digits further to the left have larger values than those to the right. For example, 234The 2 is in the “hundreds” column, and has the value of 200.The 3 is in the “tens” column, and has the value of 30.The 4 is in the “units” column, and has the value of 4.
Decimals
Decimals are a continuation of the number system, and the decimal point marks the change fromwhole numbers to fractions. For example, 6.49 6 is in the “units” column, and has a value of 6.4 is in the “tenths” column, and has a value of 4/10.9 is in the “hundredths” column, and has a value of 9/100.
Figure 3.5 Some of the “Tips” from the activity(Continued)Pritchard-3559-Chapter-03.qxd 5/10/2007 3:40 PM Page 37

help if they felt that it was needed. She asked them to read through the “Key Ideas” text
and the “Helpful Tips” before they started to use the game when it was their turn.
Children worked alone trying to complete all three levels and printed out the top prize as
evidence of their success. Some trial and error went on at first, but this approach didn’t allowthe prizes to be won and always stopped further progress by giving the correct answer. As eachchild became familiar with what was required, they became more intent on getting it right.
Support and scaffolding was available from two sources. Firstly the “Tips” and “Key Ideas”
links from the activity itself, and secondly by referring to the teacher. It was made clear thatif there was a problem the first port of call would be the help provided by the activity andnot the teacher, although she would give help if called upon. When it came to the times whenchildren were working with the game the teacher was not asked for any help at all.
Response of the children
When the help and support pages were introduced to the class, without having first been
given a chance to look at the game, there was a slight hint of disinterest amongst the group.This was not a difficult situation to deal with – the class were generally attentive andresponded to questions when asked. The atmosphere in the room changed when the screenwith the activity was first shown. Both body language and the buzz of excited talk was evi-dence of this. The animation in the activity, although repetitive, is amusing, and this clearlyhelped in attracting and then keeping the attention of the group.
Even though the children worked alone there were times when they spoke aloud and s howed
signs of delight, excitement and disappointment when working through the tasks. Therewere two computers next to each other in both of the locations where the computers weresited and so at most times there were two children sitting close to one another but working 38 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
Placing numbers in order of size
When comparing the size of two numbers, we always look at the digits furthest to the left.
For example, which is bigger, 135 or 137?
The numbers in the “hundreds” and “tens” columns are the same, but when we compare the
“units” column, we see that 7 is bigger than 5. Therefore, 137 is bigger than 135. For example, which is bigger, 4.2 or 4.07?
The numbers in the “units” columns are the same, but when we compare the “tenths” column, we
see that 2 is bigger than 0. Therefore, 4.2 is bigger than 4.07.
Negative numbers
Positive numbers are greater than 0. Negative numbers are less than 0. −6 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0123456
We always count away from 0, so 6 is greater than 4, but −6 is less than −4.
For example, place the numbers 5, −7, −2, −5, 1 in order of size, smallest first.
−7, −5, −2, 1, 5
Figure 3.6 Part of the background information from the activity, which was used with
the whole class as an introduction(Continued)Pritchard-3559-Chapter-03.qxd 5/10/2007 3:40 PM Page 38

(Continued)
independently. Despite the independent nature of the work there was interaction between
the two children as they worked. Sometimes this was to do with the nature of the problem,sometimes to laugh together at part of the animation, and sometimes to draw attention tothe prize that had been won. In one or two isolated cases the interaction involved one childasking for help. This was freely given as long as the child being asked was not too involvedin their own work.
All of the children reported enjoying the work, and were able to describe in a detailed way
what they had been doing. They were also able to give simple, accurate guidance to an imag-inary child having difficulty with the work. One child was fairly certain that he hadimproved: “You don’t realise it, but you getter better at it. I can do all of them dead fast nowand no mistakes.” Some of the children had explored the site further and had found thatthere were other activities in other topic areas. As a result of this the teacher was continu-ally asked if they could use the other activities.
Views and response of the teacher involved
At the end of the week in which all of the children in the group had used the game the teacher
was asked to review and evaluate its use. She realised then that she had been involved verylittle with its use. She had been aware of the work going on, she had been aware of the organ-isational aspects of the work, and she had seen many of the printed out “prizes”. But she hadnot been called upon to give help with the content of the activity. She realised that she wasnot in a position to say whether the activity had served the purpose that she had intended.She assumed that it had received the approval of the group and considered this to be a goodindicator of its worth. However, she was concerned that she had no measure of its success interms of meeting the outcomes that she had in mind, namely an improvement in the abilityto work with the numbers involved and a more secure understanding of decimal numbers.
During the mental/oral starters of the numeracy lessons in the following week the teacher
spent time reviewing and, in a subtle way, testing the abilities of the group in terms ofunderstanding better and being more competent when dealing with the relative sizes of pos-itive and negative decimal numbers. Having done this she felt that the value of the activitywas clear. She considered that there had been a marked improvement amongst the group intheir ability to manipulate and order positive and negative decimal numbers.
The teacher was not concerned by the fact that there was little or no discussion involved
in the work. Her view was that there are many opportunities in her numeracy lessons fordiscussion and there are times when independent work is desirable. She did concede thatthe activity might have been improved by building in a measure of collaboration – workingin pairs and stressing the need to agree on how to proceed, but was content with the waythat it had worked and would probably not change this if she used it again in the future.
Pedagogical and theoretical considerations
The teacher was clear that this was work to be done alone and she did not encourage any dis-
cussion or collaboration. However it was not a hard and fast rule. With children sitting nextto each other, though working separately, there were many times when words were exchanged.These short exchanges were for different reasons. Sometimes simply to share the enjoymentof the game and at other times to consider the nature of the work. Even with the instructionsto work alone there was spontaneous interaction, some of which included mutual support.
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Table 3.4 Builder Ted and decimals: Other considerations/features
Motivation /checkbld This class had very little day to day
use of computers in any of their
Enjoyment /checkbld work. It was a rare event to be able to use the internet at all, let alone
Excitement /checkbld in a numeracy lesson. The animations andunusual “prizes” served as a novelty
Novelty /checkbld and acted as a motivational factor.
Engagement /checkbld Good level of engagement.
Development of work away from the /checkbld Some extension sheets were available for
computer those who had both finished the work for
the lesson and the online ordering game.
Evidence of learning /checkbld The teacher felt that learning had taken place.She re-used some of the examples from earlier onin the term, which had been too difficult andfound that the group were better able to deal
with them, and more interested in contributing.40 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
Table 3.3 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT
related lessons: Builder Ted and decimals
Multiple perspectivesPupil-directed goalsTeachers as coaches /checkbld Initially in the introduction to the game, relatingto both the use of the game and the mechanics ofthe mathematical method.
Metacognition /checkbld Methods referred to at the end of the work and sonot helpful when the work was actually being done.Teacher pointed out the “Tips” and the “Key Ideas”but most children did not need to, or at least,chose not to, use them.
Learner control /checkbld Partly, moving to the next level.
Real-world activities and contexts /checkbld Context of repairing a roof.
Knowledge construction /checkbld Not to a great extent.
Sharing knowledge /checkbld Only formally at the end of the work wheneveryone had finished, but incidentally with thechildren sitting close to each other.
Reference to what pupils know /checkbld In the context of what had been looked atpreviously. In hindsight the teacher thought thatshe could have made more of this.
Problem solving /checkbld At a simple level only.
Explicit thinking about errors and /checkbld Children were asked to consider the misconceptions
misconceptions and reasons for mistakes in the following week’smental/oral sessions.
ExplorationPeer-group learning /checkbld To a small degree in the plenary sessions of thefollowing week.
Alternative viewpoints offered /checkbld In terms of individuals describing their methods.
Scaffolding /checkbld “Tips” available if needed; not used by many.Teacher support and intervention planned for butin the event not needed.
Assessment for learning /checkbld Informally mainly in the mental/oral sessions thefollowing week. One or two written examples wereused as well.
Primary sources of data(Continued)
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(Continued)
Does the use of the internet in this example extend the possibilities for learning
beyond what would have been expected if the content of the lesson had been coveredin a more traditional way?
The use of the internet, and indeed any ICT solution, was not essential for covering the
content of this work. A game of a different nature might have been equally motivating andengaging. The use of a computer did generate interest and excitement, some of which wouldhave been lost if the animation and sound effects had been missing. The ease of availabilitywas a very positive factor for the teacher. Had she been confronted with any slight difficul-ties she would not have pursued the use of the site and would have found a non-ICT solu-tion to the problem that she had previously identified. It seems very likely that the natureof the activity – being online, animated and fun, was an important factor in the final out-comes, namely improvement in the class’s abilities with ordering positive and negative deci-mal numbers. The class were generally well motivated anyway, but the activity cementedtheir interest and encouraged the determination amongst most of the children to do well.
Case study 3.3 Find a place in the world
School
One form entry primary school in a socially deprived inner city area.
Teacher
Female with seven years teaching experience before she had taken a long career break
when she started a family – recently returned to full-time working.
Class
Year 6 (28 pupils)
Websites
Micros and Primary Education (MAPE): www.mape.org.uk/startower/world/resources/broken.htm
North West Learning Grid (NWLG): www.nwlg.org/pages/resources/mapgames/geog.htmlAmbleside Primary School: www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/clickon/index.htmLabel MAPE: www.mape.org.uk/startower/world/index.htm
Background/Context
The school is located in a socially deprived area, where the children have very limited com-
puter access at home. Fewer than one third of the class have internet access, which is used
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(Continued)
almost exclusively for playing games. Over the last years the class made use of the school’s
computer suite for ICT lessons, following the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA)schemes of work. This has included a limited amount of internet use. They have also used theclassroom computers in year 5 for activities related to both literacy and numeracy topics.
Teacher’s prior experience
The class teacher had returned to teaching after some years away. She candidly said that she
found teaching very hard work since she returned. Apart from the developments in the curricu-lum, she had found the organisational elements of the timetable difficult and had struggled tokeep up with the expectations for computer use across the curriculum. Her class had beentaught by another teacher for weekly ICT lessons during her time for planning and preparation.
In the course of her teaching and at other less formal times she had realised that her class
displayed an almost total lack of local, national or international knowledge of cities, countriesand places. She had previously used a set of books: “Find a Place in the British Isles” and “Finda Place in the World”. It had been a routine in her first teaching post to use these books as ashort (10 minute) lesson at the end of the morning session once a week with atlases. Whenshe talked about this casually in the staff room she was directed to two websites known toanother teacher. The websites covered the same material as she remembered the books cover-ing, but in a new and interactive way. Despite certain reservations, including her own confi-dence with the technology, she decided to try using the sites and see how work progressed.
Children’s prior knowledge/experience
The children’s “general geographical knowledge” was perceived as poor by the teacher. For
example, most of the class could not name the river flowing through London, none of themknew the capital city of the USA, and only a very small number could locate their city on amap of the British Isles.
Computer/internet use had been limited to short weekly lessons following the QCA schemes
of work and in year 5 and to the use of activities related to literacy and numeracy, particu-larly literacy tasks for word and sentence level work from literacy sites. Overall the class havemuch lower than average internet connectivity and use at home than the population at large.(Nationally 57 per cent of households had internet access of some sort in April 2006 [NationalStatistics, 2006]; for this class the figure is approximately 32 per cent, nine out of 28.)
Resources
The teacher investigated a number of websites:
1. http://www.mape.org.uk/startower/world/resources/broken.htm
This pieces together the countries of the world in the format of a jigsaw puzzle.
2. http://www.nwlg.org/pages/resources/mapgames/geog.html
This focuses on UK cities and the world.
3. http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/clickon/index.htmLabel
This site focuses on world and European locations.
4. http://www.mape.org.uk/startower/world/index.htm
This site focuses on labelling the world – doesn’t allow incorrect responses.
She began by using the North West Learning Grid (NWLG) resources (number 2 above) as
this was the only one offering activities dealing with UK cities.42 Effective Teaching with Internet TechnologiesPritchard-3559-Chapter-03.qxd 5/10/2007 3:40 PM Page 42

Format of the work
During the course of a school term each child, working individually, used one of the programs
for locating and labelling places on maps on three separate occasions. The first time theyworked on an activity relating to cities in the British Isles, the second time on a map of theworld, and the third time they were given a wider choice of maps and items to locate – rivers,cities, countries and so on. They were given an atlas to use and were expected to print outand keep the end product each time.
The class were generally very enthusiastic and asked to use the computers at other times,
such as break time, wet lunch times and when other work is finished. At times other thanthe planned times they worked in pairs and small groups, which encouraged discussion, andoccasional disagreement, something which the teacher had not planned for.
Near the end of the term, when outdoor games was cancelled owing to bad weather the
teacher, very uncharacteristically, took the class to the computer suite and allowed the classto work in pairs on one of the sites.
Response of the children
There was a generally positive response from the class, with a measure of great enthusiasm from
some. One or two children reported that they considered it to be boring. There was general agree-ment that it was better to work with a partner. The teacher had been concerned at the outset thatthe class might consider the work too simple, or aimed at younger children. This was never an issue.
(Continued)Working Individually 43
Figure 3.7 A part completed map-labelling activity(Continued)Pritchard-3559-Chapter-03.qxd 5/10/2007 3:40 PM Page 43

Views and response of the teacher
The teacher reported that she was amazed and delighted by the quality of the resources, the
overall response of the children and especially by the evidence of learning.
Having witnessed the amount of on-task talk generated when the children worked in pairs
and groups, the teacher has said that in future she will build this into her planning. In thisway she feels that individuals will experience the activities more often during the term andthat there will be benefits arising from the discussion and even from disagreements. She stillfeels however that she would like each child to work alone at least once and print out evi-
dence of their own work.
This activity is something that she believes is very worthwhile. Firstly because it had
motivated the class to engage with work in a way that she had not seen before, and sec-ondly because she had seen a vast improvement in the children’s knowledge of the countryand of the world. She intends to give some time to mini project work on the capital cities.She expects to be able to gather short fact sheets produced by individuals, which can be
combined into a whole class booklet, adding a little more value and interest to the work.
Evidence of learning
The teacher wanted to measure in a formal way the increase, or otherwise, in the children’s
knowledge of national and international places. She did this by designing an assessment inthe form of a blank map of the British Isles and a similar one of the world. Certain key cities,countries, oceans and rivers were in need of labels. The children were expected to completethe task without reference to either an atlas or anyone else in the class. Some children man-aged to label everything correctly. Overall there was a 73 per cent success rate for the BritishIsles and 88 per cent for the world. This was clear evidence for the teacher that a great dealof learning had taken place. One thought that occurred to her was that she had set the teststandard too low, but she was nevertheless pleased with the outcome. She regretted havingno definite baseline data with which to make a comparison, but she was certain that for thetime and effort expended the learning outcomes were extremely good.
Pedagogical and theoretical considerations
There are, as can be seen in Table 3.5, many characteristically constructivist aspects to the
work. This is despite the teacher planning for the children to work alone, and her aim beingto increase knowledge and recall.
Does the use of the infrastructure of the internet in this example extend the possibil-
ities for learning beyond what would have been expected if the content of the lessonhad been covered in a more traditional way?
The teacher had initially wanted to use books for this work, but it proved impossible for
her to locate the resources that she had used previously in another school. Making use of theinternet gave far more scope for finding a range and variety of different locations to inves-tigate, and styles of activity to use. The use of online activities al lowed for some measure of
interactivity – for example, some activities do not allow incorrect answers and so feedback isimmediate. This is something difficult to emulate effectively when using books, and a veryuseful feature for many learners.44 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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Table 3.5 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT related
lessons: Find a place in the world
Multiple perspectives
Pupil-directed goals /checkbld In a limited way children were able to make decisionsrelating to their work. An element of choice wasincluded and the children were encouraged to set tar-gets. For example, learn the capital cities of all of thecountries in Europe.
Teachers as coachesMetacognition /checkbld Without input from the teacher some children wereattempting to devise methods for remembering. Thiswas because they were well aware that there would bea test of the knowledge acquired at the end of eachterm.
Learner control /checkbld Up to a point. Within the context of having tocomplete a large number of exercises the children coulddecide which country, or continent to “visit” next.
Real-world activities and contextsKnowledge construction /checkbld From a low starting point children were adding totheir bank of knowledge, both in an obvious andexplicit way (memorising), and in a more subtle way(through exposure and engagement).
Sharing knowledge /checkbld When children worked together there was clearexchange of thoughts when suggestions were madeand considered.
Reference to what pupils know already /checkbld Given that one of the reasons behind this work was theextremely low baseline of knowledge, it would beunusual to be able to refer to pre-existing knowledge,but no matter how a low the starting point, there isalways something which can be built upon.
Problem solving /checkbld At a simple level, the use of atlases and otherreference sources for “finding out”.
Explicit thinking about errors and /checkbld Confusion about shapes of coutries were made
misconceptions explicit. For example the similarity in the shape and
orientation of South America, Africa and India werehighlighted and discussed between children.
Exploration /checkbld On frequent occasions children would spend timeperusing the atlases, apparently simply out of interest.
Peer-group learning /checkbld When working in pairs this was evident. Also at timesthere was informal discussion relating to the work.
Alternative viewpoints offeredScaffolding /checkbld The nature of the activities is such that scaffolding ofdifferent types is provided. For example, a list of citiesto be placed appropriately on the map. The teacherwas able to intervene from time to time to give a littlesupport, but for most of the time the children workedwithout teacher or adult intervention.
Assessment for learning /checkbld The end of term tests were, in part, designed tomeasure progress, but also to inform the teacher ofwhat kind of steps to take next.
Primary sources of dataWorking Individually 45
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46 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
Although the teacher had clear memories of children enjoying the use of the books in the
past, she agreed that there was, at times, a certain unexpected excitement about using the
online activities and an enthusiasm which she put down to the use of the computers.
It would have been possible to undertake similar work without recourse to the internet,
but it would have been far more limited and more difficult to organise and resource.
SUMMARY
We are aware that working collaboratively has many advantages, and that much
received wisdom suggests that children working together is desirable. The threeexamples in this chapter of children working alone on internet based activitieswere deemed by the teachers involved to have led to good learning benefits. Allwere considered successful and probably better than non-internet alternatives. Itwould not have been so straightforward to organise and almost certainly not somuch fun (leading to increased engagement) if the activities had been of a more“traditional” nature. In part the teachers seemed to think that the motivationalpower of computer use is one of the reasons for the success of the work.
The teachers in the examples were working in a way that was not entirely as
they would work in other contexts. All of them talked about the importance ofchildren working together, and they all recognised the value of talk between chil-dren and with adults. However, in these particular cases they had chosen to askchildren to work in a more solitary mode. They were able to justify their deci-sions and they also did not rigorously enforce the stipulation that work shouldbe done alone. They took advantage of opportunities, such as plenaries at theend of lessons to discuss with the classes the work that they had been doing.Table 3.6 Find a place in the world: Other considerations/features
Motivation /checkbld Again, each of these featured in the execution of the
Enjoyment /checkbld activities. Not all children displayed all of them at all
Excitement /checkbld times, but the balance was clearly, and in some cases
Novelty /checkbld strongly, in a positive direction towards all of them.
Engagement /checkbld At times it was clear that both individuals and pairs
of children were highly engaged. Evidence of this cameat times when the lesson had actually ended but thework continued. At times individuals wanted to, andand sometimes were allowed to, pursue a particularinterest further. For example, finding out about thecountries in South America who were represented inthe football World Cup.
Development of work away /checkbld Although not planned for, there were occasions when
from the computer interests were fol lowed up away from the computer –
the football example above for instance, and on another occasion two girls spent time discovering thehome towns of a group of celebrities based oninformation relating to a reality television programmeand an article in a celebrity magazine.
Evidence of learning /checkbld Clear from assessment exercise at the end of the term.(Continued)Pritchard-3559-Chapter-03.qxd 5/10/2007 3:40 PM Page 46

(Continued)
If we look at Bruner’s four pedagogies we would probably place the teachers
in his first category, children as imitative learners, and partly in his second,
learning by didactic exposure. If asked specifically what sort of teacher they per-ceived themselves in terms of Bruner’s model, they would not necessarily placethemselves wholly in these two categories. This seems to suggest that someteachers will vary the style of the teaching activities that they plan according tothe purpose which they have in mind, and the nature of the activity, in thesecases found on the internet, which they intend to use. They would probablydescribe themselves as being towards the child-centred end of the spectrum, eventhough the activities described here are far more teacher directed and content-centred. It is interesting to note that in general the teachers considered that theactivities might have worked better if they had encouraged some measure of col-laboration, but in general they would not change the approach if they used theactivities again.
To summarise:
•The internet is a source of activities which can be undertaken by individualsworking alone, although there are probably more opportunities for collabo-rative work.
•Lone working has benefits to learning in certain circumstances.
•Children tend towards sharing thoughts, ideas and enjoyment with others,even when asked to work alone.
•Seemingly behaviouristic learning activities can be used to good effect, espe-cially when combined with aspects of socially constructivist learning. Forexample, sharing ideas and experiences after the event, having access to suit-able support, considering cognitive approaches to the undertaking of theactivity – “How do you work that out?”.
•In the view of the teachers motivation, novelty and animated interactionseem to play an important part in generating fuller engagement than non-computer activities might be expected to, leading to more effective learning.
•Even if teachers are aware of and in agreement with the social constructivistnotions of collaboration, they may still choose to ask children to work alonein a more behaviouristic way at particular times for specific purposes.Working Individually 47
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Working Collaboratively
About this chapter
Themes that you will encounter in this chapter:
•children working together
•the value and importance of prior knowledge
•the promotion of social-constructivist learning
•the interactive nature of some internet-mediated activities.
Questions to keep in mind when reading this chapter
•Does the promotion of working collaboratively detract from or add to the learning
experiences of the children?
•Would any of the work described here have been better suited to lone working?
•What are the main perceived benefits of collaborative working exemplified in this chapter?
•When is working collaboratively likely to be of most benefit to most learners?
•Were the planned learning outcomes achieved in an effective way, and could they havebeen achieved better by some other means?
The case studies in this chapter exemplify the ways in which previous experience can
be used to good effect and the value of collaborative work. There are examples ofsome of the collaborative possibilities offered by the use of internet-mediated activi-ties and materials.
The idea of children working together is not a new one. We can trace it back in
some form or another to the Plowden Report of 1967 (CACE, 1967), and beyond.There has been confusion at times between the idea of sitting in groups and workingindependently, and actually working together on shared tasks. The examples hereillustrate children working together in a true collaboration towards the accomplish-ment of both communal and individual targets and end products.
In many classrooms the first use of computers, for any reason, tended to be by pairs
or small groups of children. This may have been for sound, social constructivist rea-sons, but in some cases it was not. Children worked together at the computer as amatter of expediency; there was one computer and 35 children and they all had tohave their turn. This led to some teachers realising the potential of some computeractivities for generating valuable collaborative experience and to developing new waysof organising the work of their classes. The collaborative use of computer activity has4Pritchard-3559-Chapter-04.qxd 5/10/2007 3:40 PM Page 48

developed to a point where teachers are able to plan specific tasks that require joint
effort and cooperation; which lead to the accomplishment of learning aims in anenjoyable and profitable way – as we will see later.
Case study 4.1 Virtual tour of the cabinet war rooms
School
Two form entry junior school in a small North-Midlands town.
Teacher
Female with eight years teaching experience. First year with this age group.
Class
Year 5 (27 Pupils)
Website
Cabinet War Rooms, Imperial War Museum: http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/
Background/Context
As part of the history provision this single form entry urban primary school used some of the
QCA study units. In this case, the teacher used study unit 9, “What was it like for children inthe Second World War?” (QCA, undated). The virtual visit and tour of the Cabinet War Roomswas in the context of this work, and was planned as a contrast to the focus on the lives of chil-dren locally and nationally, which had formed the main core of the work previously covered.
Study unit 9
The purpose of this unit is to help pupils to find out about the effects of the Second World
War on children in their local area, nationally and around the world. The effects of war onchildren today are also considered. The unit expects children to make use of a wide range ofsources, including books, video and, if possible, the recollections of people alive at the time.The unit also expects children to be encouraged to consider the reasons for and the resultsof the war. The list of topics below illustrates the likely progress of the work.
What was the Second World War? When and where did it take place? What was the Blitz? Why were children evacuated? What was it like to be an evacuee? What did people eat during the war?
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50 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
In what other ways might the war have affected people?
What were children’s experiences of the war? What was it like to be a child living in this area in the Second World War?How did the Second World War affect children who lived in this locality? What has been done since to prevent another world war? (QCA, undated)
The teacher made a selection of what to cover from the topics listed. The focus was on the
lives of children, and there was an element of choice involved. For example at one stage chil-dren could decide whether they would find out about food, schools, sport or shopping.
One important resource that the teacher used was the BBC’s Children of World War Two
website (www.bbc.co.uk./history/ww2children/). This is a major resource that providesinformation, activity and teacher guidance. The teacher commented that this resource alonewould provide enough material to be able to complete the topic. However she did make use
of a large set of library books on loan from the county library service and, as we will see, shealso made use of the website of the Cabinet War Rooms.
The teacher wanted to add a dimension of political leadership to the work and, since
Churchill is one of the iconic figures of the time who played a very important role in theprogress of the war, she investigated online sources for finding out about “Churchill’s war”.
Use of the virtual tour of the Cabinet War Rooms
Use of the virtual tour provided by the Cabinet War Rooms website was planned. The teacher
had come across the website by chance when looking for World War Two related materials.The website is affiliated to the Imperial War Museum and is largely of an educational nature.
Figure 4.1 Example of an introductory page to the virtual war room tour(Continued)Pritchard-3559-Chapter-04.qxd 5/10/2007 3:40 PM Page 50

Not surprisingly an opportunity to advertise the corporate hospitality possibilities – hiring the
larger rooms for events – is not missed. This slight commercialisation is acceptable, is not intru-sive and does not detract from the value of the site overall.
For this part of the topic work the teacher had booked the school computer suite for an entire after-
noon, which would allow the children time to carry out a series of tasks and become familiar with thewebsite and the rooms which it features. Computer use was a feature of all of the lessons but thisrelied on the use of the three classroom computers and the computers in the shared space allocatedto years 4 and 5. It was occasionally possible to use other computers in the library and in the lower
school shared area. The computer suite had 15 computers, allowing children to work in pairs.
The teacher planned to have a break from the main focus of the work (notionally the effect of the
Second World War on children) after having worked on it for six lessons. This would provide a breakfrom both the style of the work – mainly self-directed and made use of a range of sources to researchand report on particular topics, and from the precise nature of the subject matter.
By this stage, the children had experience of a series of lessons, which had introduced the
work and then allowed them to consider topics from the list above. As an additional experience
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Figure 4.2 The map room worksheet (a simplified version of this sheet was produced
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52 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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they had also had a visit from the former caretaker of the school who had been an evacuee.
As an introduction to looking at Churchill, the teacher had asked the visitor to say what hehad known about and thought about Churchill during the war.
To introduce the work the teacher asked the class about who the leaders of the country were
at the time of the war. The King was suggested as was Winston Churchill. This was not surprisingas they had spent some time working on the topic and the visitor from the previous week hadspecifically mentioned Churchill, and given his (very positive) view of him as a wartime leader.
This was fol lowed by questions and answers about how to stay safe during the war – in an air-
raid shelter, and about how important it was that the country’s leader should be protected and stillvery much in touch with what was going on. For example, he could not go and run the war fromanother country. It was decided that he would have to be in London, but at the same time kept safe.
At this stage the teacher introduced the class to the website (CWR, undated). The text size
was set to “larger” to make reading easier, and the teacher used the big screen and projectorto show the whole class what the site contained. She began by showing pictures of some ofthe rooms, and then went to the “Virtual Tour” link.
For each of the pictures of the different rooms the teacher produced a “paper” copy, which
included a copy of the picture, a simplified version of the text and one or two questions (seeFigure 4.2). The purpose of the paper copies was to allow the children to see the pictures at a laterstage, when they not would be using a computer, but more importantly to provide the informationin a different and more accessible way. This would provide more time to consider the text, and allowsuch things as highlighter pens to be used to help in comprehension and in answering questions.
The virtual tour allows the user to visit any of the rooms that are shown on a small map.
In each room it is possible to rotate the “camera” so that a full 360 degree view can be shown.In some of the rooms there are “hot spots”; when the user clicks on a hot spot a window withmore information is opened. For example in the detective’s room there is a hot spot over thegas mask. When it is clicked a window explaining the need for gas masks and the time whenthey were first used is opened.
The children were fascinated by the rooms and the lack of luxury, or even basic comfort.
One child correctly pointed out that it was, “More like a prison than the boss’s place.”
Tasks
For each of the main rooms of the site the teacher had prepared a short task. In each case
the task related to what could be seen in the room. There was a simple observation-basedtask followed by a question or two that required a little more thought. For example, in Room60A there is a typewriter, which it is possible to investigate. The second task for this roomasked the children to consider the disadvantages of the typewriter in the room when com-pared to a modern word processor. The text that accompanies the picture gives some suitableclues to help in the completion of this task. The children made some good suggestionsduring this task, which were not hinted at in the text.
The tasks were all set out in the form of worksheets and some paper copies were available.
The teacher had taken the time to put all of the sheets on a common drive and the class wereencouraged to access them, complete them and then save them to their own areas on thecomputers. They would be printed later and included in a folder with the rest of the workrelating to the topic.
Unexpected find
In a part of the site that the teacher had not explored two boys found a set of additional
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(Continued)
working in the British Government’s secret headquarters under Whitehall during the Second
World War … ”. Based on the format of “Snakes and Ladders”, the game for up to four players,asks questions, the answers to which are all in the text. Explanations are included in thevirtual tour of the war rooms or in the room descriptions given on the static part of the site.Once discovered, this game would not go away and became a focus of most of the lessons thatfollowed. If work for the lesson had been finished then the game could be played. It alsobecame a focus for any children allowed to stay in the classroom at break and lunchtimes.The teacher was very pleased with the game, seeing it as a very good way of increasing inter-est in the topic and of making the children think hard about what they had been doing.
Another game, “Walk in Winston Churchill’s Shoes”, was of less interest to the class, pos-
sibly because it did not include a real element of competition. This game gave a descriptionof an event in Churchill’s life and asked the player to select a course of action from a choiceof three. The course taken by Churchill was then given. However the few children who didhave a go at this reported back to the class and in doing so passed on interesting informa-tion about the life of Winston Churchill.
The teacher explained about a good many other resources available from the Churchill
Museum website. She considered many of them as too difficult for her class, but wouldcertainly consider amending some of them for future use.
Children’s prior knowledge/experience
As we have seen, the use of this online resource came at a point in the term’s work follow-
ing several lessons investigating the topic of the Second World War in which particular top-ics had been introduced and after the class had listened to a talk from a former evacuee.
The precise nature of leadership had not been considered except in passing when the
visitor spoke of the respect that the public had for Churchill at the time. The teacher introducedthe lesson with a brief explanation of the leadership arrangements at the time. From ques-tioning it became clear that some of the children in the class had some basic knowledge ofChurchill, gleaned from a range of sources, including television, books and elements of theirwork in school over the preceding weeks. The teacher was able to draw out what was alreadyknown and after a short time there seemed to be a shared understanding of the need for aleader who in turn needed the support of others, including military leaders and planners. Theneed for the safety of the leadership team was also recognised.
As the class had made use of ICT fairly extensively both in the current year and in previ-
ous school years, there were no major stumbling blocks concerning the use and familiaritywith the school computer room. All of the class were able to log on to the system, find theirway to the browser and locate the Cabinet War Rooms site. One or two children were seen tosave the address to the “Favourites” list and others were equally familiar with the software.The teacher did recap briefly, and a short demonstration of how to navigate the site wasgiven. Overall the class had ample knowledge and experience to allow them to work effi-ciently with the technology.
Response of the children
The class were enthusiastic from the outset. This enthusiasm seemed to be a result of being
told that they would be working in the computer room. Even though this was not a noveltythere was still a discernable edge of excitement at the prospect. This was before the natureof the work was explained.
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54 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
During the introduction to the lesson and the website the class were attentive and keen
to take part. There seemed to be surprise and excitement when some of the features of the
site were demonstrated – the panoramic views of the rooms for example. There was a senseof shock when shown the stark simplicity of “The transatlantic telephone room” for examle.In the children’s world of highly technological communication possibilities, the idea thatworld leaders might communicate from a bare room with no windows, and with no obviouscomputer mediation, just an old fashioned telephone, was both surprising and amusing formost children.
There was a good deal of discussion throughout the afternoon, but this did not detract
from the work that the children were asked to complete. They worked well to complete thetasks that had been set.
The afternoon in the computer room was characterised by enjoyment and engagement,
with children keen to share their own particular discoveries and follow links and instructionsgiven by others to discover particular corners of the site. As a result of the success of theafternoon and the enthusiasm for more, the teacher was able to arrange subsequent sessionsto allow for more investigation to be carried out.
Views and response of the teacher involved
The teacher was pleased that her planning had led to a successful experience for the class.
She had organised school visits to places locally (North Midlands), but a visit to the WarRooms and Churchill museum would have been out of the question. It would be too far totravel and too expensive. She considered the visit mediated by the internet as, “An excellentalternative … almost like being there but without the problems of travel and all that it wouldmean.”
She considered that the experience had added a new and contrasting dimension to the
work about children’s experiences of the war. The use of the internet acted as an added“attraction” and helped to keep the whole class interested in the topic. The teachercommented that “If we had tried to find out about the war rooms from another source itwould not have been so successful. Even a video would not have been so good because withthe website the children are in control and can make decisions about what to do next.”
Evidence of learning
With this work it was not possible, formally, to measure the learning taking place. The
teacher, in the course of discussion and observation, and by means of whole class plenaryfeedback sessions, was able to form a good idea of what had taken place. She felt that all ofthe class had gained from the work and learned something new about the topic. Some, whohad worked more determinedly and with greater enthusiasm than others, surprised her withthe amount of knowledge and information that they had taken in. An unexpected opportu-nity for informal assessment was presented by the children using the game “Dock toDaylight”. By observing groups of children playing the game the teacher was able to note theresponses of the children answering the questions.
A side effect of the work was that the teacher felt that certain children had grown in con-
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Pedagogical and theoretical considerations
Does the use of the infrastructure of the internet in this example extend the possibil-
ities for learning beyond what would have been expected if the content of the lessonhad been covered in a more traditional way?
(Continued)Table 4.2 Virtual tour of the Cabinet War Rooms: Other considerations/features
Motivation /check This work was clearly motivating and en joyable
The use of the internet was not a novelty, but the
control of the virtual rooms and the very nature ofthe resource available was.
Enjoyment /check
Excitement /check
Novelty /check
Engagement /check Generally high throughout. Some children wereclearly more involved than others.
Development of work away from /check Completion of worksheet tasks; preparation of a
the computer display.
Evidence of learning /check The teacher, based on her conversations, informalobservations, plenary feedback and by looking at theprogress of the “Dock to Dawn” game, was happy
that a good deal of learning had taken pace.Working Collaboratively 55
Table 4.1 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT related
lessons: Virtual tour of the Cabinet War Rooms
Multiple perspectivesPupil-directed goals /check Partially, choosing which room to investigatein detail.
Teachers as coaches /check Teacher in the classroom as an enabler.
MetacognitionLearner control /check Choice involved – which room to investigatenext; how long to spend in any one location.
Real-world activities and contexts /check
Knowledge construction /check
Sharing knowledge /check
Reference to what pupils know already /check Review of previous learning and experience.
Problem solvingExplicit thinking about errors andmisconceptionsExploration /check
Peer-group learning /check
Alternative viewpoints offeredScaffolding /check Differentiated tasks prepared and appropriateteacher support offered.
Assessment for learning
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Since a school visit to London was out of the question for the children in this class, the
teacher was of the opinion that an investigation of the facilities for keeping Britain’s war
leaders safe would not really have been possible without the internet resources offered bythe Cabinet War Rooms website. It seems that there is very little material available elsewhere.She was also clear that she thought that the children would not have been nearly so inter-ested and engaged with the idea of a safe and secret “hiding place” had it not been possible tovisit the site, make the virtual tour and then explore it alone.
It is possible that certain elements of the work could have been covered and learned in
other ways; factual information about the rooms could have been looked at but there wouldnot have been the drive to engage with the site, and to explore and find out more.
The visits to the Cabinet War Rooms site led to one or two unexpected new directions. For
example, there is a link on the homepage to “The Flags of the Commonwealth”. The link is therebecause, as we are told, the flags of the Commonwealth are often flown along Horseguards Paradeoutside the Cabinet War Rooms. The teacher had not intended to make any use of this link, butit generated a great deal of interest when the link was followed because, apart from backgroundinformation concerning the Commonwealth, the flags of the 53 countries were displayed and asthis work coincided with the football World Cup, and Commonwealth countries were playing inthe competition, the flags were looked at in detail and discussed at length in the context of foot-ball. Space was found to display the flags of the teams involved and a post-it note was attachedat the stage where the team left the competition, with a note of the opponents and the score.
The presence of a museum shop was cause for discussion. Some were “For” and some “Against”.
Some were very enthusiastic about the idea of the shop and gave the view that the shop is oftenthe best part of a visit to a museum or similar place. Others were of the opinion that the shop issimply a way of generating money by the sale of cheap pencils, rubbers and keyrings that alwaysbreak on the way home. This led to a short discussion in an end of lesson plenary session inwhich the need to raise money for the museum to survive was balanced against the “cashing inon gullible visitors” effect. The consensus view seemed to be that the shops are interesting andfun a lot of the time, and are also a necessity for many struggling museums. On this point oneboy seemed to suggest that it was a matter of duty to buy something, especially if there was noadmission charge: “You ought to pay for something otherwise it’s not fair on the museum.”
Case study 4.2 Exploring places of worship
School
Small rural primary school
Teacher
Female with 22 years teaching experience in a range of schools. Over the last four years, since
a whole-school training course, she has developed her use of ICT and most recently her useof the internet.
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Website
Hitchams: www.hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk/synagogue/index.htm
Background/Context
The teacher wanted to give a wider experience of places of worship, having visited the local
church earlier in the year. The recommendation in the official guidance suggests that chil-dren, if possible, should find out about and visit a Christian place of worship and either asimilar venue for Hinduism or Judaism. Since it was neither possible nor practicable to visita synagogue locally, a suitable, virtual alternative was used. (Hitchams, 2006)
Having followed the scheme of work for “What can we learn from visiting a church?” (Unit
1F non-statutory national framework for RE: QCA, 1997–2006), the teacher had arranged asuccessful visit to an Anglican church and was keen to extend this experience to another set-ting. For the reasons above an internet-based alternative was found.
The preceding work and the planned work using the internet were both based on the fol-
lowing extract from the non-statutory framework for RE in Key Stage 1:
During key stage one, pupils should be taught the knowledge, skills and under-standing through the following areas of study:Religions and beliefs: a) Christianity, and b) Hinduism or JudaismAnd they should have the opportunity and experience of visiting places of worshipand focusing on symbols and feelings.
(NC Online, Undated)
Children’s prior knowledge/experience
The teacher recognised the value that the work already covered would bring to the new work
and at every point in the progress of this project wanted to draw comparisons with the newexperience and what the children already knew about places of worship, in particular to thework relating to the visit to the parish church. The teacher also recognised that the classwould have other previous experience to contribute to the project. In her class there were nochildren from religions other than Christianity, but there were some children from otherdenominations, each of which have different styles of building and differing styles of worship,including symbols and artefacts. Two children attended a Baptist church in the village, one aMethodist church in the nearest town, and one child’s family belonged to a new church withno building of their own and an emphasis on worship through music. Of the remaining chil-dren in the class about half of them were regular attendees at the parish church Sundayschool, a few were irregular attendees and the remainder had no association with any church.
When the class visited the village church earlier in the school year they were helped to
learn:
•that the church is a special place for Christians
•about some of the important features of the church building
•about some of the activities that take place in a church
•about the importance of showing respect for other people and their special places and
things.
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58 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
The teacher made plans to cover all of the above points in the new context of the virtual
synagogue.
The class had not previously made use of the internet at school. They had used other ICT
for their work, including word processing and simple databases, and also a programmable toy
(Roamer). A small number of the children said that they sometimes used the internet athome.
Format of the lessons
To introduce the project the teacher referred to the visit to the local church and encouraged
the children to say something about the experience. She then went on to explain thatpeople from other religions have different buildings where they meet and worship. She askedfor examples but none were offered. She then turned to the large screen in the room andshowed the class the home page of the virtual synagogue. The word in itself was interestingand challenging and the teacher encouraged the class to say it out loud several times to helpthem to become accustomed to it.
The teacher used the projector and screen to guide the class around the synagogue very
slowly and with a good deal of commentary.
The site is designed to have two alternative routes: one entitled “Synagogue Starter” and
the other “Synagogue Full”. The starter version is simpler, contains less information, is writ-ten more simply and has fewer links to other sources of information. For the first look at thesite the teacher chose the starter route and showed each page in turn, encouraging thechildren to follow the words that she read to them and then to make comments or askquestions.
To conclude the first session the teacher asked the children to write a short piece explain-
ing what a synagogue is. The class was divided into three groups for many lessons, accordingto ability. The most able were asked to write unassisted, but making use of some “helping
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(Continued)
words” written on the whiteboard. The middle ability group were given a worksheet in the
form of a writing frame which supported them in writing three sentences related to thesynagogue. The lowest ability group were supported directly by the teacher, they jointly com-posed two sentences, which the teacher wrote on a small easel for them to copy.
As we have seen, the site of this virtual tour of a synagogue is at two levels of difficulty,
but even at the simplest level it is a little beyond the majority of the children in this mixedage group class without the appropriate support and scaffolding provided by the teacher. Thiswas taken into account in subsequent lessons. The highest ability group were directed to the“Synagogue Full” route and the others to the “Synagogue Starter” route. The teacheraccounted for the difference in abilities by providing support materials for the least able,which allowed them to complete the same tasks as the others in the class.
One of the links from this website was for a site dealing with questions about the Jewish
faith. This site includes definitions and explanations of terms, and covers all of the impor-tant features and tenets of Judaism. However the site is not designed for young children and
although the teacher made use of some of the information from this site she did not directthe children towards it.
For the lessons which followed, the teacher, in each case showed the website to the chil-
dren again and asked them to remember what they had learned about synagogues andJudaism. Then, in pairs, the children were given an investigative task to complete. The taskrequired them to visit the virtual synagogue and navigate to an appropriate place where theycould find out about a particular part of the synagogue or about an artefact found there.
Examples
What is a YAD and what is it used for?
What is the CHALLAH?
For each of the items/location the pair of children were asked to produce a large decorated
poster and include a picture of the item in question with a short piece of text that could beread out to the class.
The teacher had borrowed a collection of artefacts from the LEA advisory teacher for RE,
and so some of the children were able to illustrate their end product with a real item.
The school had limited computer access and so only three groups could use the virtual tour
site at a time. This meant that the teacher, or the teaching assistant, could be on hand whilethe computers were being used. This was important because the site is not aimed at childrenof this age group and there was need for guidance in places.
The children were encouraged to copy text from the website into a word processor to read
out, but importantly, they were also told that they had to include a sentence at the end ofthe copied text that added to or explained the words copied in some way.
Example of some cut and paste information followed by children’s own sentences:
A silver yad is used as a pointer so that the scrolls are not damaged.
A yad is a silver pointer used to follow the words in a Torah scroll as it is being
read. The word “yad” in Hebrew means “hand” and a yad ends in a tiny hand witha pointing finger.
Our YAD is 12 centimetres long and it’s heavy for a small thing. A YAD is used to
not damage scrolls.
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(Continued)
The posters, when finished, included hand-drawn pictures supported by pictures copied
from the website and word-processed text; they were decorated with patterns, including the
Jewish star and other symbols, and were very colourful. Many showed signs of great atten-tion to detail, some were a little more rushed. In the cases where there was an artefact tolook at from the resources box, it was photographed with a digital camera and also includedin the posters.
The posters, 12 in total, were used to produce a wall display. The artefacts were also dis-
played on a table nearby with appropriate labels.
Response of the children
From the outset the children were very attentive and contributed well. Some children seemed
to have little memory of the visit to the village church, but others recalled details and wereable to relate these to the synagogue. The question which came up in the first session (whichthe teacher could not answer immediately) was to do with christening. The font at theAnglican church is very large and ornate and the vicar had spent a good deal of time talk-ing both about the history of the font and the significance of infant baptism.
The first lesson, in which the teacher led a virtual tour of the synagogue, was characterised
by interest and involvement. The children paid attention to the images and to what theteacher read and said. A lot of questions were asked, many of which the teacher chose notto answer in detail, saying that the questioner might want to choose to find out more aboutthe question on their own.
The teacher reported that there was no reluctance about having to get on with the work. She
noted that some children were not motivated simply by computer use, and was able to say withsome certainty that it had been the content of the work that held the interest of the class.
The overall response of the children to the work was positive, although one or two were
only able to go as far as saying that it was: “Alright”. In the plenary sessions most of thechildren were clearly pleased with what they had been doing on the website and eager to talkabout what they had learned. When asked, the children all said that they wanted to visit a“real” synagogue.
Views and response of the teacher involved
The teacher was satisfied with the way that the work had gone, and felt that it had been a
valuable set of learning activities for the class. The children had obviously taken interest intheir work and were clearly proud of the posters that they had produced. She was not ableto point to any objective evidence of learning but she was sure that the knowledge andunderstanding of the topic covered had increased. She felt able to say this because of herinvolvement with the class during the times when they were working either at the computeror on their posters. Also she was able to note those who responded, or offered to respond, toquestions. She was pleased with the level of interest that the work had generated and com-mented that: “Getting them interested is half the battle … once they have become inter-ested you can get them to do almost anything … then you can be fairly sure that they’relearning.”
Ideally the teacher would have liked to have been able to use a suite of computers for the
work, allowing the whole class to work on it at the same time. She felt that this would havehelped the organisation of the work and would have led to fewer distractions and made formore manageable plenary sessions.60 Effective Teaching with Internet TechnologiesPritchard-3559-Chapter-04.qxd 5/10/2007 3:40 PM Page 60

Working Collaboratively 61
Table 4.3 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT related
lessons: Exploring places of worship
Multiple perspectives
Pupil-directed goals /checkbld In a limited way; children were able to make choicesabout what to pursue.
Teachers as coaches /checkbld Appropriate guidance was given, both in terms ofcarrying out the work and in the use of the technology.
MetacognitionLearner control /checkbld Certain amount of choice was given when choosingwhich aspects to explore. There was choice in the styleand design of the posters.
Real-world activities and contexts /checkbld The website portrayed a real synagogue and involvedreal people and real comments.
Knowledge construction /checkbld Clear building of new knowledge on the foundation ofwhat was already known.
Sharing knowledge /checkbld In plenary sessions at the end of each lesson, eachpair reported back on what they had been doing andwhat they had found out.
Reference to what pupils know /checkbld As above. Prior knowledge formed the starting point
already for this work – the teacher stressed this to the class.
Problem solvingExplicit thinking about errors and /checkbld Attention was occasionally drawn to “wrong answers”
misconceptions and these were discussed and corrected.
Exploration /checkbld
Peer-group learning /checkbld
Alternative viewpoints offeredScaffolding /checkbld Differentiated support, including working with specificchildren was supplied by the teacher and teachingassistant.
Assessment for learningPrimary sources of data /checkbld Statements included on the website made by members
of the synagogue. Artefacts. Pedagogical and theoretical considerations
Evidence of learning
As we have seen, the teacher was not able to log formal details of the learning that had taken
place during the weeks of this project, but this is often the case in schools when clear mea-sures are not either expected or possible. Obviously teachers are able to build in assessment,either formal or informal, and in may cases this is done. When questioned about the oppor-tunities for assessment in this project the teacher explained that she was content for thechildren to be interested and engaged with the work, something that she considered wouldlead to learning whether or not it was formally measured.
However it was clear that she did make assessments in two other ways. Firstly she made
good use of questioning, both with the whole class in plenary sessions and also when speak-ing to individuals, and secondly she looked at the end products of the work. If asked shewould probably say that the process was more important than the end product, which is cer-tainly true in many cases, but it is also true that the finished work in any sort of productgives insight into levels of understanding.(Continued)Pritchard-3559-Chapter-04.qxd 5/10/2007 3:40 PM Page 61

Overall the teacher was able to say, despite any concrete evidence, that learning had taken
place, and she was able to point to individuals and comment on their individual case. The teacher
was obviously well attuned to her class and her view that learning had taken place was accurate.
Does the use of the infrastructure of the internet in this example extend the possibil-
ities for learning beyond what would have been expected if the content of the lessonhad been covered in a more traditional way?
As the teacher pointed out, for her it would have been impossible to have covered the con-
tent of this project in anything like the amount of detail that was evident, without theresources and activities found on the internet. A visit to a synagogue was not possible, andthe available resources – even with the artefacts on loan from the LEA, would not have madeup for the experiences of navigating the virtual synagogue and completing the work from thestarting point of the internet. In some ways, the teacher considered that access to the syn-agogue in this way was a little better than actually visiting, because it was possible to re-trace steps, or spend as long as was needed at each different location.
The interest and excitement that the use of the internet produced was, for the teacher, an
important factor for the success of the work. She considered that certain children wereclearly paying a good deal more attention to their work than they would in other circum-stances. For this reason too, the use of the internet had proved to be worthwhile.
Case study 4.3 Key stage 1 music games
School
Small infant school in a suburban setting.
ClassYear 3 (22 pupils)62 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
Table 4.4 Exploring places of worship: Other considerations/features
Motivation /checkbld The use of the internet was a clear motivator, as was the visit to
a virtual synagogue. The subject matter was notuniversally motivating however.
Enjoyment /checkbld Generally the children did seem to enjoy the work. This was as aresult of different aspects of the work: using the internet, workingwith a partner, seeing and then being able to hold certain artefacts.
Excitement /checkbld Initially there was excitement in the build-up to looking aroundthe synagogue. This dropped off a little as theproject moved on.
Novelty /checkbld There was a limited novelty effect. This specific style of website wasnew to all of the children and some were clearly very taken by it.
Engagement /checkbld For the most part the class worked well and were on task for a greatproportion of the time. Certain individuals were clearly fully engagedin their work to the point where they did not want to stop. Othersasked to be able to use the site at other times.
Development of work away /checkbld Interest in real artefacts generated by having seen them
from the computer virtually. Creation of posters.
Evidence of learning /checkbld Children were all able to join in a question and answer
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Working Collaboratively 63
Teacher
Male with three years experience. Lack of confidence in music teaching.
Website
BBC: www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/schools/4_11/music/mm/index.shtml
Background/Context
Following the loss of a visiting specialist music teacher, the staff at this small infant school
have each taken a different approach to providing music lessons. The teacher of this year 3class found the BBC (Northern Ireland) site when searching for inspiration, and decided thatit might meet his needs and the needs of the class.
Children’s prior knowledge/experience
During the previous year the class had one music lesson every other week and had covered a
little work on tempo; they had played a selection of clapping games. They had tried compos-ing short pieces in pairs using mainly percussion instruments and they had spent time learn-ing songs, some of which were in the form of a round.
The class had some, but not extensive experience of using computers in their work. For
example, they had used simple maths software regularly during the previous and current year,and they had all used the computer for simple writing tasks. As part of a recent art weekthey had all used a painting program. They had also been involved in an e-mail link projectwith a school in South Africa.
Website: Musical Mysteries
The Musical Mysteries website has been written to support the Northern Ireland Music
curriculum for key stages 1 and 2 (7–11 year olds). However, it is eminently suitable for
pupils in England, Wales and Scotland, as well as many other locations in the world. The taskshelp children to explore the basic musical concepts of sound, rhythm and mood. The site alsoprovides ample opportunity to practise and develop listening, composing and the skills ofmusical interpretation.
The teacher’s page of the website says that there are links to the curriculum areas of English,
science and geography, which there clearly are, but these links are not made explicit and it isthe task of the teacher to develop these links if considered appropriate.
The site provides eight separate activities with a series of supporting worksheets that can
be downloaded for classroom extension activity or perhaps used for homework. There are fourthemed units covering:
•sound
•rhythm
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•mood
•orchestra.
At the end of the activities there is a quiz. This can be used as an assessment tool and is
useful as a summing up exercise for the children.
The website is designed to be like an adventure style game. There is a story involving two
main characters who are in search of lost music. Related activities give practice in the main
areas of the site’s content.
Introduction and progress of the work
The teacher introduced the story element to the whole class and read through the dialogue
on the first few “screens”. Three characters are introduced – Robbie, Curly (a dog) andGrandpa (a musician), and a story begins to unfold.
The teacher spent time talking about the ideas on the screens, asking questions, re-reading
the dialogue and ensuring that all of the children were fully aware of the situation, thenature of the problem, and the idea that they were being asked to help solve the mystery.
Activity one: Seaside Activity
The “Seaside Activity” screen introduces the idea that music has a steady “beat” and the
example of a heartbeat, with a demonstration, is given. The class are encouraged to listen toa sample of music and clap in time to the beat – this took some time to get right. The teacher 64 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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(Continued)
spent a good deal of time reinforcing the idea of beat (tempo) and let the children explore
the beat of a variety of different music (slow and fast), apart from the one example on thescreen.
The screen then asks the class to think about walking on a beach and the different sounds
that can be heard. The teacher allowed the class to make suggestions (with some prompting):
crunchingsplashingshoutingcrashingcryinglaughingmusic (radio/tape/CD)barkingploppingdigging.
The next screen is a jigsaw activity; the teacher read and explained the instructions and
demonstrated the game. A selection of jigsaw pieces give a particular sound when the mouseis “rolled-over” and the piece can be dragged to the correct place on a picture above. Thereare some sounds with a regular beat (galloping, tapping) and some without (aeroplane,wind). If three consecutive errors are made with a particular sound an “answer” is given.When all of the pieces are in place a complete picture is built up and the sounds can be heardagain, and discussed, by “rolling over” again.
The teacher demonstrated the process and used a good deal of questioning, allowing the
class to make suggestions and give ideas.
The whole-class part of the session ended and the children dispersed in pairs to work
through the first part of the story, and complete the jigsaw activity without support. Theclass were all able to work at the same time as they were timetabled into the school com-puter suite, comprising of 15 networked computers, a data projector and an interactive elec-tronic whiteboard.
The class were very well prepared for what came next. The teacher had worked through the
initial screens and made clear what the children had to do next. The content aspect of thework – recognising the difference between sounds with or without a regular beat, had beenintroduced and reinforced with reference to both the examples in the story itself, and alsoby referring to suggestions made by the class. The teacher had spent time to ensure that theclass had been introduced to this idea and had the opportunity to relate it to their own expe-rience in a variety of different ways.
The class worked in pairs, taking turns to use the mouse to control the screen. There was
a good level of discussion and occasionally evidence of disagreement. The teacher was ableto circulate and intervene when necessary, which was not very often. At the end of thelesson the teacher briefly summed-up what had been covered and explained that the classwould be able to continue with the story and activities in the next music lesson. This metwith general approval.
The following week, again in the computer suite, the teacher recapped on the story so far;
questions and answers, moving through the initial screens as a reminder and testing the class’sunderstanding of “beat”, which had been the main content area of the previous lesson.Working Collaboratively 65
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The next phase of the story, with the whole class together, introduced ideas concerning
sound. Again the teacher spent a good deal of time preparing the class for what they were
to do next.
Activity two: “Sound Story”
This activity takes the form of a book that tells a story based in a circus. The first page is of
a circus ring with a variety of acts taking place. The teacher firstly asks about the soundsthat the class would be able to hear if they were there and paid specific attention to the ideaof beat and tempo. The next page of the book had a short story with particular “sound” wordshighlighted. The task was to listen to a sound that is activated by rolling the mouse over aringmaster’s hat icon and then dragging the sound to the correct word in the body of thetext. The teacher read the story with the class following the words. Each of the highlightedsound words were pointed out. Some of the sounds were difficult for the children to link witha particular word and an amount of trial and error ensued. The teacher encouraged suggestionsand explained such things as “fanfare” and “cymbals” . The hardest to unde rstand were words
such as “tottered” linked to a short piece of music. The teacher helped the children to cometo understand the link by asking individuals to demonstrate a “totter”, making the experi-ence both active and enjoyable.
Again the class were set to work in pairs going through the activity. The teacher circulated
and supported as necessary. In a plenary session, the teacher again went through the soundsand made the correct links to the words in the short story.
The next lessons followed the same pattern as the first two. The teacher recapped and
reminded, usually though the use of questions and answers. The next section of the storywas read together and the activities to be completed were explained and demonstrated eachtime.
Activity three: Cave sounds
This activity included finding and listening to different rhythms in the context of an under-
ground cave.
Activity four: Sound patterns
This activity included using a simple on-screen “machine” to compose different sound
patterns by dragging and dropping icons related to different sounds.
Activity five: Mood music
After being introduced to the idea that there are certain places where music is played in the
background (some shops, dentists) the children are asked to think about how some shortextracts of different music make them feel. They are able to choose on-screen an option from:happy, relaxed, funny or frightened. The teacher took time to discuss these options in detailbefore asking the children to listen to the extracts.66 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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Activity six: Animal match up
This activity provided a virtual CD player on which the children could place different CDs.
Each CD played an extract of music relating to one of the animals pictured on a set of CDcases. The task was to match the CD to the correct case.
Activity seven: Orchestra
For this section of the story the activities were slightly different. The orchestra was presented
and the different sections highlighted. For each section it was possible to open a separatewindow giving a short explanation of the section and the instruments which make it up.There is also an option to listen to some of the instruments playing.
After spending some considerable time going through the different sections of the orches-
tra, and also finding out about the role of the conductor, the teacher set a different style oftask, away from the computer. The teacher had taken screen shots of each of the items ofinformation relating to all of the sections and instruments. Back in the classroom these werepresented to the children and they were asked to choose one of the sections of the orches-tra (family) and write down all of its members. Then they had to decide whether each instru-ment was a “high” or “low” member of the family. Lastly they were asked to draw a pictureof the instrument that they liked best.
Quiz
The short quiz at the end of the series of activities is made up of eight questions. Mostly they
relate to items of knowledge relating to instruments and the orchestra, but two are relatedto the story and ask the children to recall an event. Incorrect answers are pointed out and asecond attempt is offered. All of the children managed to score full marks. This is because ateach stage an incorrect answer was corrected, often by trial and error. The teacher did notthink that this was a difficulty with the quiz. He viewed it as a final opportunity for revi-sion rather than a measure of what had been learned. The children were keen to completethe quiz and treated it as a competition.
Additional website features
The website provides good resources for teachers. There is advice on classroom management, there
are lesson plans and for each lesson there is at least one downloadable worksheet. There is also adownloadable certificate of completion which can be printed and presented to each child.
The teacher spent time reading the advice and he also noted the lesson plans. When it
came to his own lessons he preferred to “simplify” the arrangements and in most cases usedhis own lesson plan and relied on a good deal of discussion and interaction, rather than mak-ing use of the worksheets. However, he did make use of some of the worksheets as extensionactivities, both in music lessons and in one case in a literacy lesson.
The site also provides a selection of audio clips relating to and extending each activity, but
these were not used.
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68 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
(Continued)
Response of the childrenThe children were very positive and very enthusiastic at every stage. There was a certain
novelty factor involved in this enthusiasm. This was not because use of the computers wasnovel, but because the type of use, perceived as a game, was novel. In informal conversationthe children were full of praise for the lessons and were keen to talk about both the storyand the other content of the site when asked.
Views and response of the teacher involved
From an uncertain start the teacher grew in confidence. By the time the project drew to a
close he felt that he was competent, and also that he had learned a lot about the basics ofthe music content that he had presented to his class.
He had expected some of the children to not be as enthusiastic about the work as others.
In reality he was pleased that the children who he had had in mind worked well and clearlyenjoyed what they were doing. He felt that the story as a vehicle for the content, and thenature of the activities, which give an impression of playing rather than working, wereresponsible for this.
The teacher felt that using the computers in the classroom when there were children work-
ing on different activities was a little disruptive. He would have liked to use headphones tosolve this, but realised that working in pairs might have been difficult, and recognised thevalue in children working together.
He was unsure about how to make progress following the success of this work. He felt
that he would need an equal amount of support in taking the class forward, but was notsure if he would be able to find it. He will certainly use the activities again with anotherclass and will not make any radical changes to the way that he had organised it the firsttime.
Pedagogical and theoretical considerations
Does the use of the infrastructure of the internet in this example extend the possibil-
ities for learning beyond what would have been expected if the content of the lessonhad been covered in a more traditional way?
For this work the answer is “Yes”. It would have been possible for a more confident and
experienced teacher to cover all of the content of the website by more traditional means, butthis would have been a very large preparation task for the teacher. The finding and prepara-tion of the musical extracts in itself would have been very difficult. Having all of the activ-ities ready in one place made the implementation very straightforward. The way the activitieswere tied together in the form of games embedded in a story made an important differenceto the teacher involved. He would not have attempted to cover the content because he wouldnot have had the support that he needed to be able to find, or devise the activities neededto make the work interesting and useful. Even with recourse to the music resources in theschool – a collection of CDs and a set of books for children with a teacher’s book, he wouldnot have had the confidence to undertake, or the time to prepare, work of this nature, evenat a much simpler level.Pritchard-3559-Chapter-04.qxd 5/10/2007 3:40 PM Page 68

Working Collaboratively 69
(Continued)
Table 4.5 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT related
lessons: Key stage 1 music games
Multiple perspectives
Pupil-directed goalsTeachers as coaches /checkbld The teacher introduced each section andguided the class through the tasks beforethey attempted them.
MetacognitionLearner control /checkbld The children were able to work at their ownpace and they could choose to return to thebeginning of activities and do them morethan once if they wanted to. They were givensome limited choice at different stages.
Real-world activities and contexts /checkbld Not completely, but the children were able torelate to the seaside activity well and tosome of the other scenarios to a lesserdegree.
Knowledge construction /checkbld Yes, this was obvious throughout.
Sharing knowledge /checkbld By working in pairs and by feeding back onthe work away from the computer, sharingdid take place.
Reference to what pupils know already /checkbld From a low baseline in most cases. The teacherprobed the existing knowledge of the class welland at times referred back to what he knewsome of the children were familiar with.
Problem solving /checkbld Some of the activities required theapplication and practise of low level problemsolving skills.
Explicit thinking about errors and /checkbld Some of the activities do not accept
misconceptions incorrect responses. For some children
this led to a consideration of the mistakethat had been made (especially if anadult was present); for others the solutionbecame a question of trial and error.
Exploration /checkbld Within the confines of the activities there issome scope for exploring different options.
Peer-group learning /checkbld The whole experience and the way that theteacher worked with the whole class andthen had the children working in pairs andmaking occasional contributions to plenarysessions encouraged peer–peer learning.
Alternative viewpoints offered /checkbld In part, sometimes disagreements about theanswer were justified by offering an alternativeinterpretation of, for example, what had beenheard.
Scaffolding /checkbld Teacher and teaching assistant support wasavailable in the independent sessions. Theexpectations were different for children ofdifferent abilities, and some additionalsupport – word lists and other reminders,
were provided.
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70 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
Table 4.5 Continued
Assessment for learning /checkbld By the end of the series of lessons the
teacher had formed a good picture of theprogress made by the class and was able tolist suggestions of what he might like towork on next. He was able to identifyspecific individuals as either having gonebeyond what had been expected, and alsohaving failed to make as much progress asexpected.
Primary sources of data
Table 4.6 Key stage 1 music games: Other considerations/features
Motivation /checkbld At every stage there was good evidence of allof these factors.
Enjoyment /checkbld
Excitement /checkbld
Novelty /checkbld
Engagement /checkbld Good evidence of this too. At every stage theteacher noted that there was a very highproportion of on-task working in the class;he reported that there was very littledisruption during these sessions.
Development of work away from the computer /checkbld Some children spent time looking through aselection of books relating to orchestras inthe reading corner. The final activity requiredwork away from the computer. However, thewhole project was characterised by most ofthe work being undertaken at the computerwith very little recording expected.
Evidence of learning /checkbld As above. The teacher made a comment inhis records for each child, noting progress,
strengths and weaknesses.
SUMMARY
The work described above is characterised by involvement and engagement. At
almost all stages there are examples of children busying themselves with othersand taking delight in the use of the resources made available to them.
In all of the studies the teacher was able to capitalise on the children’s prior
knowledge. With the war rooms work the children brought with them, and thiswas drawn to their attention, knowledge of the social conditions at the time and (Continued)Pritchard-3559-Chapter-04.qxd 5/10/2007 3:40 PM Page 70

(Continued)
wider knowledge about the progress of the war. Prior knowledge relating to the
synagogue project included what had been learned by visiting a local contrast-ing place of worship. Different members of the class were also able to contributeto a wider pool of knowledge by sharing their personal experiences of their ownplaces of worship. In the music example, the teacher was able to refer back towork from the previous year, which introduced tempo and speed.
Collaboration is also a feature, to greater and lesser degrees, in the three
examples and the teachers were convinced that working together brought bene-fits to the learning experiences of the children. There was no mention from anyof the teachers about the possibility that some children might function betteralone – Gardner’s notion of “intrapersonal intelligence” might suggest that atleast some members of a group might be more relaxed and better suited to work-ing in a thoughtful and more introspective way. (Gardner 1993) Sometimes careand sensitivity should be applied and the possibility of allowing some childrento work “differently” should be considered.
In terms of Bruner’s (1996) pedagogies the teachers here are helping the chil-
dren to work more as “active constructors” than any of the other three cate-gories. The teachers were planning for and expecting collaboration. There is anexpectation of discussion and cooperation, and there is no hint of copying orimitating. The children are seen as knowledgeable. Reference to prior knowledgeis included as a part of the experience provided, and the children are givendegrees of choice as the work progresses.
To summarise:
•The internet is a source of activities that can be undertaken by individualsworking together.
•The benefits of collaborating are clear to the teachers who employ thisapproach.
•Children tend towards sharing thoughts, ideas and enjoyment with others,even when asked to work alone, and this is something that teachers cancapitalise on. We are social beings, for the most part, and discussing andsharing is natural; this can be channelled to good educational effect.
•We must remember that some individuals prefer to work alone and takesome steps towards accommodating this. However, some experience ofgroup-working is beneficial to all.Working Collaboratively 71
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Longer Term Projects,
Communicating andProblem Solving
About this chapter
Themes that you will encounter in this chapter:
•collaboration and cooperation over great distances, including from country to country
•problem solving and longer term projects
•the setting of an appropriate context for learning, including “starting with the child”
•the use of “ready made” pre-existing internet activities.
Questions to keep in mind when reading this chapter
•What is the value of communicating between countries?
•It what ways can internet-mediated activities provide contexts familiar to children?
•What is the value of using “ready made” internet activities?
•Were the planned learning outcomes achieved in an effective way, and could they have
been achieved better by some other means?
The internet is host to a great many sites that provide what are sometimes referred to
as “ready made” activities. There is nothing new in teachers using materials and activ-ities that are taken from a reputable source and used exactly as they are found.However, some teachers are wary of using tasks and materials produced by others,who are possibly unknown, and perhaps in another part of the world. (The use ofAmerican resources has been considered briefly earlier in this book.) In this chapter wesee two examples of teachers using internet-based activities, designed in full by othersand used as they are. Both examples are from the United Kingdom, and from wellknown reputable sources – the BBC, and a local education authority.
Other case studies in this chapter make effective use of the direct communication
element of the internet; one in the form of e-mail and the other by means of video-conferencing. The ease with which the communication takes place in these casessynchronously (that is, immediately and in real time) and the other asynchronously(where there is the possibility of not having instant replies, but a time delay of somesort), is something that teachers from previous generations would not have consideredpossible.5Pritchard-3559-Chapter-05.qxd 5/10/2007 9:15 PM Page 72

Case study 5.1 Key Stage 1 health education
School
Single form entry rural primary school.
Teacher
Female and in her first teaching post, which she has held for four years.
Class
Year 2 (28 pupils)
Websites
The Welltown website: http://www.welltown.gov.uk/
Wired for Health: www.wiredforhealth.gov.uk/Rope skipping site Belgium: http://www.rope-skipping.be/“Jump Rope” tips website from Canada: http://www.saskschools.ca/~gregory/gym/skiptips.html
Background/Context
The school is close to an army training camp and there are often new pupils arriving mid year
who are in need of support in the initial days. The staff were concerned that behaviour atplaytimes and lunchtimes had deteriorated and the playground seemed to be a place thatmost of the children were not enjoying. The large spaces were dominated by ball games –football in particular, and the boys playing the games had no concern for others. This oftenresulted in angry exchanges and conflict that often continued in the classroom. Teacherswere spending time dealing with the problems at the end of playtimes and lunchtimes. Theschool had a relatively new school council with both a boy and a girl representative fromeach class. At all of the meetings in the short history of the council, playground facilitieshad been raised. Some of the older boys had complained, saying that they wanted to playfootball and some of the younger children, both boys and girls, had complained of the dan-gers of being hit by a ball or becoming accidentally embroiled in a tussle for the ball.
The school had looked into the possibilities for providing more playground facilities – some
benches, a wall to throw balls against, painted markings to encourage other games, and thepossibility of extending and segregating the playground to keep the players of boisterousgames away from those who would like to do something calmer in relative safety. The schoolParent Teacher Association (PTA) had been approached and had agreed that the majorfundraising efforts over the foreseeable future should be directed towards these requirements.
When a member of staff attended a training course for personal, social and health educa-
tion (PSHE) provided by the local authority, their attention was drawn to a case study pub-lished on a government website, Wired for Health (Department of Health, undated), about
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74 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
developing games and greater cooperation, leading to fewer problems on the playground.
(The site is aimed at helping schools to become healthier places in every sense of the word.Its stated aim is to help schools to become healthy and effective.) This led to an investiga-tion of the Welltown website, and a realisation that materials and resources on valuabletopics as well as guidance for teachers, were all readily available. It was decided at a wholestaff planning meeting that the materials would be used across the school as a one off andthen, if deemed to have been successful, the topics would be integrated into the school PSHEprogramme and other topics introduced from the website across key stage 1.
The Welltown Website
The activities that make up the Welltown site are aimed at key stage 1 pupils aged 5–7 years.
It covers the main areas of PSHE and citizenship as they are set out in the national curricu-lum, the national framework for PSHE and citizenship and the National Healthy SchoolStandard. (DfES/DoH, 2004)
Information on the site suggests that the activities will work best if explained and dis-
cussed beforehand, and this is certainly an important point. The site also suggests thatchildren can work either alone or in small groups.
The Welltown site covers a wide range of health topics, and provides opportunities for dis-
cussion and suggestions for further activities. The site is part of a series of Department ofHealth and Department for Education and Skills websites aimed at teachers and pupils of allages.
The topics covered by the site are set out in the table below. (The topics initially used by
the whole school are underlined.)
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We will look in detail at the implementation and progress of the units below in the year 2
class.
Park: Playground
School: Playground; Sam (new pupil)Context Title Areas covered
Home Kitchen Accidents, drugs, alcohol
Living room Mental health, the family and relationships
Shed Smoking
Bathroom Personal hygiene and oral hygiene
School Our school Healthy school
Dining hall Healthy eating
Sam (n ew pupil) Mental health an d relation ships
Playgr ound Physical a ctivity
Park Pond Accidents
Old chestnut Mental Health and relationships
Playgr ound Physical a ctivity
Sun Sun safety
Health Centre Health conditions Eczema, head lice, impetigo, asthma,
chicken pox, colds and flu, ringworm,
warts, gastroenteritis
Road The car Accidents
Road crossing Accidents
Am I safe? Personal safetyLonger Term Projects, Communicating and Problem Solving 75
(Continued)
(Continued)Figure 5.2 Games section of the Welltown site
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76 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
Children’s prior knowledge/experience
As far as the content of this project is concerned, the children had no formal previous expe-
rience in considering the ideas with which they were to be confronted, and challenged.Internet use was to be a feature of the work and, again, the class had not used the internet inschool. Some of the children had described some minor aspects of internet use from home. Allof the class were reasonably familiar with the use of ICT in other areas of their work. Computeruse had been a feature of their school work from when they first joined the Reception class.
Some of the children in the class had experienced the feelings and problems associated
with “being new”, and the teacher planned to capitalise on these experiences.
The teacher did not know very much about the children’s experience of playground games,
and during the activity had been surprised at the limited knowledge and experience in the class.
Design of the unit of work
As we have seen, the units from the Welltown website were used in this year 2 class in the
context of a whole-school initiative aimed at, firstly making the playground a safer and moreenjoyable place for everyone, and secondly raising awareness of the difficulties faced bypupils who join the school at odd times through the year and arrive not knowing anyone,often from abroad where at least one of their parents had been stationed with the army.
The teacher chose to work on the playground element of the programme first. This was
introduced by looking at facilities in local playgrounds and parks. The teacher explained thatunder different circumstances she would have taken the class to the village playground andspent time both playing with and finding out about the facilities. During the activity therewas not enough adult help available for this trip to take place, and the teacher used a digi-tal video camera to create a virtual visit to the playground instead. This was used as an intro-duction and digital photographs were used to form part of a display.
Just one session was allocated for work on local facilities and this was fol lowed by four
sessions dealing with the school-based elements of the work. The work concerning newcom-ers was covered in the second half of the term and lasted for another four weekly sessions.
Local play facilities
The teacher chose to use one part of the park area of the Welltown site, namely “Find some
ways of keeping fit”. She had decided that the ideas introduced in this section would add tothe understanding of the work to follow when they looked at the “School playground” area.
The “Find some ways of keeping fit” activity is designed to introduce the health benefits
of physical activity, in particular showing the difference between active and sedentary activ-ities. It aims to give children opportunities to experience and to find out:
•the difference between active and inactive
•that it is fun and healthy to be active
•that it is good for your heart to play games and run around
•that when you are active you will feel out of breath, warmer and your heart will beat
faster, and that these are good feelings to have.
This work was introduced in one lesson and followed up by the children interacting with
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To start the lesson the teacher introduced the class to the idea of the heart beating faster
or slower according to different circumstances. She did this in a very practical way by help-
ing the children to find their own heart beat both before and after running once around theplayground. Some of the children were able to locate their heartbeat well enough to attemptto count it, but for most this was too difficult. Soon it was well established that carrying outsome form of exercise leads to an increase in heart rate. The teacher explained, very simply,the reasons for this and then moved on to look at the website.
At this point the teacher showed a short video, which she had taken of the play facilities
at the park close to the school. Most of the children were familiar with the park and wereable to talk about visits there and games they had played. One or two related this to theideas about heart rate, which had been covered earlier.
The site provides a little information about the value of increasing heart rate on a regular
basis, and the difference between active and inactive. This was discussed and related to therunning that had gone on before. The main activity involved looking at a range of differentactivities and deciding whether or not they were active. In order to make the choice the chil-dren had to click on a moving picture of a heart, beating either quickly or slowly. Appropriatefeedback was provided for each choice. By the end of the lesson the class had looked at 10out of the 19 different activities. The teacher arranged for all of the class to complete thisactivity with a partner over the next few days using the computers in the classroom. To assistin this she had prepared a sheet for them to complete using the same artwork from the web-site, which she had been able to copy and paste into her work.
The school playground
The information for teachers on the website tells us that this activity is designed to cover
the health benefits of physical activity. It aims to help children to know and understand that:
•it is fun and healthy to be active
•you should be active every day
•there is a wide variety of games you can play
and also to provide more detailed information on a small number of games.
With the whole class the teacher began by asking what sort of games the children en joyed
playing when they were free to choose and had a lot of space. She asked them to think abouttwo sorts of games, namely, games which need a number of players and games which can beplayed alone. She also asked them to suggest games that could be considered as active, basedon what they had discussed in the previous lesson. The class suggested some for each cate-gory and the teacher listed them on the whiteboard.
The teacher had decided to direct the class towards skipping because she wanted to teach
some skipping games in PE and introduce the use of ropes at playtimes and lunch times.
With the help of the following series of questions the teacher encouraged the children to
contribute their ideas and experiences.
•Which games do you enjoy most?
•Which games do you play at school/away from school?
•Why do we all like playing games?
•Do we learn anything from playing games?
•Are games good for you? [No because you can get hurt; yes it’s fun; yes you make friends;
yes you get fit.
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78 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
By using simple graphing software and making use of the interactive whiteboard the
teacher then constructed a simple bar chart of the various games, and the number of chil-
dren favouring each one. The bar chart was used the next day as a one-off resource in anumeracy lesson to teach children about how to interpret simple data.(Continued)
Figure 5.3 A completed worksheet made by the teacher using artwork copied from the
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In the following session one week later the teacher talked briefly about the long list of
games that had been created and then went directly to the Welltown site and found the page
relating to playground games.
The initial page includes a short paragraph explaining the fun of games and also the value
in terms of health. The five options on the next page offered:
•line games
•circle games
•catching games
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Figure 5.4 One of the downloadable worksheets from the Welltown site(Continued)Pritchard-3559-Chapter-05.qxd 5/10/2007 9:15 PM Page 79

(Continued)
•parachute games
•skipping games.
The teacher looked at each of these with the class and asked for comments and experiences
relating to each category. There was, for the teacher, a surprisingly limited range of experiences
which the class could offer. For example, nobody could comment on or relate to a “catchinggame”, only a very small number of children knew anything about “parachute games”. The classseemed to know about circle games and these had been learned either in PE lessons, or at cubsin the village. When it came to the “skipping games” section only about one third of the classsaid they knew how to skip and only six out of the class of 28 owned a skipping rope.
The text on the skipping page read as fol lows:
“Skipping is a good game because you can do it on your own or with lots of people. Thereare lots of rhymes and songs for different skipping games. You can even make up your own.”
The teacher talked about skipping games that she had played, and enabled the class to
relate skipping to previous work related to active and sedentary games.
The teacher asked for any examples of rhymes, but none were forthcoming. She taught the
simple rhyme “Jelly on the plate”, which was chanted along with clapping of the simple rhythm.
To finish this session the children wrote out a sentence about the value of skipping and
copied the rhyme from the board.
To begin the next session the teacher had found some video clips of different styles of
skipping by searching the internet (see below). She showed these to the class.
Video clips of different types of skipping:www.rope-skipping.be/www.saskschools.ca/~gregory/gym/skiptips.htmlThe children were very impressed even though the teacher had been disappointed with what
she had found, having hoped for longer clips involving children. Using the school computersuite the class next looked at a local authority website (Lewisham, undated) with some ideasabout skipping games. This activity was purely exploratory and the children were encouragedto look at as much as they could and then to comment about what they had found.
In PE lessons over the next two weeks the class were taught new skipping games and
rhymes; for many children this was a brand new experience and some found it difficult to skipat all. The teacher arranged the class into approximate “skipping” ability groups and was ableto spend time with the least able skippers, helping them to develop at least a measure of skill.
As a result of this activity, skipping ropes were provided (from the PE store room – they
had never been used!) and were made available at playtimes and lunchtimes, and proved verypopular. Children took to this and soon brought in their own skipping ropes (boys as well asgirls) and a playground craze began, which lasted for some considerable time. At the time ofwriting the skipping rope craze was going on still, but with a little less intensity.
The new pupil
This set of activities is introduced with a story from the Welltown site displayed one page at
a time for the class to read and share together. The story covers the first day at a new schoolfor a six-year-old boy, and introduces some of his feelings and emotions. It includes both pos-itive and negative experiences and highlights the feelings of the new pupil and the poten-tial support systems. The story is designed to initiate discussion with pupils about theirfeelings and those of others.80 Effective Teaching with Internet TechnologiesPritchard-3559-Chapter-05.qxd 5/10/2007 9:15 PM Page 80

(Continued)
By using the story as a starting point opportunities to cover aspects of mental health and
relationships can be explored and discussed. The website suggests the following topics which
can be covered:
•dealing with change
•feelings of fear and insecurity
•feelings of isolation and loneliness
•bullying
•being welcoming and displaying kindness
•building confidence
•taking positive steps for mental health.
The work following on from the starting point of the story was discussion based, attempt-
ing to draw on the experiences of the class, feelings of anger and jealousy were talked about.
The class were also encouraged to talk about feelings and emotions when they do somethingout of the ordinary. The approaches taken to making new friends were also considered. Oneof the aims of the teacher was to introduce the idea of taking positive steps to help avoidupset and unhappiness.
The questions below, taken from the website and based on the story in some cases, formed
starting points for class discussions and also for short written tasks.
•How do you feel when you do something or go somewhere new for the first time?
•How did you feel on your first day of school? Have you ever moved to a new area or
school?
•How did you feel?
•How do you feel when someone new joins the class?
•What is it like to be left out?
•How do you make new friends?
•How do you feel when you meet a new friend?
•Do you approach people first, or do you wait for them to talk to you?
•Do you like meeting new people or do you prefer to stick to your old friends?
•How would you feel if a new pupil became friendly with your friends, would you be jeal-ous or happy to have someone new in your group?
•Have you ever been bullied, if so, how did it feel?
•Have you ever bullied someone else, if so, how did this make you feel? Why did you do it?
•Would you help someone if you saw them being bullied?
•What could you do to help?
•Do you think it was right for the teacher to tell Mark off?
For most of the sessions on this part of the work the teacher chose to sit the children in
a large circle on the carpet. The exception was when they actually read through the storytogether at the start of each session; for this the children stayed in their seats from wherethey had a good view of the screen.
The teacher based her discussion sessions on the principles of “Circle time”. (Circle time is a
well established way of working with children, which encourages them to listen and contributeto discussions as a large group. It can be used as a way of building confidence and enhancingself esteem. There are usually rules in place concerning how to listen, how to be responsive andsupportive and when to or not to speak. [See Mosely, 1998]) The children were given clear
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82 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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instructions and were allowed to speak only if they were holding the toy microphone – the
symbolic way of ensuring that one person speaks at a time and that the others listen. Thistook some time to become established, but the teacher persisted and by the end of thesecond session the system was working reasonably well.
Session one
The story was read through in the first session and discussed. The story was read again in
this session to help the class to be very familiar with it. The teacher treated the reading asa shared reading experience much as the National Literacy Strategy requires. She spent timedrawing attention to words, punctuation, style, as well as concentrating on the content ofthe piece. Children were asked to read short sections aloud. To conclude this session the chil-dren were introduced to the worksheet “How I felt”, which is downloadable from theWelltown website. The children are presented with seven different symbolically drawn facialexpressions each representing one of the following feelings: Sad, scared, excited, bored,angry, happy, worried. Beneath each picture are the words: I felt ____________ when__________. With the support of the seven words that are written out at the bottom of thesheet the children have to remember and write down a time when they felt happy, sad, angryand so on. The teacher discussed this activity in detail with the children, offering many ideasand examples. Further support was provided by the teacher listing the words suggested forsome of the events by the children on the whiteboard.
Session Two
The story was re-read at the start of this session, and at the start of the next two sessions
as well, as a way of reminding the class of the situation that they were considering. Theteacher also reviewed the discussion that had taken place and reminded the class of the workthat they had completed; she s howed some examples of the completed worksheets.
After considering some of the questions from the website that were not used in session
one, and allowing discussion to progress, the teacher set an activity for the class. She wantedthem, with a partner, to decide on an answer to the question, “What are the three mostimportant things that somebody new to the school should know?” The class were set to workand the teacher spent time with a group of children of lower ability while the others worked
in pairs. The noise level was high, but the talk was almost exclusively on the topic set by theteacher, and by the end of the allotted time the different pairs of children had constructeda list and were prepared to share their ideas with the class.
Session Three
Again, the story was re-read. Less time was spent on recapping this time, but the children
clearly enjoyed the involvement with the story – knowing the story well often leads to youngchildren wanting to read and read again.
The teacher recapped on the “Three most important things …” work and then went on to
outline the way that a “Buddy system” could work. Essentially a new child would be linkedwith another child in the class who would agree to be a supportive friend during the newchild’s early days in the school. The basics of the role were discussed, with ideas contributedby the class. The teacher next asked the class to work in twos and act out a short meetingbetween a new child and the new “buddy”.Pritchard-3559-Chapter-05.qxd 5/10/2007 9:15 PM Page 82

After about five minutes to devise a short scene the class came back together to watch
some of the scenes acted out by volunteer pairs. This worked well and then the teacher
moved on to describe the next and final element of the work. She explained that the classwould be providing some pictures and writing to go on to a web page for new children to lookat when they first joined the school. This work would be done during the next session.Everyone would be able to write something for the web page, take some photographs andwrite short captions for them. The photographs will include sites around the school – hall,classrooms, playground and also each of the adults who work in the school. The idea of pro-ducing work for “the internet” seemed to generate a good deal of excitement.
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Figure 5.5 A completed downloadable worksheet(Continued)Pritchard-3559-Chapter-05.qxd 5/10/2007 9:15 PM Page 83

Session four
In this session the plan was to create a web page of “Info for newcomers”. It would include
a plan of the school, pictures of staff, and a list of five school rules.
Children made decisions about what to include. The teacher carried out the technicalities.
Children took photographs and wrote a sentence for each picture and included a name, a roleand a suitable comment.
Children wrote a “Welcome” sentence and ten were included on the page.
“When you’re new the teacher will give you a special buddy. You can always find yourspecial buddy when you want something or you are scared or worried.”
Response of the children
As is often the case, the children in this year 2 class were very enthusiastic about their work.
This topic was no exception. At every stage they were keen to participate and to contributetheir experiences and ideas.84 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
Figure 5.6 One of the pages from the developing school website. The text was com-
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Longer Term Projects, Communicating and Problem Solving 85
(Continued)
Skipping, as we saw above, became the craze of the moment and the demand for the school
ropes was high. The lunchtime assistants were briefed and they were able to support some of
the group activities that the children were keen to take part in.
The children’s response to the second element of the work was different in some ways. There
was a reticence at first to take part in discussions but this changed quite soon. Part of thisreticence was perhaps a result of the introduction of the circle style approach to class discussion,and the need for the class to become familiar with the rules which applied. The response soonchanged and the children became keen to contribute, often with a personal anecdote relating toeither being new, or when another child had first arrived. The offering of personal experiences ofbeing new at a school actually became a valuable additional resource when thinking about theexperiences of new pupils. Many showed signs of being desperate for somebody new to arrive.
The overall response to all of this PSHE work was positive and there was obvious enjoy-
ment and pride involved in the production of the web page.
Views and response of the teacherThe teacher was very positive about the way that the work had gone. In particular she was
pleased with the responses of the children when thinking about new pupils arriving, and try-ing to understand their feelings, and ways of easing the problems faced by these pupils.
As a relatively new teacher she felt that she was not fully prepared for the teaching of PSHE.
She had no recall of any input apart from a lecture in her initial training, and she had not hadany opportunities for in-service training since she had taken up her post. The school policy wasthat if any one member of staff attended a training course they would feedback and make rec-ommendations to the whole staff, and this was the extent of her introduction to teaching PSHE.Over the years of her teaching experience she had not been required to teach in the area, theschool had not prioritised it, and this was one of the reasons why PSHE was beginning to havea higher profile in the school. (Another reason was the less than positive comments in anOfSTED report the previous year.) The lack of training and experience in PSHE that this teacherreported meant that she did not have any real confidence in her ability to tackle the subject.She had said that without the detailed support offered by the Welltown website, and the ini-tiative taken by the school, she would not have wanted to take on the work.
Evidence of learning
As with many topics in a range of subject areas it is not always possible to make objective
measurements of the learning that has taken place. The teacher did, however, set a short testin the guise of a game to find out if the children had gleaned and were able to recall factualinformation about exercise and health.
When the aims of a teaching programme are related to attitudinal change, as is the case
with a lot of PSHE work, it is difficult for teachers to be reliably confident that the aims havebeen achieved. Certainly the children might say and report particular views and opinionswhen asked, but this is not necessarily a clear indication of learning.
It was certainly the view of the teacher that the work had been highly beneficial, and that
the children had both learned about and changed their attitudes towards the subject matter
involved. From the point of view of an observer it was also reasonably clear that the children’sattitudes towards exercise, playground games and the need to help newcomers to integrate and
feel a part of the school community as quickly and smoothly as possible were enlightened andpositive.
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86 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
Table 5.2 Key stage 1 health education: Other considerations/features
Motivation /checkbld Very obvious at every stage. In
Enjoyment /checkbld particular, when investigating and
Excitement /checkbld playing skipping games and when
Novelty /checkbld browsing the internet.
Engagement /checkbld
Development of work away from /checkbld
the computer
Evidence of learning /checkbldTable 5.1 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT related
lessons: Key stage 1 health education
Multiple perspectives
Pupil-directed goals /checkbld The production of a “Welcome” web page al lowed
children to set out ideas and make decisionsabout what to include.
Teachers as coaches /checkbld The teacher acted as a facilitator for the discus-sions and helped and supported during the writingphases, modelling the sentences for example.
Metacognition /checkbld In a limited way children were being asked to con-sider their feelings, which is not strictly metacogni-tive in itself, but in some cases may lead to a deeperconsideration of thought patterns and processes.
Learner control /checkbld Children were partly responsible for decisions thatwere made.
Real-world activities and contexts /checkbld The context was as real as it is possible to get.The children were working in the context of theirschool and dealing with real events and problems.
Knowledge construction /checkbld A gradual building of knowledge and understandingwas evident.
Sharing knowledge /checkbld During discussions and also when writing forpublication on the web page.
Reference to what pupils know already /checkbld Reference was often made to prior experience ofsimilar situations.
Problem solving /checkbld Real problems were being considered.
Explicit thinking about errors and /checkbld Yes, in terms of misunderstanding the actions
misconceptions of others.Exploration /checkbld Different ideas and solutions were offered andexplored.
Peer-group learning /checkbld Some group work and discussion allowed for somemeasure of learning with peers.
Alternative viewpoints offered /checkbld Alternative viewpoints were often a feature of thewhole class sessions.
Scaffolding /checkbld The teacher was able to make considered inter-ventions at many stages of this work, both in thewhole class sessions and also when working withsmaller groups. The modelling provided for thewritten tasks was differentiated in order to alloweveryone to succeed.
Assessment for learning /checkbld
Primary sources of data /checkbld First hand reports about “being new”.(Continued)
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Does the use of the infrastructure of the internet in this example extend the possibil-
ities for learning beyond what would have been expected if the content of the lessonhad been covered in a more traditional way?
It is possible that work of this nature could have been carried out successfully without the
use of internet-mediated materials. However, in the case of this specific teacher, who felt ill-
equipped to deal with matters that can be sensitive in the sphere of PSHE, it is not likelythat she would have dealt with the issues in such depth or with access to the quality ofresources made available via the internet and the Welltown website.
Access to short video clips of different types of skipping were a small part of the whole
project, but made an important contribution. Without the internet these would not havebeen available.
It is likely that if the work had been covered in a different, non-internet, manner, the
learning and enjoyment may well have been as good, even better, but the teacher consideredthe internet resources and activities as essential to its success. The children clearly workedhard, motivated and supported by the novel access to quality resources afforded by theWelltown site.
Case study 5.2 Modern foreign languages and video-conferencing
Schools
A two form entry primary school in a middle class, outer city area linked with a local sec-
ondary school with “Language College” status.
Teachers
Female with 18 years varied experience; responsibility throughout the school for ICT; female
language teacher and language assistant.
Class
Mixed years 5 and 6 (25 pupils)
Websites
N/ABackground/ContextThe school is a medium sized primary school in the suburbs of a large city with an industrial
heritage. There are three classes of mixed year 5 and 6 with the children in each of these
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88 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
classes beginning to learn a language during their last two years at primary school. This is
undertaken largely through the medium of video-conferencing with a secondary school. Thesecondary school has the status of “Language College”. This means that the pupils who attendthe school are given additional language experiences and the profile of languages generallyis high; language teaching is relatively well provided for. The school is able to host anumber of language assistants from abroad each year to assist in the teaching of what is awider than usual range of languages. As part of its wider remit to expand the teaching andlearning of languages generally, the school has made links with a small number of primaryschools and a programme of language learning is underway. The secondary school is alsoworking in conjunction with a local university team who are funded by a European projectdeveloping the use of video-conferencing for the teaching of specialist subjects. Currently theclasses are taught Spanish and French in alternate years. One of the reasons for this is thatthe classes are of mixed age groups and each year the children in year 5 move to year 6 andare joined by a new group of year 5 children. This means that by the end of the final year atprimary school the children will have been introduced to both French and Spanish. Many ofthe children transfer to the secondary school and this project is seen as a valuable linkbetween the secondary school and some of its feeder schools, and as a way of easing the tran-sition from primary to secondary school.
Programme for the introduction and development of MFL teaching
•The secondary teacher visits the primary school and meets the class. An introductory les-
son takes place and the children are given the details of how the teaching will proceed.
•A plan of the teaching programme is developed based upon the expertise of the special-ist language teacher, the primary teacher’s knowledge of the children and the possibilityof links being made between the topics being covered in the primary school curriculumand the language lessons.
•Resources are prepared by the secondary teacher and shared, usually by e-mail with theprimary school.
•Regular phone and e-mail contact is maintained between the two teachers.
•From time to time additional face-to-face lessons are arranged.
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Format of the lessons
Before each video-conferenced lesson the primary teacher uses a set of routines that have
been developed to prepare both the room and the class for the lesson. It is the job of twochildren to collect the equipment from a store cupboard and connect it to the school net-work point in the classroom. This is not a technically advanced operation. The camera unitis placed on a work surface at the front of the room facing the area where the class will besitting, the unit is plugged into the mains adaptor and also into the network point, themicrophone connection is checked and the microphone (which is very sensitive and effec-tive) is placed next to the camera unit. The digital projector and the unit are switched onand it is ready for use.
At the same time as the equipment is being made ready the rest of the class work together
to move desks and chairs to create an open area facing the camera, with chairs arranged atthe back of the space. Behind the chairs is a row of desks that are also used for seating. Theeffect is to have a tiered seating arrangement that gives the teacher conducting the lessonfrom the secondary school a good view of the whole class. The blinds are closed to removethe possibility of any glare affecting the view of the remote teacher.
When the class is seated and the equipment ready for use a short introduction to the les-
son is given by the primary teacher. The nature of the introduction varies but usuallyincludes a recap of the both the previous lesson and any follow-up work that has been cov-ered since the last lesson. The teacher, for example, may use the visual cues for certain wordsor ideas that were used in the last lesson and elicit responses from the children. The teachermight ask a few simple questions related to what has been learned previously, and ask theclass to repeat together some of the correct responses.
At the appointed time the teacher from the secondary school connects to the primary
school and after a short period of dialling and connecting noises, which signal to the classthat the lesson is about to begin, the teacher appears on the screen. The procedure for con-necting is a simple case of selecting the name of the school to contact and clicking on a “con-nect” icon. The dialling list is set up in advance.
The teacher greets the class in a well rehearsed way and the class respond accordingly.
For language teaching it is common practice to use the target language for as much of the
(Continued)
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lesson as possible. In many cases this is possible and the class are taught many of the words
and phrases of instruction that will be used regularly: listen; put up your hand; repeat afterme. The use of facial expression and gestures is important in language teaching. These arealso features of the teaching in the video-conferenced lessons. The teacher at the secondaryschool reported that she is sometimes inhibited from acting out some of the grander wordsor expressions, but she makes full use of body signals to encourage understanding. For exam-ple, when considering weather it is possible to act out “hot” or “cold” quite effectively whilstsitting in front of a video camera. The image displayed in the primary school is big, and clear,and the actions of the teacher are unmistakable.
The lesson will proceed with a recap of previous work covered, and a review of any tasks
which were set. Often the tasks will be to practise a conversation on the topic covered and beprepared to show the teacher. Before beginning any new content the teacher introduces theaims of the lesson in terms of what the children will be able to do by the end. For example:
•You will be able to ask what the weather is like.
•You will know four different weather phrases.
•You will know the difference between the present and the future.
The third aim does seem rather extravagant, especially if it is interpreted in the context
of being able to use the present and future tenses in the target language. However, by the
end of this particular lesson, in the context of weather and weather forecasting, the class
had a reasonable grasp of the way to express today’s weather and how to say what theweather would be like the next day. This was not the result of just one lesson, it was a resultof a short series of lessons on the topic, as would be expected.
A range of approaches to teaching is used and the expertise of the language teacher is
important for the successful progress of the lessons. Questions are asked and answered byindividuals, the class repeat words and phrases, they try out certain ideas and constructionswith partners and they are generally engaged and involved in a dynamic and lively lesson.When the teacher asks a question with the expectation that an individual will offer ananswer, the class are asked either to put up their hands, and the primary teacher nominatesa child to answer, or the secondary teacher, being equipped with a class list, asks a specificchild to answer – this is not a foolproof method because the teacher does not know the classwell enough, especially at first, to know if the child chosen from the list is actually present.However, this is not a big problem and if it should arise another child is soon nominated tosupply an answer.
In advance of the lesson there will have been an exchange between the two teachers. Often
this is short and conducted by e-mail, sometimes by a phone call. Resources to be used inthe lesson are usually sent to the primary school and these are used in a variety of ways.Sometimes to make a display which can be referred to during the teaching or in the follow-up session, sometimes as stimuli during the lesson or afterwards. The resources are often inthe form of pictures, with or without words, of possibly single word or phrase flash cards.The primary school teacher is also proactive in supplying resources in the form of posters orartefacts which further support the progress of the lessons.
The teacher conducting the lessons used a selection of video-conferencing specific techniques
to add interest and variety to the teaching. For example, she is able to indicate the “loudness”of a response that she would like to the stimulus of a picture or flashcard by holding it eitherclose to the camera or further away. The camera easily re-focuses on whatever it is presentedwith. Sometimes to increase the pace of a lesson it is possible to show words or pictures veryquickly, or to cover different parts of the word or image in order to provoke a response.90 Effective Teaching with Internet TechnologiesPritchard-3559-Chapter-05.qxd 5/10/2007 9:15 PM Page 90

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For some lessons one of the resident language assistants is able to contribute, or when
more experienced, take lessons on their own. This gives variety, which is useful, but more
importantly it gives the primary children access to a native speaker, something which ishardly ever available to learners at this stage.
Sometimes it is possible to arrange an extended experience, usually lasting for a whole day.
These extended experiences are designed to reinforce and consolidate the learning that hasso far taken place. They are also an opportunity for the teacher to see the children in a dif-ferent context and to get to know them a little better. The language assistants often organ-ise these sessions and undertake the teaching alongside the teachers in the primary school.
The children from the primary school also visit the secondary school and are taught by
teachers from both schools. They also make use of language labs at the secondary school. Forthe year 6 children who will be moving to the secondary school for year 7 these activitiesform a part of the process of preparation for transition.
Follow-up and preparatory work between each lesson
Between each lesson, which is usually just one week, there are certain additional activities
(apart from occasional brief planning contact and the exchange of resources between theteachers) which take place in the primary school. Some are simple routine-like opportunitiesfor practice, such as taking the register in French or Spanish, with the children respondingappropriately, or playing a simple guessing game when there is a little time to spare beforethe end of the day for example. Other activities are part of the planned progression of learn-ing. These activities are such things as completing short written tasks; taking time to revisitthe items of spoken language covered in the lesson and talking with a partner with the useof the resources from the lesson that are displayed in the classroom, developing and extend-ing, as well as revising, the vocabulary and constructions that have been introduced; look-ing at and listening to new vocabulary that will be covered in the next lesson. Occasionallyin the lessons the teacher will ask for a progress report of the intervening week’s activities;the primary children may on occasion hold up examples of their work, or the camera can bedirected towards a display in the classroom.
There is sometimes a need to miss a lesson and so the time between sessions is longer than
usual. These cancellations are usually as a result of some activity in one or other of theschools – a day trip, formal testing or exams – not for any technical reason. When a sessionis missed there is usually additional activity planned to ensure that any momentum that isbuilding up is not lost.
Teacher’s prior knowledge and language teaching experience
The primary school teacher has not had specific training for teaching a foreign language. After
more than two years involvement with this project she feels that if the need arose she wouldbe able to teach introductory Spanish to primary aged children, but she also said that thevideo conferenced lessons are so good, and the children respond so well to them that shewould prefer them to continue. Other teachers at the school who are less confident with eitherFrench or Spanish make it quite clear to the children that they too are in a learning situation.This is clearly the case, but as time passes they are becoming more able to offer support atthe same time as managing the lesson from the primary school end of the operation.
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Response of the children
The teachers report, and it is clear to observers, that the response of the children involved
is overwhelmingly positive. Everything about the manner of the children from the pointwhere they are told that it is time to prepare for a video lesson indicates their enthusiasm.They quickly and efficiently prepare the room and arrange the equipment and themselveswithout undue fuss. They participate in the introductory phase before the video connectionis made with interest and keenness, and they participate in the actual lesson in an equallyconstructive way. When asked about their views of the lessons the children show that theyboth enjoy and see the value of what they are experiencing. They are also eager to demon-strate their language knowledge and skills.
Views and response of the teachers involved
The primary school teachers involved also give the impression of enjoying the experience and
are clear about the value of the lessons. They say that the children are very well motivatedfor the lessons and the language that they are learning, and that this motivation and enjoy-ment has effects across the curriculum and the wider range of activities in the school. Theteachers also see the value, on a social and emotional level, of making and extending linksacross the primary and secondary phase divide.
Initially, when approached to take part in the video-conferencing language teaching, two
particular teachers had different responses. Both were a little apprehensive, both interestedin taking part, but the teacher who had no particular skill with the language felt that shewould not be able to coordinate the lessons well, or support the learning, especially in thefollow-up and preparation sessions. She now considers, having taken part in the work fornearly two years, that her position with regard to knowledge of the languages being taughtcould actually be a strength. Obviously she is no longer in the position of being a completebeginner with either Spanish or French, but her lack of more well developed skills is madeexplicit to the class and the idea of learning together is emphasised at each stage.
Evidence of learning
The process of assessing the learning that takes place is carried out both formally and infor-
mally. During the lessons the primary teacher is able, to a certain extent, to take a step backfrom the detail of the teaching that is taking place and act more as an observer. She is ableto note the responses of individuals and this helps her in targeting support at other times,or indeed developing extension opportunities for those who are able to make greater progressin some way. Other opportunities for assessment come at times when individuals or pairs ofchildren are asked to contribute to a particular activity – to share their exchanges with theclass, or recite or repeat phrases or sentences in response to questions or other stimuli. Thereis also the opportunity to look at any end products that result from any of the written tasksthat are set. There are other common activities, for example labelling a large diagram withpre-prepared labels, or even labelling items in the room. All of this adds to the assessmentof the learning that is taking place. There is also scope for simple testing and this is used,though only sparingly.
The teachers involved are clear that good quality learning, that is learning which is enjoy-
able and the content of which is internalised and understood, is taking place in the lessons,both during the video-conferenced lessons and the shorter follow-up sessions. It is also clear 92 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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Longer Term Projects, Communicating and Problem Solving 93
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to the observer that the children have learned a good deal and are capable of using what they
have learned in both familiar and less familiar situations. When speaking to the children andasking what they have learned they are able to list the topics that they have covered, theconstructions they have learned and the vocabulary that they are familiar with, and theyreadily speak the language, at a rudimentary level, but with a confidence that is often miss-ing from young language learners in secondary schools.
Pedagogical and theoretical considerationsWe will consider all of the case studies presented here not only within the simple context of
the classroom, but also within the framework of what has been discussed earlier concerningthe constructivist approach to learning, and the bearing that this has on pedagogy, and mostimportantly upon learning.
The prevailing received wisdom concerning learning is that the preferred approach is one
based upon constructivist principles. As we have seen, ICT use offers opportunities for thisstyle of learning, as well as other approaches that have been discussed earlier.
Language learning has a distinct pedagogical approach involving a good deal of listening
and speaking. In the introductory stages, there is less of an emphasis on writing than is
Table 5.3 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT related
lessons: Modern foreign languages and video-conferencing
Multiple perspectives
Pupil-directed goalsTeachers as coaches /checkbld Teacher in the classroom as an enabler.
Metacognition /checkbld Encouragement to think about how to “remember”new words; links to other similar words for example.
Learner controlReal-world activities and contexts /checkbld When the language assistant is involved in theteaching there is an added dimension of reality.
Knowledge construction /checkbld Each lesson involves a review of previous learning andthe subsequent development of the material covered.
Sharing knowledge /checkbld Between the teachers and the children and betweenthe children.
Reference to what pupils know already /checkbld Review of previous learning and experience.
Problem solving /checkbld This takes place to a limited extent when childrenare asked to use their newly acquired knowledge andvocabulary in different situations, for differentpurposes.
Explicit thinking about errors andmisconceptionsExplorationPeer-group learning /checkbld Partner work to practise and develop language.
Alternative viewpoints offeredScaffolding /checkbld By the use of specific materials and by carefulquestioning and encouragement by the range ofadults involved.
Assessment for learning /checkbld Formative assessment is carried out informallythroughout the lesson and has a bearing on thecontent and direction of the next and future lessons.
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94 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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Table 5.4 Modern foreign languages and video-conferencing: Other considerations/
features
Motivation /checkbld There was clear evidence of these features.
Enjoyment /checkbld The teacher reported that these features
Excitement /checkbld figure highly throughout the year.
Novelty /checkbld
Engagement /checkbld The lessons observed gave ample evidence
of the class being engaged and on-task duringthe session.
Development of work away from /checkbld Work is planned for the time between the
computer each video-conferenced lesson.Evidence of learning /checkbld Over time it is clear that good progress is madeby the class, with some individuals making
exceptional progress.
found in many other subjects studied by children of the same age. The approach taken in
language lessons generally, and in the lessons described in this case study are very muchwithin the realm of constructivism, and particularly well aligned with social constructivistapproaches to teaching and learning. Collaboration, discussion and a range of different inter-actions both between and within the whole group, including the adults involved in thesessions – always two teachers, sometimes two teachers and a language assistant, and in somecases with a primary school teaching assistant present who is able to participate in the activ-ities and offer appropriate support.
Does the use of the infrastructure of the internet in this example extend the possibil-
ities for learning beyond what would have been expected if the content of the lessonhad been covered in a more traditional way?
The answer to this question at a simple level is, “Yes”. Without access to the video-
conferencing facilities that were made available it is unlikely that the teaching wouldhave taken place at all. That is to say, the lessons depend entirely on the use of a video-conferencing link between the teacher in the secondary school and the class of primaryschool children.
Naturally language learning can, and does, take place in primary schools, and it would be
possible to achieve the same, or at least comparable results by teaching in a more traditionalway. (By “traditional” all that is implied here is teaching without the use of video-conferencing, and not what is sometimes used to described methods for teaching that wereprevalent in the past and were heavily teacher centred, and not based, to any great extent,upon constructivist approaches to learning.) The medium of video-conferencing though, inthis case, gives the opportunity for language teaching which could not otherwise take place;without access to the video-conferencing equipment, and the link between the two schools,there would be no access to the expertise of the secondary school language specialist, andcertainly no access to a native speaker assistant.
NB: The language teaching described here was undertaken as a part of a European funded
project “ MuStLearnIT: Using ICT for special subject distance learning in multigrade
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Case study 5.3 Children publishing their work – sports day on
the internet
School
One form entry suburban primary school.
Teacher
Female with three years teaching experience; ICT was a subject specialism in her three year
initial training.
Class
Year 6 (24 pupils)
Website
N/A
Background/Context
As part of the planning for the end of the year, this year 6 class teacher decided that she
would set up an activity that included the use of a multimedia presentation, digital still pho-tography, digital video photography, sound files, and the internet. She planned to have thechildren in her class working in pairs to produce a presentation based on the school sportsday, including both still and moving pictures and sound files, and upload the finished prod-ucts as web pages to the school website. (Accessible to parents and school only and protectedby a password.) The school had five digital cameras, five hand held digital video cameras andaccess to other cameras on loan from the LEA ICT support centre.
Teacher’s prior knowledge and experience
The teacher in this case study had wide and varied experience of the educational use of ICT.
As a student on a three year BA programme she took a specialist ICT route which meant thatshe studied the use of ICT in educational settings, the design and use of hardware, includinga very wide range of peripherals, video production and editing as well as other ICT relatedmodules alongside the standard ICT modules relating to teaching the core and foundationsubjects. Before beginning her initial training she had worked for 18 months as an ICT tech-nician in a secondary school. With this very strong background she had been able to makeextensive use of ICT across all of her teaching in the three years that she had worked at thisschool. She was now the school’s ICT coordinator and as such had organised after-school stafftraining sessions on a range of topics decided upon by the staff. Part of her responsibilityinvolved maintaining the school website. At the start of the following academic year sheplanned to begin a part-time MA in ICT and education.
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Children’s prior knowledge/experience
The children too had fairly extensive experience in the use of ICT to support their learning.
In their current class they had made regular use of word processing, spreadsheets, usedPowerPoint, both still and video digital cameras, desktop publishing, and a very wide rangeof subject-specific software to support literacy, numeracy and some of the foundation sub-jects. Two of the activities planned for in this project, which the class had no experience ofwere the use of sound files and the creation of web pages.
Design of the unit of work
The teacher explained that after the end of the statutory tests in year 6 there is often a
feeling amongst the pupils that primary school is all over and that they need not work anymore. This is not a widespread phenomenon, but in part at least, will be recognisable bymany primary teachers. Some have been known to refer to post-SATs year 6 pupils as“demob happy”. In order to counter this feeling amongst pupils, many schools like to planwork that is more out of the ordinary, but still relevant to the educational needs of theclass. It was for this reason that this project was planned, and also that it was plannedwith reference to the requirements of the national curriculum for English, as well as forICT. The aims that the teacher identified were partly related to the national curriculum forICT, but she also wanted to encourage drafting and revising, and the use of different stylesof writing.
The relevant extracts from the programme of study for key stage 2 English (QCA, 1999) are
included here:
Composition
1. Pupils should be taught to:
a. choose form and content to suit a particular purpose
b. broaden their vocabulary and use it in inventive ways c. use language and style that are appropriate to the reader d. use and adapt the features of a form of writing, drawing on their reading e. use features of layout, presentation and organisation effectively.
Planning and drafting
2. To develop their writing on paper and on screen, pupils should be taught to:
a. plan – note and develop initial ideas b. draft – develop ideas from the plan into structured written text c. revise – change and improve the draft d. proofread – check the draft for spelling and punctuation errors, omissions and
repetitions
e. present – prepare a neat, correct and clear final copy f. discuss and evaluate their own and others’ writing.
The teacher also had other, less formal, aims in mind. She wanted to give opportunities for
all of the children to extend their knowledge and skills in the area of ICT. She wanted themto experience a different way of working, which involved increased autonomy and workingto a fixed deadline. She also wanted them to enjoy the creative processes involved.96 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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Longer Term Projects, Communicating and Problem Solving 97
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During the time between the end of the key stage 2 statutory tests (SATs) early in the
summer term and the school sports’ day the teacher planned to revisit, and in one case
introduce, all of the software and equipment that would be needed to enable the children,working in pairs, to produce a set of web pages, including sports reports, still and movingimages, sound recordings and written content. The plan was to work towards having pages
ready and waiting for when the sports’ days took place, and then very quickly add newcontent to the pages and upload them to the school website very soon after the event. Theschool would have two sports’ days, one for the lower and one for the upper school. The classwould be divided into two teams, one to cover each of the two events.
The teacher was very keen to encourage independence and to this end was eager not to
prescribe the content of the pages. She did however want there to be as much variety as pos-sible and spent time with the class looking at both newspaper and internet news coverage ofsporting events. In particular she was keen for them to consider including comments fromparticipants, and to make as much use of different media as possible.
The introductory lessons gave opportunities for the class to remind themselves about many
of the skills that they had used over the year. In the computer suite different short taskswere set, including such things as:
•produce a three slide presentation, including pictures that you have taken around the
school; add a sound file to give a short commentary
•record a video interview with an imaginary football star about a match he has justplayed in
•create a web page which has pictures and links to other sites
•scan examples of the school sports’ day certificates and create a presentation to displaythem; add an audio commentary if there is time
•create a web page to provide links to external sites that give information about theevents that will be taking place on sports’ day.
After all of the above had been practised the final task leading up to the actual day was to
create a web page that included all of the background information for the day, and have it readyto import the files – text, pictures and video clips, all produced and created during the afternoon.
For all of the above activities the teacher gave an introduction. In the cases where the chil-
dren were familiar with the software and the processes involved this was usually a short partof the lesson. In the case of using sound files a more detailed explanation and demonstra-tion was given.
The teacher had arranged to have extra time in the computer suite leading up to the
events, and to have exclusive use of the computer suite for the days immediately followingthe sports’ days. The two teams would be given a free hand as to how they worked as longas they were able to meet a set deadline, much in the way that news organisations have dead-lines for publications and broadcasts.
By the time the sports’ days were approaching, all of the groups had their blank reports
prepared. Web pages and multimedia presentations with names such as, “Danny and Steve’sSports Report”, were ready for final editing and to be uploaded to the appropriate places onthe school website. The teacher had made the necessary preparations to allow the new con-tent to be accessible as soon as possible after the day.
The end products were very good. There were six pages relating to each of the two sports’
days and they all included the full range of media and content that the teacher was hoping
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for. For some groups there had been occasional technical difficulties and at each stage the
teacher was on hand to assist. She also offered herself as a final proofreader to provide a lastquality assurance gateway. For much of the time she was not called upon, but as the dead-lines approached she was expected to be able to read every group’s final copy and solve allof the last minute technical problems. She enlisted the help of one of the school’s teachingassistants and two parents as support for the second event, which meant that there was morehelp available in the last stages of the work.
Response of the children
The class worked reasonably well on this project. They seemed to appreciate the flexibility
that they were given, which was, for them, in marked contrast to the working environmentof the preceding weeks, which had been highly focused on preparation for the statutory endof key stage tests.
They clearly felt that they were working on something important and this feeling was
increased by the fact that they were out and about in the school, contacting and interview-ing individuals and video recording almost everything that was even partially relevant to thework in progress. The fact that the end products of their work was destined for an onlineaudience added to the importance of what they were doing. One group clearly considered thattheir work and subsequent published reports were very important:
Child A: It’s got to be good … the best, ’cos it’s for everyone …
Child B: It’s like we’re doing it for … the news … the telly… if it’s no good they’ll laughat us.98 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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Longer Term Projects, Communicating and Problem Solving 99
Views and response of the teacher
The teacher was concerned at times that the work would not be as good as she wanted it to
be. She thought that there was a lot of activity with very little to show for it at times, evendescribing it as “chaotic”, and describing the class as “seeming to work without direction”.
At times when she was most concerned about the progress of the work she called the class
together and held what she called a “progress meeting”. Each group reported back on whatthey had done so far and what their next plans were. She found this to be a very useful devicefor refocusing the class, and emphasising the need to be ready for the events and then, later,to be able to meet the deadlines. This technique of injecting urgency is one of the lessonsthat she said the project had taught her.
She also learned about the difference that a real audience can make to the attitude of the
children. She considered this a powerful means of motivating children to take their work seri-ously and to try very hard.
The end products, the presentations and associated web pages were, in her view, excellent.
This view was shared by many others, including the head teacher and many of the parentswho were able to comment after looking at the results on the school website.
To organise and, especially, to monitor the work of this project was very time consuming,
and at times, very tiring. However, it is something that the teacher considered to be ofincredible value and something that she would certainly use again, though perhaps withmore time set aside to avoid some of the difficulties that came about as a result of the con-straints imposed by the short timescale of the project.
Evidence of learning
In a class debriefing session the teacher asked the question, “What have you learned?” The
range of topics covered by the answers (each child was asked to contribute) was very wide.The answers can be divided into three approximate groups: technical, language related andcooperating. There were one or two interesting, but less important responses, such as: “Thenames of the children in the Reception class.” Some responded with answers that s howed
that they had learned more about the use of specific software and also specific hardware –web page creation software for example, and the use of the digital video cameras. Theresponses concerning language ranged from the fairly straightforward how to spell “athlet-ics”, to one or two relating to more journalistic ideas such as using as many names in a reportto, “… make them feel important” and, “Long headlines are rubbish.”
There was a good level of agreement when a particular answer struck a chord with the oth-
ers in the class. The boy who spent a very long time recording sound bites from as many com-petitors as possible commented that, “… it’s … fun being a reporter.” There was a chorus ofassent from the rest of children.
When asked about writing for an audience of newspaper readers there was agreement, at
least, that this style of writing had to be different, and give as much information as possi-ble in a short space.
The teacher was able to look back at her initial learning objectives, relating to the pro-
grammes of study for both ICT and English, and see that they had for the most part been metand in some cases exceeded. In her assessment, she was able to identify learning gains forall of the children across the full range of her objectives.
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Does the use of the infrastructure of the internet in this example extend the possibil-
ities for learning beyond what would have been expected if the content of the lessonhad been covered in a more traditional way?
For many years schools have worked on newspaper style reporting and have produced
excellent school or class newspapers. Before the time of photocopiers or word processors goodquality news sheets were written by hand, or by typewriter, and duplicated on either a 100 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
(Continued)
Table 5.5 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT related
lessons: Children publishing their work
Multiple perspectives /checkbld A range of different styles of report were looked at
in the introductory stages.
Pupil-directed goals /checkbld Individuals made decisions about how to approachtheir work – how to gather information, how topresent it.
Teachers as coaches /checkbld In the use of the technology, and also in the styleof writing.
MetacognitionLearner control /checkbld The class dictated most of what went on after theinitial input from the teacher. This concerned theteacher a little, when little progress seemed to bebeing made.
Real-world activities and contexts /checkbld
Knowledge construction /checkbld
Sharing knowledge /checkbld
Reference to what pupils know already /checkbld
Problem solvingExplicit thinking about errors and /checkbld Proofreading and “reading partners” highlighted
misconceptions certain errors.ExplorationPeer-group learning /checkbld
Alternative viewpoints offeredScaffolding /checkbld From the teacher. Use of technology, modelling writing.
Assessment for learning /checkbld
Primary sources of data /checkbld
Table 5.6 Children publishing their work: Other considerations/features
Motivation /checkbld Clear throughout.
Enjoyment /checkbld
Excitement /checkbld
Novelty /checkbld
Engagement /checkbld
Development of work away from /checkbld
the computer
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(Continued)
spirit duplicating machine or an ink duplicator. In more recent years some primary schools have
produced video footage of news broadcasts created with one camera and with no editingfacilities. The distribution has been limited to the number of copies made, or in the case of thevideo productions, to just one copy. This project has moved forward a very great distance.The means of production has changed almost beyond recognition and the publication, or dis-tribution, has (potentially at least, as the finished web pages were restricted to the schooland its associates) become a world wide issue.
The project depended heavily on new technologies and, in the case of publication, the exis-
tence of the internet and access to the school’s intranet by those with the correct permission.
The teacher’s enthusiasm for, and expertise with, the technology involved was the initial dri-
ving force behind the project. Certainly the teacher would not have wanted to pursue the workwithout the eventual publication on the school’s intranet. This is not to say that the work couldnot have taken place without this eventuality, but for this teacher the polished presentationsand other features being uploaded and made available was very important. It is not clear thatshe would have planned work of this nature for the class at this time of the school year with-out knowing that the final result would be internet access to the end products.
Schools could easily plan to produce news reports and present them in multimedia presen-
tations; they are also able to use digital video technology to film and edit similar material.This would, no doubt, prove interesting and motivating for the children involved, but theextra dimension of knowing that they can sit at home and show their work to family andfriends extremely easily was an important factor in the success of this work.
Case Study 5.4 International recipe exchange via e-mail
School
Well-equipped two form entry primary school in a suburb of a large city.
TeacherFemale with 15 years teaching experience: particular interest in and expertise with ICTClassYears 5 and 6 (27 pupils)WebsitesGlobal Leap: www.global-leap.com/
Global Gateway: www.globalgateway,org.uk
Background/Context
Contact with the schools involved was initiated by the UK school and arranged partly via a
website managed by the British Council, which encourages international contact between
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schools. (British Council, 2006) Through this website schools in France and Spain were
contacted. The Spanish school had an existing link with the school in Poland, and the schoolin Japan was invited to take part as it had been visited by the teacher organising the projectas part of a different international project the previous year. The teacher had been involvedin a number of similar projects over the last few years and she was very keen to begin workwith a new class on a different project.
Teacher’s prior knowledge and experience
The teacher was very experienced with the use of ICT across the board. She was the school’s
ICT coordinator and took a lead in the school through her involvement in a very wide rangeof ICT use both within the curriculum and as an extra curricular activity. For example, shehad made extensive use of video-conferencing to support a range of different curriculumareas, and she organised a “Fantasy Football League” as a regular lunchtime activity.
Children’s prior knowledge/experience
The children in the class concerned, as with all of the children at this school, had well devel-
oped computer skills and had used ICT extensively across the whole curriculum during theirtime at the school. They had been part of a video-conferencing project for teaching Frenchand Spanish, and have had e-mail contact with schools in other countries. The school hadvery good facilities for ICT and the staff were committed to its use. All of the children hadthe use of a computer at home and most of them had experience of using the internet intheir own time. The class’s experience with recipes and cooking in school was limited.
Design of the unit of work
The stated aim of the project was:
“To produce an international recipe book with children’s favourite recipes. The recipes are
to be tested and evaluated by the children who will have the opportunity to include theircomments in the book.”
The overarching aim was expanded by the addition of six objectives that would be met by
the project:
1. For five schools to work together on a joint project in order to promote international
awareness.
2. To give children the opportunity to celebrate aspects of their own culture as well as
appreciate that of others.
3. To give children the opportunity to learn how to write instructional texts in a realistic
context.
4. To allow children to evaluate instructions.
5. To encourage the use of ICT.6. To increase cooperation between five schools at all levels.
The organisation of the project was relatively straightforward. The plan was put forward
by the UK teacher and agreed upon, with minor alterations, by the partner schools. Atimescale was established (see below) and the work began almost immediately.102 Effective Teaching with Internet TechnologiesPritchard-3559-Chapter-05.qxd 5/10/2007 9:15 PM Page 102

Longer Term Projects, Communicating and Problem Solving 103
The final version of the instructions for participating schools is shown below.
The book will have recipes categorised as follows:•snacks/starters
•main courses
•desserts
•cakes/breads.
Each school should aim to submit a maximum of two recipes for each category. Each
recipe should be typed as an A4 Word document on approximately two thirds of thepage, leaving a space at the bottom for evaluation by another school. The ingredi-ents should be in metric measures where possible.
Please see attached example of a finished recipe. Note that the comments from
another school will be added in the third phase of the project, so initially therecipes should be sent with an empty space at the bottom.
Schools should decide on how they select the recipes to submit, for example they
could all come from one class or they could be chosen by different classes.
When schools receive the recipes that have been allocated to them for evalua-
tion, they should note that it is not essential for a whole class to test them. Smallgroups could do the evaluation or individuals could try them at home and sharetheir comments with their classmates.
Deciding upon which recipes to include was a matter of discussion and negotiation within
the class. The teacher assisted with this process and set some minimal conditions to do withthe probable availability of ingredients and the ease of preparation.
The part of the project that required most organisation was the conduct of the trials of the
recipes. The UK teacher was keen for full participation by the class and this meant a gooddeal of care with the use of equipment and the supervision of the young cooks. The schooldid not have a fully equipped classroom designated as a cooking area, as is the case with allprimary schools, but there was a practical room with enough space for small groups to work.This meant that the actual cooking took place over the space of a few days, and it necessi-tated the use of teaching assistants to ensure that both the groups cooking and the remain-der of the class were properly engaged and supervised.
(Continued)Phase Date Action
Phase 1 9–30 January Schools to choose recipes, type up and e-mail to lead
school in the UK.
Phase 2 30 Jan–10 Feb UK teacher to send 4–8 recipes to each school to
evaluate.
Phase 3 10 Feb–17 Mar Schools to evaluate recipes and add comments to
bottom of recipe document.
Phase 4 17–31 March UK teacher to collate recipes and produce final
version of book.
Phase 5 3 April Copies of completed recipe book to be distributed to
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Response of the children
The response from the children in the UK was overwhelmingly positive. The teacher did a very
good job of encouraging interest by, for example, keeping the class up-to-date with therecipes as they arrived, and talking about the schools and their very different settings. Therewas also clear excitement in anticipation of the time when the cooking and tasting wouldtake place.
The cooking and subsequent tasting and evaluating was taken very seriously by the chil-
dren. They readily accepted the need for such things as hand washing, preparing the work-ing area and cleaning up afterwards. 104 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
Figure 5.10 One of the recipes from the UK school; evaluated by the Spanish School(Continued)Pritchard-3559-Chapter-05.qxd 5/10/2007 9:15 PM Page 104

Longer Term Projects, Communicating and Problem Solving 105
(Continued)
The class were particularly interested in the comments from the other schools relating to
the recipes that they had submitted for testing. Some of the children were surprised at the
ability of the others to communicate in what seemed like good English, others were able topoint out some of the small mistakes in language. They were impressed, nonetheless, withthe use of English when it was pointed out that none of them would be able to write in anyof the other languages involved.
Views and response of the teachers involved
The teacher was very enthusiastic about this project, which was characteristic of all of her
work. She had been involved in many innovative projects making use of ICT and consideredthe international dimension to the experiences that children have to be an important andintegral element of their education.
The teacher considered that setting up the project was a straightforward process, and
spoke highly of the facilities of the Global Gateway website (www.globalgateway.org.uk) andthe ease with which contacts can be made.
The opportunity for the children to take part in cooking was something that also pleased
the teacher. Although there are opportunities, under the heading of “design and technol-ogy”, for exploring food and cooking, it was not something that was ever tackled at thisschool. This project allowed for some of the points from the national curriculum for designand technology to be covered, for example, considering and learning about “… safe proce-dures for food safety and hygiene”. (QCA, 1999)
The teacher was very pleased with the response of the children and she was sure that the
success of the project was very closely related to the immediacy of the communication.Clearly a project of this nature could have been undertaken without the use of e-mail, butthe whole process would have been far more protracted and the possibility of children losinginterest would have been obvious.
The end product was also something that the teacher was justifiably proud of. The
“International Recipe Book” which resulted from the work was a collection of over 40 recipes,divided into snacks, main courses, desserts and cakes and sweets. The layout of each entry wasto a simple template, including the recipe, one or two illustrations, an evaluative comment andphotographs of the children involved in the cooking or the tasting. Each entry took up just onepage of the book. The introduction was short and to the point and set the context for the recipesand comments that followed. The finished book was colourful, attractive and expertly bound.
In keeping with the teacher’s attitude to her work, she felt that it was an extremely worth-
while project to have been involved in and she would certainly repeat the work, or some-thing similar, in future years.
Evidence of learning
When considering the learning that had taken place the teacher initially stressed the enjoy-
ment that the work had generated: “They loved it … everything about it seemed to be fun.Especially the tasting and testing.” It was also possible to identify specific areas of learningassociated with the work. Firstly, knowledge of the world, by thinking about the locations ofthe schools involved, and the differences between the places where the recipes came fromand the UK. There was no formal plan for developing this aspect of the work, but it wasclear from short times of discussion about the countries that there was interest and an
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increase in knowledge. Secondly, knowledge concerning food in different countries and insight
into cultural differences. The third category of learning involved the practice and learning ofa range of skills associated with cooking. These were in many cases at a fairly low level of dif-ficulty, but for many of the children involved it was the first time that they had been intro-duced to them. The skills included such things as: using a sharp knife to cut ingredients, usingmeasuring equipment, peeling potatoes, and even in some cases using a can opener. Some ofthe vocabulary associated with cooking was also introduced and in some cases discussed:blend, dice, garnish. Some ingredients were also new to some of the class: tofu, asparagus.
The end products, both the specific item of food and the evaluations, also showed evidence of
learning, practising skills of food preparation and of writing concisely for a particular audience.106 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
Table 5.7 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT related
lessons: International recipe exchange via e-mail
Multiple perspectives
Pupil-directed goalsTeachers as coaches /checkbld Particularly at the stage of cooking.
MetacognitionLearner controlReal-world activities and contexts /checkbld Real “around the world” contexts.
Knowledge construction /checkbld
Sharing knowledge /checkbld Both within the groups for cooking, and with theothers involved via e-mail.
Reference to what pupils know already /checkbld The new recipes could be related to what wasalready known, and compared to similar foodknown to the class.
Problem solving /checkbld To a limited extent, especially when ingredientswere not obtainable.
Explicit thinking about errors and misconceptionsExplorationPeer-group learning /checkbld The groups for cooking worked and shared welltogether.
Alternative viewpoints offeredScaffolding /checkbld Template for writing out a recipe simply andconcisely was provided. Varying levels of supportwere given during the cooking.
Assessment for learning
Primary sources of data /checkbld The recipes and the ingredients.
Table 5.8 International recipe exchange via e-mail: Other considerations/features
Motivation /checkbld The class were generally well motivated andenjoyed the work.
Enjoyment /checkbld
Excitement /checkbld They became more excited at the time for tasting.
Novelty /checkbld It was a novelty at two levels, firstly thecommunication with other far off schools, andalso actually cooking at school.
Engagement /checkbld High throughout.
Development of work away from /checkbld The cooking and tasting.
the computer
Evidence of learning /checkbld Yes, though not formal assessment.(Continued)Pritchard-3559-Chapter-05.qxd 5/10/2007 9:15 PM Page 106

Does the use of the internet in this example extend the possibilities for learning
beyond what would have been expected if the content of the lesson had been coveredin a more traditional way?
As with other projects which rely on contact with others, it is possible that this project
might have taken place without access to rapid electronic communication. However theteacher is certain that this project would not have been viable without e-mail. Using otherforms of communication would have detracted so much from the immediacy, excitement andinterest, which was contributed to by the very swift responses, that the teacher consideredthe project would not have been worth pursuing except by e-mail.
The possibilities for exchange and communication added an important dimension to the
work. The teacher said that, “It was knowing that the recipes came from real people in realschools that made a big difference to the class’s interest … we could have got recipes froma book, but it wouldn’t have been so good.”
Another motivator was the food preparation and most importantly the food tasting.
Although many of the children had travelled to France and Spain, they were not able to com-ment in detail on any of the local food. Being able to make, taste and comment upon, know-ing that the comments were directed at a real audience, gave the work an added importanceand authenticity, which in turn contributed to its success.
Case study 5.5 Using a webquest
School
Semi-rural one form entry primary school.TeacherMale with two years experience.
Class
Year 5 (26 pupils)
Websites
Webquest UK: www.webquestuk.org.uk/
Kent National Grid for Learning – history section: www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/subjects/history/webenquiry/greeks/index.html
Background/Context
Before describing the progress of this project it is important to outline the basic structure
and use of a webquest. A webquest is an online resource that presents information, tasks andlinks for children to use when working on a particular topic.
(Continued)Longer Term Projects, Communicating and Problem Solving 107
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108 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
(Continued)
A webquest can be of any size, one or two pages, or a set of many more, and consists of an
introductory web page that sets out the structure, content and activity. Children are set to work
on a particular project, given information, tasks and links to further supporting informationand expected, with appropriate teacher support, to fulfill what is asked of them. Webquestsvary greatly in their style and intentions, some are expansive and designed to provide the back-bone of the work in a particular topic for a whole school term; others are less grand and serveto introduce a topic, to reinforce other activities or to act as a conclusion to work carried out.
Webquests are built around a central structure, which consists of a series of headings. For
each heading there is an expectation that certain information will be given and that certaintasks and related learning activities will be set, which will be completed by the children fol-lowing the quest. The Webquest UK website says:
All webquests follow a clearly defined structure. Some uses of the internet stop atthe point where pupils locate web resources. Webquests require pupils to recon-struct their learning into a report or presentation of their own.(Webquest UK, undated)
This clearly indicates an approach to learning activities that is wholly in line with con-
structivist learning theory.
Webquests can differ widely from each other. There is no fixed and inflexible approach that must
be taken, and there are no rules for their creation. There is however a structure that all webquestsfollow. The structure is not a limiting factor and there is scope for developing activities in manydifferent ways. If account is taken of the context of the work, attention is given to pre-existingknowledge, and the social constructivist notions of collaboration and co-operation are put intopractice, the power of the webquest to promote enjoyable and effective learning can be great.
The headings in the structure of a webquest are:
•A title – The name of the webquest. This can be something designed to inspire interest,or a simple description of the content of the quest.
•An introduction – This is often short and sets the scene for what is to come.
•Process – What to do. This section sets out the task or tasks which are to be completed.Often a good deal of guidance is given and suggestions for how to complete the tasks.
•Resources – This section can vary enormously. There can be documents, diagrams, photo-graphs, maps, sound files, video clips, access to primary sources. In short, anythingwhich will be needed to complete the tasks. In most cases the resources are embeddedwithin the structure of the webquest, but there are also opportunities for links to bemade to other locations on the internet where access can be made to sources of infor-mation needed to complete the tasks.
•Evaluation – In this section the success criteria are made very clear to the children. Theyare told what it is that they have to do in order to have completed the quest successfully.This approach to teaching and learning is gaining a strong foothold in schools. If childrenare clear about what is expected of them it is far more likely that they will be able to achieveit. In many classrooms throughout the country teachers write the learning objective on theboard at the beginning of lessons and draw the attention of the class to it. In this way, itis thought, children are better able to understand what it is they are doing and to what end.
The Greek Worship webquest
This webquest is found on the website of the Kent National Grid for Learning (NGfL
www.kented.org.uk). It is an example of what Dodge (1997) has named a “short termPritchard-3559-Chapter-05.qxd 5/10/2007 9:15 PM Page 108

webquest”. It is designed to be completed in a relatively short space of time, probably no
more than two or three lessons. The teacher actually allowed a little longer than this, aim-ing to work on it for half of a term. To supplement the work from the webquest he hadplanned for groups of children to design and make posters to advertise particular gods andreligious events from the time, which would, to a certain extent, bring together the workcovered online.
The webquest is designed for year 5 children following the history Unit 14 “Who were the
Ancient Greeks?” (DfES/QCA, 1997–2006 ) The activities centre around Ancient Greek religionand help the children investigate who the Ancient Greeks worshipped and why.
A series of questions is presented on a web page. After each question is a link to a web
resource where the children are able to find information that will help them write answersto the questions.
Not all the answers are directly contained in the resources. The children are encouraged,
both by the suggestions on the site, and by the teacher, to infer answers from the historicalsources presented. Some questions ask the children for their opinions and for explanations.
There are two printable sheets to help the children record their findings. They are to be
given to the children before they begin the enquiry.
There is a page for teachers associated with the webquest that gives a clear picture of the
way that it links to the national curriculum for history, and the way in which the quest hasbeen planned and should be used.
The teachers’ page was found at: www.kented.org.uk/ngfl/subjects/history/webenquiry/
greeks/index.html
(Continued)Longer Term Projects, Communicating and Problem Solving 109
Figure 5.11 Opening page of the Greek Worship webquest(Continued)Pritchard-3559-Chapter-05.qxd 5/10/2007 9:15 PM Page 109

Teacher’s prior knowledge and experience
The teacher had been introduced to webquests as part of his initial training. He had com-
pleted an assignment that involved evaluating a “ready made” webquest, and planning awebquest of his own. He had been impressed by the potential of this style of work and hadbeen looking for an opportunity to use one with his class. This particular history topic hadgiven him the opportunity.
In his teaching he uses the internet occasionally, for example he has shown images of a
Caribbean island in the context of a geography topic, and he has used some online activitiesin literacy lessons. He is a competent and confident user of ICT, both in his professional andpersonal life.
Children’s prior knowledge/experienceThe children have used ICT throughout their time at this primary school, in the earlier years
this was not straightforward as the facilities were poor. Three years ago a new room was madeavailable for a computer suite and since then they have been able to use the room on aweekly basis. The class were generally competent with the applications that were used andthey were still enthusiastic about the use of the “new” computer room. All of the childrenhad access, of one sort or another, to a computer at home and occasionally they were ableto find information from the internet to support their work in school.
Using the “Who Did the Greeks Worship and Why?” webquestThe children were introduced to the webquest, after a brief question and answer session
about the Ancient Greeks. The only points of reference that the teacher was able to estab-lish were to do with the Olympic Games and vague recollections, based on films such as“Jason and the Argonauts”. Two children had visited Greece for a holiday, but were not ableto contribute anything related to Greece in ancient times.
It was explained to the class that in some cases it would be necessary to read quite a lot
of information in order to be able to answer the questions. The teacher was keen to help todevelop skills of using information effectively and also keen to avoid any hint of simply copy-ing text from the page of information to the answer sheet. To this end he suggested twothings for the class to try. Firstly, that they should print out the information and then usea highlighter pen to show anything on the page that was relevant to the answering of thequestion. Secondly, use the highlighted sentences to write an answer, including all of thepoints that actually answer the question.
There are two routes through the webquest and the teacher set one group of children,
about half of the class, along one route, “Temples and sacred places”, and the remainder ofthe class along the route following “Ancient Greek gods and goddesses”. He asked the lower
ability children to follow the “Gods and goddesses” route as it was a more straightforward setof tasks and the reading requirement both less challenging and shorter. The more able groupwere asked to work on the “Temples and sacred places” route and expected to have at leaststarted to work on the second route before the end of the project. What actually happenedwas that all of the class worked on both parts of the webquest. The more able children foundthe first section reasonably straightforward and the second section a little easier, while theleast able in the second group struggled a little and were given appropriate support (addi-tional teacher input and simplified texts) with the “Gods and goddesses” section and did notattempt the other section.110 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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Longer Term Projects, Communicating and Problem Solving 111
(Continued)
Response of the children
The children were attentive during the introduction to the webquest, and asked a lot of ques-
tions. They were enthusiastic and keen to begin their work. To begin with they worked rea-sonably well, the more able children concentrated well and completed a lot of work in thefirst session. By the time of the second session the interest of the class seemed to fall off alittle, although a group of children working on the “Temples and sacred places” section con-tinued to work very hard. The remainder of the class needed to be reminded to get on andwere in need of more support than the teacher had anticipated.
When asked specifically about what they thought about the webquest work, the majority
of the children spoken to said that they liked the work, that they liked the idea of a webquestand that it had been enjoyable. One or two spoke honestly about the difficulties that they hadfound with the work, agreeing that it was: “Okay, if the teacher was there to help.”
One child was so enthusiastic about webquests that he suggested that he should be allowed
to create a webquest for the rest of the class to use, an idea which seemed to interest the teacher.
Views and response of the teacher
Overall the teacher considered that this particular webquest was not wholly suitable for his
class, especially the lower achievers. He considered that it was at the right level for thehigher achievers and this group benefited from the work. He was disappointed that so muchof his time was needed to support the least able children, despite having made provision fortheir support with customised materials.
Some of the texts that the links referenced were too difficult for some of the children to
deal with, for example “The Acropolis of Athens”. The teacher spent some time simplifyingthe text of one or two of them and giving printed copies to some groups.
He was surprised to find that some of the links did not work as they were supposed to,
even though they had worked when he first looked at the site. In all cases the user was auto-matically redirected to the new location of the page.
He considered this, his first use of a webquest, to be an important learning experience. He
realised that to be fully successful a webquest must cater for all of the needs of all of theclass. In particular there must be adequate differentiation built in to the tasks.
As part of his professional development targets, agreed with his head teacher, he will work
on the development of a webquest of his own for use with the class that he will have nextyear. He has come to the view that webquests are valuable tools, likely to lead to enthusiasmand to effective learning, and he is keen to develop their use, but he has also arrived at theconclusion that the best webquests will not be “off the peg” as he put it, but “made to mea-sure”. By this he meant that the best webquests are probably those created for a specific classby a teacher who knows them well, and is able to cater fully for their needs.
Evidence of learning
In the final session of this project, when the last tasks were being completed and the posters
being finalised, the teacher managed to speak to all of the children in the class in orderto be able to make informal assessments of the learning outcomes of the work. He wantedto establish if individual children knew more by the end of the project than at thebeginning – given the low base line of knowledge, this should not have been difficult to achieve.
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He also wanted to talk about the processes that they had been through in finding information
and then using it to answer the questions. He asked specifically about how they had man-aged to use the fairly long texts to help in the answering of the question.
It was clear that the children had learned factual information relating to the topic. They
were able to talk about particular aspects of the work, though sometimes at a simple level,using correct terms and names for example.
When talking about working with the information some of the children explained and
showed examples of the use of printed sheets and highlighting, and some agreed that thisapproach had been useful. Others were less well able to explain how they had worked.
In looking at the written responses it was clear in a minority of cases that some words had
been copied directly, but it did also seem that many of the children had been able to com-pile answers to the questions by combining elements from different places in the text, andin one or two cases from different sources.
Pedagogical and theoretical considerations112 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
Table 5.9 Characteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT related
lessons: Using a webquest
Multiple perspectives
Pupil-directed goalsTeachers as coaches /checkbld Yes, in how to use the webquest and in how to dealwith the long texts.
Metacognition /checkbld The teacher hinted at “a way of working”(highlighting sentences) and tried to get the classto think about how best to deal with texts whenlooking for specific information.
Learner control /checkbld Partly; individuals were able to make choices about whatto do next, and when to work away from the computers.
Real-world activities and contextsKnowledge construction /checkbld From a low starting point, knowledge was built up asthe tasks were completed.
Sharing knowledge /checkbld The posters allowed for a little passing on of what hadbeen covered by different groups.
Reference to what pupils know already /checkbld The teacher began by encouraging the class to thinkhard about what they already knew of the time. At thetime of the activity, it was very little.
Problem solvingExplicit thinking about errors and misconceptionsExploration /checkbld Time was allowed for exploring the webquest and forsome of the class, who asked specifically, outside of theconfines of the webquest, using Google for Kids tosearch out more information.
Peer-group learningAlternative viewpoints offered /checkbld There were some minor disagreements on factualmatters, these were mainly owing to misunderstandingof one sort or another.
Scaffolding /checkbld Teacher support was a feature of the project, especiallyfor the least able; customised materials were alsoproduced at a more appropriate level for some of the
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Does the use of the infrastructure of the internet in this example extend the possibil-
ities for learning beyond what would have been expected if the content of the lessonhad been covered in a more traditional way?
By definition, a webquest can only exist within the infrastructure of the internet. As with
many internet-mediated activities, it is possible that they could, most likely in a modifiedform, have been undertaken in other “non-internet” ways.
In the case of the webquest in this study, it would have been possible to organise for the
work to be carried out differently, but certainly not easy to do so. To gather together theresources that were available through the webquest and to have them simultaneously avail-able to, potentially, 13 pairs of children would not be possible. In the school in question theresources for teaching about the Ancient Greeks were limited to entries in a set of ency-clopaedias, and to four posters showing scenes from Ancient Greek life. It would have beenpossible to acquire resources, some purchased, and perhaps some on loan, but the breadthand quality of what was integrated into the webquest, as well as those items accessed by afew children separately, could not have been matched.
It is also the case that, despite a little flagging of interest from some of the class, the moti-
vation and engagement amongst the class was generally high. The teacher’s final view of thework was that it was beneficial, it worked on many levels but could have been more success-ful with more variation and differentiation. He also considered that it would not, at thattime, have been possible for him to carry out similar work in any other way.Longer Term Projects, Communicating and Problem Solving 113
Table 5.9 Continued
Assessment for learning /checkbld Based on his conversations with individuals the teacher
formed a clear idea of how he could develop improvedinformation handling skills. He went on to plan a series oflessons based on finding information in texts and how tomake good use of it.
Primary sources of data
Table 5.10 Using a webquest: Other considerations/features
Motivation /checkbld The use of a webquest was certainly
Enjoyment /checkbld a motivator for all of the class initially,
Excitement /checkbld and later for the most able in particular.
Novelty /checkbld There was a measure of enjoyment, excitement andnovelty, but this decreased as the project moved on,especially for the least able.
Engagement /checkbld Again, the most able engaged well, the least able less so.
Development of work away /checkbld There was some reference to other sources of information.
from the computer The posters were created away from the computers, and
based entirely on what had been learned.
Evidence of learning /checkbld The teacher felt satisfied that the class knew more aboutthe Ancient Greeks’ religion by the end of the project,and he also felt that some progress had been made with
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SUMMARY
As a means for communicating the internet surpasses everything that has gone
before. With the exception of the telephone, which has never really beenexploited as an educational tool, there has never been a means of immediate longdistance communication available for educational purposes. Now that the tech-nology has developed beyond its infancy in the 1990s there are a range of oppor-tunities being developed by creative teachers and encouraged by some sectionsof industry and commerce – the “Ask an Expert” service provided by somenational and multinational companies for example. There are also numeroussites offering “chat” and other contact for what are clearly educational purposes –the Homework Elephant for example, or the BBC Bite Size pages provided forexam help and revision at all levels.
The internet as a medium for the publication of children’s work has until
recently, perhaps, been overlooked. There have been some notable examples ofhigh profile school websites containing children’s work, but it is now becomingmore common for schools to put examples of children’s work on the school siteand in some cases whole projects are posted, projects such as the example ofsports reporting here. The internet provides a real location of work with arange of different audiences. For example, work can be posted, with permis-sion, to specific sites for the purpose of showcasing school work; some muse-ums encourage schools to submit examples of work, similarly with art galleries;local newspapers sometimes have sites where real reports on real events writtenby school children are placed. There are many opportunities for publishing ona wide stage and there are also possibilities for local publication, as in theexample here, when the work was published on a restricted access section ofthe school website.
In terms of the pedagogy seen in the five case studies in this chapter, we
have seen even the youngest of the children, in the PSHE project, being encour-aged to work independently, being offered the opportunity to make choices,and being encouraged to collaborate at a high level – especially in the sportsreporting work. The teachers responsible for planning this work made verygood use of the internet, both as a source of material and a communicationtool, and also as a location for publication, and planned for the children towork in a range of constructivist and socially constructivist ways. At eachstage in these particular projects, and in many of the others reported in thisbook, children have been provided with opportunities to discuss and commu-nicate. The foreign language teaching example is perhaps a slightly differenttype of discussion and communication, but within the distinctive pedagogy offoreign languages teaching, the internet has served to stimulate and developskills and understanding which would not have been possible in the context ofthe school in question.114 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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To summarise:
•The capacity of the internet to mediate high quality communication of different
types (in particular, e-mail, video-conferencing, synchronous and asynchro-nous) has made it possible to develop projects that are simple and yet veryeffective, and allow in the cases described here for teaching to take place thatwould not otherwise have been possible.
•The internet is a source of project work, such as webquests, created by expe-rienced teachers and often designed to meet specific curriculum requirements.
•Many internet-based projects allow for a measure of choice and autonomy,which suits the methods and pedagogy of many teachers, and which is alsoappreciated by many children.
•The internet can be a source of activity and other material that allows forcertain work to be carried out, which would otherwise prove difficult tocomplete.
•Internet-based activities are usually created with specific pedagogical consid-erations in mind. The medium of the internet can be used equally to promotebehaviourist or constructivist learning – content can be approached in differ-ent ways in exactly the same way as a teacher might choose an approach toteaching without the use of ICT or the internet. The final choice of pedagogyrests with the teacher.
•Pupils are interested in and, in many cases highly motivated by, internetmediated activity and communication seems to rate more highly with manypupils than other internet uses.Longer Term Projects, Communicating and Problem Solving 115
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End Word: Effective
Teaching with the Internet
One of the intentions of this book is to explore some of the issues surrounding the
increasing use of the internet in schools. In an attempt to do this, some backgroundtheory has been discussed as has the current state of thinking about pedagogy as it relatesto what teachers perceive as their role in developing learning mediated by internet-basedresources. Another important issue that has been considered is the validity, integrity,reliability, trustworthiness, call it what you may, and the real educational value of mate-rial held on the internet and accessed for use in classrooms. This particular issue, whichcalls for the careful evaluation of anything to be used by pupils, is of particular impor-tance since the internet is an unregulated environment and resources of both very greatvalue can at times sit alongside materials with little or no value, or worse. The issue of“internet safety” has not been revisited here because this book is more to do with teach-ing and learning rather than ethical dilemmas and the ills of the world at large. Thereis a great deal of help available for this potentially big problem, probably most notablyfrom the UK government’s internet safety information service, hosted by the Bectaschools section (http://schools.becta.org.uk), the independent Internet Safety Foundation(www.isf.org.uk/) and the Get Safe Online site (www.getsafeonline.org/).
Another intention of the book is to bring to life elements of learning and pedagog-
ical theory in the context of planned internet use and also to analyse the intentions ofthe teachers involved and assess the value that may have been added in the movetowards accomplishing learning objectives by using an internet-based approach incomparison with any other.
By considering the range of different internet-mediated work exemplified in the pre-
ceding chapters it is clear to see that the internet is indeed a rich source of a great manyeducationally sound activities. It should be remembered that the examples here are avery small, and possibly even non-representative, sample of the whole. There is a gooddeal more useful and enjoyable material resident on the internet than can be looked athere. See companion website www.sagepub.co.uk/pritchard.
For the most part this book has not considered what is sometimes, mistakenly per-
haps, considered to be the main “educational strength” of the internet, that is, the easyaccess provided to an almost immeasurable amount of information. Certainly theinformation found on the internet is a valuable source for teachers and learners alike,but making use of the information in an effective way requires planning and a soundpedagogical underpinning. This has not been explored in any detail here, but is con-sidered in depth in an earlier volume. (Pritchard 2005)
If the summaries for each chapter are taken together and themes extracted it soon
seems clear that constructivist and social constructivist theory has influenced theprogress of the work described in all of the case studies of internet use. Even the activ ities6Pritchard-3559-Chapter-06.qxd 5/22/2007 8:13 PM Page 116

End Word: Effective Teaching with the Internet 117
designed to give the sort of solitary practice and repetition characteristic of more
behaviourist theory have been used in ways that encourage reference to prior knowl-edge, interaction with others, and a consideration of methods used – all elements ofconstructivist theory. So, even in contexts that seem to be skewed towards a behav-iouristic underpinning at the planning stage, the implementation and follow-upallowed for aspects of constructivist learning activity to flourish. Examples of this arethe repetitive multiplication tasks on the Quia website, and possibly the “Find a placein the world” work. The mapping exercises were not wholly behaviouristic, but thefact that the teacher stressed lone working and, at first, discouraged talk, took awaysome of the possibilities for collaboration and discussion. We have seen that in allcases talk is either required, or if not, becomes an important element of the engage-ment for those working in close proximity to each other. The natural tendency to share,question, challenge and generally work in a sociable way seems always to come to thefore. The sensible teacher, unless there are overriding reasons for quiet, realises thatthere is a place for what is often very positive interaction between learners.
In the cases where individual work was preferred by the teacher there always
seemed to be a time for discussion and sharing later. In plenary times the teachers oftenasked for experiences to be shared, methods to be explained, and for previous knowledgeor understanding to be applied and compared. In some cases the links betweenparticular aspects of work were highlighted by the children themselves – “This is justlike in Quia” – something which teachers like and try to encourage. It seems that wheninvolving the internet or any other computer-based work that is not shared in a whole-class situation, it is important to allow for a time to share what has been done, and to
discuss as a whole group any knowledge, ideas or skills practised and developed. It alsoseems that some teachers do this as a matter of course.
Even when web-based activities are wholly behaviouristic in nature, or can be
approached in that manner, teachers who would normally shy away from the “drilland practice” approach still choose to use them, but often in a modified form, andalmost always supported by more constructivist ideas and follow-up activities.
There seems to be no mistaking the motivational power of the use of the internet.
This phenomenon has been associated with computer use in general since computerswere first trialled in schools as far back as 1980, and there have been studies of thiseffect over the years, showing a high correlation between computer use motivationand the achievement of higher standards (for example, Cox, 1997). Despite sugges-tions that the novelty effect of computer use might gradually disappear, in the casestudies used here there seems to be evidence to the contrary. Motivation is generallyhigh (dropping off occasionally), leading to high levels of engagement – a measure ofsuccess, and the enjoyment derived from being fully engaged and achieving some suc-cess. In the view of the teachers, motivation, novelty and interaction involved in manyof the activities certainly played an important part in generating engagement, more sothan non-computer activities might have been expected to. The teachers also seem tobelieve that internet use led to more enjoyable and effective learning.
When use is made of the communications capabilities of the internet there seems,
from the experiences of the studies, to be an even higher level of motivation, especiallyif the communication is synchronous – happening in real time. With the video-conferenced language learning for example, the teacher reported that the class weremore attentive than usual and sustained the attention for longer than she would havepredicted. The receiving of messages by e-mail, even the anticipation, also seems toPritchard-3559-Chapter-06.qxd 5/22/2007 8:13 PM Page 117

lead to excitement. This is perhaps, again, a little surprising when we consider that a
number of the children involved had e-mail accounts of their own; even those claim-
ing to be regular users of e-mail and chat were clearly enthused by the use of e-mail in
the context of the recipe exchange example.
Many of the activities which we have looked at have had the effect of increasing the
amount of autonomy taken on by many of the children. The teacher working with thedecimal number problems on the “Builder Ted” pages wrote into her plans that shewould be available to offer support, but despite the occasional apparent need for sup-port she was not called upon. The children chose to look at the help and support facil-ities, or to talk to each other when they encountered a problem. If activities have ausable and easily accessible help and support facility, and as long as there is adult helpnearby, it is a positive advantage for a busy teacher dealing with different groups ofchildren if the children using the online activities are able to fend for themselves alittle. Well designed activities do have this facility, but it must not be taken for granted thata help page will be a good enough substitute for a teacher’s skill and insight. It wouldbe poor practice to leave children to their own devices when working and even if theydo not specifically request help, an efficient teacher will take an interest and perhapsuse well focused questions or other interventions to check on the progress being made.
Examples included here are of particular projects or teaching that would simply not
be possible without the sophistication of the internet – video-conferencing is a primeexample of this. Other developments in video-conferencing allow for experts in remotesettings – national museums or centres of excellence, to deliver one off lessons. In thisway access to valuable human resources, as well as other inanimate artefacts, locatedin centres of excellence for example, becomes possible.
The internet in itself does not dictate an approach to teaching. However it does
seem that the use of resources and remote activities mediated by the internet is morelikely to lead towards more socially constructivist learning activities, if that is the approachthat the teacher wants to adopt.
Teachers say that they have learned a lot about how children learn in “new” (to them
and to the teacher) situations. The importance of talk is the prime example of this, andhas been realised especially by the some teachers who had actually planned individual andquiet working conditions. It has been suggested earlier that there are of course times whenquiet learning activities are required and seen as important – to encourage concentration,silent reading, times for assessment, or need for calm in the storm from time to time.
REVISITING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CONSTRUCTIVIST
LEARNING THAT MIGHT BE PRESENT IN ICT RELATED LESSONS
For each of the case studies a set of characteristics relating to constructivist learning
was consulted and the planning, teaching and learning was measured against it. Someof the characteristics were present in abundance, some arose only occasionally andone, “Multiple perspectives”, only once. It was noted earlier that the seeking out anduse of information from the internet has not been a feature of the case studies; if it hadbeen, then the presence of multiple perspectives would have been more noticeable,according to the nature of the work of course, and the range of sources used.118 Effective Teaching with Internet TechnologiesPritchard-3559-Chapter-06.qxd 5/22/2007 8:13 PM Page 118

All of the case studies, no matter what the apparent underpinning theoretical posi-
tion might have been (either in the view of the initial designer of the resource, or in
the view of the teacher choosing to make use of it), provided the learners with featuresthat were unmistakably constructivist, and generated motivation, enjoyment, excite-ment, novelty and engagement. Tables 6.1 and 6.2 show the total number of timesthat each feature was recorded in the case studies. [The maximum number of occur-rences is 11, the number of case studies.]
These features can be ordered into a hierarchy of importance and, if asked, those in
a position to offer an informed opinion would doubtless have differing opinions of therelative importance of each of them. For this reason it is difficult to provide such a list,but for the purposes of this chapter the following four features will be placed at thetop of the list as being most desirable in lessons where ICT is used, and where con-structivism is the primary concern of the teacher in terms of learning and pedagogy:End Word: Effective Teaching with the Internet 119
Table 6.1 Number of times features of constructivist lessons with ICT recorded
in case studies
No. of times recorded for
Features of constructivist lessons with ICT all case studies
Multiple perspectives 1
Pupil-directed goals 6
Teachers as coaches 9
Metacognition 6
Learner control 9
Real-world activities and contexts 9
Knowledge construction 11
Sharing knowledge 11
Reference to what pupils know already 11
Problem solving 7
Explicit thinking about errors and misconceptions 7
Exploration 7
Peer-group learning 10
Alternative viewpoints offered 3
Scaffolding 11
Assessment for learning 5
Primary sources of data 5
Table 6.2 Number of times other considerations/features recorded in case studies
Other considerations/features
Motivation 11
Enjoyment 11
Excitement 11
Novelty 11
Engagement 11
Development of work away from the computer 11
Evidence of learning 11Pritchard-3559-Chapter-06.qxd 5/22/2007 8:13 PM Page 119

•knowledge construction
•sharing knowledge
•reference to what pupils know already
•scaffolding,
followed by:
•peer-group learning
•learner control
•real-world activities and contexts
•problem solving
•exploration.
These two groups do not lessen the importance of the remaining features, but are
probably the most important of the whole list. Of the other features used to measure
the value of the activities – motivation, enjoyment, excitement, novelty, engagement,development of work away from the computer, and evidence of learning – it is gener-ally agreed that all are desirable in all lessons. For example, we would all want to seeevidence of learning in lessons, and we would be hopeful that pupils enjoyed whatthey were doing. We also know that this is not always the case.
When we look back to the first group of four features placed at the top of the list it
is gratifying to see that all of the case studies included them. Obviously the degree ofpresence is not measured and if the actual detail is consulted it is sometimes the casethat there were supporting comments to the effect that there was “a little evidence”,“scaffolding was planned for but in the event none was provided” or “some” discus-sion (implying not very much).
The common thread running through all of the teaching reported here, apart from
the use of the internet, is the use of constructivist teaching and related pedagogy. Allof the case studies, including those that would actually lend themselves very well to afar more behaviouristic approach, benefit from the approaches either planned by theteacher, or which partially evolved during the course of the work.
The question, “Does the use of the infrastructure of the internet in this example
extend the possibilities for learning beyond what would have been expected if thecontent of the lesson had been covered in a more traditional way?” has been askedfor each of the case studies. In all of the ones included (and in those not includedsee companion website www.sagepub.co.uk/pritchard) the answer to this question is
always in the affirmative. In every case the teachers, whether new to internet useor more experienced, are clear that there were learning benefits and that the use ofthe internet in one way or another did lead to the learning objectives beingachieved in a way that at least matched other, non-internet related approaches. Inmany cases it is reported that the objectives were achieved in a better, morecomprehensive, way as a result of the use of the internet. It must be the case thatthere are forms of internet use that do not lead to improved learning, but in thecase studies considered here, which are not in the form of an exhaustive survey,none were found.
One teacher commented that: “If you get it right it’s amazing how they (the chil-
dren) respond … even those who you wouldn’t expect it from can surprise you withwhat they do … what they end up producing and what they learn.”120 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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THE INTERNET’S POTENTIAL FOR CREATING RICH
LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
The internet seems to have the potential to provide effective teaching in the cases
considered here. It is of course possible to teach without the use of the internet, but wehave seen here that there is great potential for improving and enlivening the learningexperiences of those involved. In educational literature the notion of a “rich learningenvironment” is often found, but there does not seem to be a clear single definition ofwhat is meant by this, although there is a tacit understanding by most of those involvedin teaching and writing about teaching. If we attempt to define the term based on what hasbeen written and suggested by others we can then consider the potential of the internet toprovide what we assume is desirable for learners, namely a rich learning environment.
Challenge, choice and space are the three elements of a rich learning environment
according to Education Testing Service (ETS), a non-profit making organisationinvolved in the promotion of effective learning (ETS, 2006). By “space” it is meant thatthere is scope and flexibility within the range of activity and work carried out. All threeof these elements are seen in different proportions across the case studies here. A learningenvironment that is designed to be interesting, appealing and also fun, is the definitionoffered by Tsang and McCracken (2004), and an influential report commissioned bythe Department of Education and Skills states that a rich learning environment is one“… which accesses and appeals to the different ways pupils learn.” (McBer, 2000)
The internet use described in this book stands up well when compared with the vari-
ety of definitions of rich learning environments with their different emphases. However,the simple addition of an internet-related activity or source of information to a lessonwill not, of itself, provide the sort of learning environment described above. The creationand maintenance of supportive, exciting and enjoyable learning experiences dependscritically upon the role of the teacher. Planning needs to take into account the manifoldneeds, interests, dispositions, learning preferences and desired learning outcomes relat-ing to the curriculum and to the group of children in question. The nature of the tasksset and the approach to be taken by the children – reading, writing, drawing, talking,groupwork and many more – is a crucial factor in the provision of learning environ-ments that are rich, and which lead to enjoyable and effective learning.
It does appear that by means of a variety of internet use to support learning it is
possible to create rich learning environments and in this way encourage effective learning.
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The internet is a rich source of information and activity that can be used to verygood effect in the classroom. If lessons involving internet use are to be effectiveand enjoyable the following checklist will be a useful starting point for planning.
•Plan carefully – in all studies of effective teaching there is a clear link between
detailed planning and preparation, and the ultimate success of the project in termsof learning. This is equally true for lessons making use of the internet – ICT mustnot be the cause of losing sight of this. (In relation to ICT see TTA, 1999)End Word: Effective Teaching with the Internet 121Pritchard-3559-Chapter-06.qxd 5/22/2007 8:13 PM Page 121

•Check sources thoroughly – reputable sources are abundant, but so are the
less reputable. Even if a site is approved, or from a reliable source (the NationalGrid for Learning; a Local Education Authority) it is still very important toconsider the content, and to make decisions concerning whether or not theactivity or the information addresses the precise need that is being addressed(Chapter 2).
•Monitor carefully and support judiciously (Chapter 1).
•Build in opportunities for talking and sharing – even the most solitary orbehaviouristic activities have the potential for sharing.
•In cases where lone work is expected or required consider using follow-upactivities, which allow for more constructivist approaches.
•Look for opportunities to develop work away from the internet, includingthe use of a range of other resources (multiple perspectives).
•Encourage autonomy, but not to the point where children become “lost” ina mass of information turned up by a poorly focused search – search skillsare not innate and need to be taught. In many cases, with younger childrenfor example, it is probably best to direct learners to specific sites in order toconcentrate on content rather than on searching, which can take up an inor-dinate amount of time and in some cases lead up many blind alleys. This initself can be a valuable lesson but is prone to detract from the learning objec-tives for specific lessons.
•Do not let the technology take over your teaching. If there is a better way ofachieving learning objectives that does not involve the use of the internet thenit should be used. “Thinking about the use of computers in education does notmean thinking about computers. It means thinking about education.” (Ellis, 1974)
Many of the points above apply equally in situations where the use of the inter-net does not feature. Good practice in teaching can apply across the board andto make the best use of the internet in teaching it is important not to lose sightof the principles that have been developed over the years by effective teachers,and others. It is important that sense and reason is not lost simply because ofaccess to a new and potentially valuable technological development. Care mustbe taken that Daniel Chandler’s words are not born out when he suggests that:“The microcomputer is a tool of awesome potency which is making it possiblefor educational practice to take a giant step backwards.” (Chandler, 1984) Theinternet cannot take over from good teaching and good teaching is focused onthe needs of the learners and on clear learning objectives – not on resources forlearning, which follow on from this starting point, not lead the way.122 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
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Appendices
APPENDIX 1 PEDAGOGICAL AND THEORETICAL
CONSIDERATIONS: EXPLANATORY NOTES
Were different viewpoints offered by the website or
other resources?
Did children decide their own goals or courses of
action?
Were the teachers involved teaching in terms of
telling the children certain things, or guiding themtowards finding out?
Is there any specifically metacognitive activity
encouraged; is there any as an unintended result?
Do the children have a degree of control over what
they are doing and how they go about it? Are theyable to make decisions about the progress of whatthey are doing?
Is the work set in a “real” or mainly authentic
context?
Is opportunity to actively construct new knowledge
provided? (c.f. practice and revision).
Are there opportunities to share new knowledge
and understanding with others?
Is existing prior knowledge activated and referred
to at the outset and during the work?
Are children involved in problem solving activities?Are errors and misconceptions highlighted and
made the focus of development?
Are opportunities for exploring the topic and
associated contiguous areas provided?Multiple perspectives
Pupil-directed goalsTeachers as coaches
Metacognition
Learner control
Real-world activities and
contexts
Knowledge construction
Sharing knowledgeReference to what pupils
know already
Problem solving
Explicit thinking about
errors and misconceptions
ExplorationCharacteristics of constructivist learning that might be present in ICT:
Questions to considerPritchard-3559-Appendix-01.qxd 5/10/2007 3:39 PM Page 123

124 Effective Teaching with Internet Technologies
Are opportunities provided for peer–peer
interactions, activity and decision making?
Are the children provided with alternative opinions
or viewpoints concerning issues that may becontroversial?
Is appropriate support provided in a number of
different ways – adult intervention, alternative activities,amended resources, and so on?
Is there opportunity for teachers to make assessments
which will inform the next stages of learning?
Are children involved with the use of first hand data
sources?Peer-group learning
Alternative viewpoints
offered
Scaffolding
Assessment for learning
Primary sources of data
Does the activity seem to act as a motivational
factor, including the motivation often offered bycomputer/internet use?
Do the children seem to enjoy what they are doing?Does the work or the prospect of the work
engender excitement?
Is there any novelty effect, either in the nature of
the activity, or simply in the use of the computer/internet?
Is there a good level of engagement with the
activities?
Does the work “at” the computer lead to
development and other related activity away fromthe computer?
What evidence is there of learning having taken
place?Motivation
Enjoyment
Excitement
Novelty
Engagement
Development of work
away from the computer
Evidence of learningOther considerations/featuresPritchard-3559-Appendix-01.qxd 5/10/2007 3:39 PM Page 124

APPENDIX 2 CASE STUDIES
Title Focus Location(s)
Chapter 3: Working individually
3.1 Drilling for tables Practice and revision www.quia.com
3.2 Builder Ted and decimals Practice and revision www.bbc.co.uk/education/mathsfile/
shockwave/games/laddergame.html
3.3 Find a place in the Learning facts www.mape.org.uk/startower/world/resources/
world broken.htm
www.nwlg.org/pages/resources/mapgames/geog.htmlwww.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/clickon/index.htmLabel
www.mape.org.uk/startower/world/index.htm
Chapter 4: Working collaboratively
4.1 Virtual tour of the Exploration and http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/
Cabinet War Rooms investigation
4.2 Exploring places Exploration and www.hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk/synagogue/
of worship investigation index.htm
4.3 Key stage 1 music Learning facts www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/schools/
games and skills 4_11/music/mm/index.shtmlPritchard-3559-Appendix-02.qxd 5/10/2007 3:39 PM Page 125

Title Focus Location(s)
Chapter 5: Longer term projects, communicating
and problem solving
5.1 Key stage 1 health Exploration and http://www.welltown.gov.uk/
education learning www.wiredforhealth.gov.uk/
http://www.rope-skipping.be/
http://www.saskschools.ca/~gregory/gym/
skiptips.html
5.2 Modern foreign languages and Language learning http://www.global-leap.com/
video-conferencing http://www.globalgateway.org.uk
5.3 Children publishing their work: Journalism; writing
Sports day on the internet for an audience
5.4 International recipe Communicating http://www.global-leap.com/
exchange via e-mail
5.5 Using a webquest Investigating a topic www.webquestuk.org.uk/Pritchard-3559-Appendix-02.qxd 5/10/2007 3:39 PM Page 126

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Index
accommodation 4
Alexander 22andragogy 21ask an expert 118assimilation 4automation 19
Bartlett 3
BBC 36, 50, 63, 72, 114Becta 116behaviourism 2, 23, 117British Council 101Brown 8Bruner 5, 8, 23–4, 26, 47, 71
capacity 19
Chandler 25, 122child-centred 23classroom 5, 11, 14Cockcroft Report, The 9cognition 8collaboration 26, 48–9connections 4constructivism 2, 3, 11, 23, 25–6, 116, 117context (for learning) 7, 8, 10communicability 19communication 72computer 6, 7, 10, 14“copy and paste” 10Cox 117
DfEE 13
DfES 15, 25dialogue 5, 6, 7Dickens 22differentiation 6domain codes 18“drill and practice” 2
Ellis 26
e-mail 72, 117, 118engagement 7, 10, 26, 117, 119Europe 94European schoolnet Project 20
Fennema and Franke 21
Flavell 8folk pedagogies 23Furr 25Gage 21Galton 21, 22Gardner 71Get Safe Online 116geography 29Global Gateway 101, 105Global Leap 101groups 6
Holland 3
highlighter pen 10
individual work 6, 28
interaction 5interactivity 19, 20Integrated Learning System (ILS) 24internet 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14
safety 116
Internet Safety Foundation 116intervention 6
Johnson-Laird 3knowledge 10, 11Lave and Wenger 7
learning,
authentic 7, 8effective 2, 117interaction 2metacognitive 3, 8outcomes 1situated 3social 2, 5, 7theory 1
McBer 121Mayer 5metacognition 8, 9, 10misconception 4misconstruction 3misinterpretation 3misunderstandings 3models 3motivation 117Mortimore 21multimodality 19, 20MustLearnIT 94Pritchard-3559-Index.qxd 5/10/2007 3:42 PM Page 131

non-linearity 19, 20
NorthWest Grid for Learning (NWGFL) 42
pairs 6
pedagogy 1, 11, 21–7Piaget 3, 5planning 1, 6, 121Plowden Report, The 48prior knowledge 3, 4, 5Pritchard 116problem-solving 10provisionality 19punishment 2
Qualification and Curriculum Authority (QCA)
13, 42, 48, 105
QUIA 30–1Rabelais 23
revision 9reward 2replication 19Reynolds 21rich learning environment 121Rumelhart 3scaffolding 6Schank 3schema(s) 3, 4, 5
activation 4
Selinger 7Sewell 6Simon 21social constructivism 5, 11, 116, 118social interactionspeed 19
teacher 1, 5
teacher-centred 23Teacher Training Agency (TTA) 25, 121
understanding 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11Vygotsky 5website evaluation 15–18
Woods 21
zone of proximal development (ZPD) 5, 6132 Effective Teaching with Internet TechnologiesPritchard-3559-Index.qxd 5/10/2007 3:42 PM Page 132