Teachers see IT, Internet and Imagination replace the three Rs

Evidence from a newly published report from the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) shows the spread of information and learning technology (ILT) within post-16 education and the positive impact it is having on both teachers and students.

The developing impact of ILT is a report (published on 17 January) based on findings from extensive surveys and interviews with staff and students in post-16 education. It has been carried out on behalf of LSDA by Sheffield Hallam University. The report concludes that the majority of staff and students in colleges are highly enthusiastic about the use of technology for teaching and learning, and ready to embrace its expansion. A growing number of staff are now using technology, but there is much to be done to ensure that everyone knows how to use the range to its full potential.

In December 2004 LSDA announced the investment of £500,000 in a series of projects to help trainee teachers use learning technologies. Nine projects, mostly based in further education colleges, will investigate and pilot new techniques and resources in e-learning.

Main findings – staff • Technology is being used by the majority of staff in teaching and lesson preparation. Nearly three-quarters of staff in the survey were using word-processing to produce classroom notes or printed handouts. PowerPoint was also heavily used. Networked PCs for all students were the norm for classroom activity and around a third of all staff used data projectors or internet websites in all lessons. Beyond the classroom, a third of all staff said they used technology constantly in lesson preparation at home and over half used it for lesson preparation in their office. But other learning technologies were used less. Four-fifths of staff had never used videoconferencing and three-quarters had never used mobile devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) in class. Digital cameras, scanners and electronic whiteboards were rarely used.

> Technology is also being used extensively by staff (management and support staff as well as teaching staff) for communicating with colleagues, record-keeping, registration, tracking students' progress and general administration. But there is little evidence of the use of technology for assessment.

> Those staff most likely to make greater use of technology for both teaching and administration are likely to be male, in post for less than five years and working full-time.

> When asked if they had attended courses to improve their IT skills over the past 12 months, one-third of staff said they had not attended any courses, but those who had found them very useful.

> Staff believed that adults and young people who are disengaged from education or who have communication problems are the group most likely to benefit from ILT. Mature, adult students working for higher level qualifications were also a group that could benefit.

Main findings – students • Most full-time students surveyed use technology as a matter of course during lessons, especially the internet and PowerPoint. Beyond the college almost three-quarters had internet access at home or in the workplace, half of which was via broadband. One-third used virtual learning environments (VLEs) and college intranets remotely.

> Most students preferred face-to-face meetings, e-mail and telephone contact with teachers and fellow students to (for example) chat rooms, which were rarely used for collaborative learning.

> Almost half of the students felt that increased use of technology and e-learning could improve their grades and employability, and motivate them to stay the course. There was evidence of a robust demand and an awareness of the positive changes in learning technologies over the last five years. Levels of enthusiasm were appreciably higher for the 25–34 age group than for younger or older age groups.

> One-third of students felt that their skills had been improved by use of technology outside the college with only one in 20 saying their skills had not improved at all.

These findings show the impact that capital investment and staff development in the use of technology for learning has had over the past five years. Much of this work has been carried out by the National Learning Network (NLN) – a national partnership programme set up to provide an IT infrastructure for further education and train teachers in the use of ILT.

However, while the research shows that use of technology has come on in leaps and bounds, barriers to change persist.

A lack of time, insufficient infrastructure and a lack of departmental and institutional support were seen as the main barriers to its further use in teaching and learning. Full-time staff said they lack sufficient time to prepare materials, while part-time staff were more likely to cite inadequate equipment and a lack of electronic course content. Barriers within the student population also exist. While many young people are extremely adept with computers and other devices, some of the hard-to-reach displayed little interest in IT.

One clear message from the research is the need for a national database of ILT content specifically written for the FE sector. A database of staff training opportunities, events, conferences and resources, managed by LSDA, is already available at www.nln.ac.uk/events

Kevin Donovan, LSDA development adviser and editor of the report, comments: ‘These findings show how teaching and learning is being transformed and that teachers are learning to integrate new technologies into their teaching. As young people who have been brought up with computers, video games and other technologies move from schools into further education, it is essential that teachers – many of whom come from a generation that is less familiar with learning technologies – keep up to date. But while there is evidence that technology is being used extensively, the role of the teacher remains crucial.'

The report is based on survey and interview data collected and analysed by the Centre for Research and Evaluation at Sheffield Hallam University. The survey of staff and students, carried out between October 2003 and February 2004, attracted 687 responses from students in 11 colleges and 347 responses from teaching and support staff in 54 colleges. The report also draws upon evidence from a number of other monitoring and evaluation exercises. An evaluation tool kit with a range of material has been published alongside the report. All the outputs from the work are available as downloads from the NLN and LSDA websites.

The research revealed information on the use of different types of learning technologies

> Class notes or printed handouts were by far the most widely reported. Over two-thirds of students indicated they were used in some or most lessons.

> Websites were also well used. Three-quarters of students said teachers used internet websites in at least some lessons. Over a third of students accessed websites, with only one in 10 never using them.

> Networked PCs were used by over three-quarters of students at least in some lessons. They were most likely to be used at levels lower than 3 and 4.

> Data projectors and PowerPoint – two-thirds of students said that data projectors were used by staff in lessons and over half said that PowerPoint was used in some sessions.

> TV/VCR/DVD – over half of students indicated that these were used in at least some lessons.

> CD-ROMs, interactive whiteboards and discussion boards were used very little – and never at all in two-thirds of lessons.

> E-mail – three-quarters of students said that teachers never used e-mail comments or e-mail for assessment feedback. Less than one in 10 students made daily use of e-mail for comments on work and two-thirds never used it.

> Videoconferencing and mobile devices were rarely used.

> Virtual learning environments About a third of staff respondents often or constantly used all elements of the college VLE or intranet.

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LSDA

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