Does ICT work in Training & Education?

Does ICT work in Training & Education?

The DfES have been sponsoring research into what ICT works and what doesn’t. Although this research has focused on schools, there are some pointers which trainers may find useful. Much of the research has been through Becta, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, www.becta.org.uk and can be downloaded from their site http://partners.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=rh

Some of the questions they have looked at …

Interactive Whiteboards
There is great enthusiasm for these. 85% of primary school teachers who used a whiteboard said it made them more confident as teachers. It was found that teachers spent more time working with the class as a

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whole rather than giving them individual or group work. 99% felt that the interactive whiteboard improved pupils’ motivation to learn. The pupils surveyed agreed with this. The disappointment is that, apart from in Maths, there was no noticeable difference in pupils’ achievement in Sats tests between schools using and not using interactive whiteboards – although there could be many other reasons for this.

Learning Activity Management Systems
A pilot project tested Learning Management Systems in secondary schools. Opportunities provided by LAMS for differentiation, revision, self-paced independent and collaborative learning were highly rated. The project encouraged teachers to develop their own learning material on the system, rather than sourcing material externally. This obviously made the learning curve for teachers rather steeper and only a minority of schools in the project delivered new material in the first year of the project. However, teachers’ rating of the concept of a Learning Management System was high, in particular in motivating students, especially those harder to engage or lacking confidence, who felt protected from failure or ridicule by their peers. The ability to track and guide individual students’ performance was regarded as a great strength of an LAMS. The system used in the project allowed collaborative working; students found it very useful and engaging to be able to compare ideas.
One theme that keeps cropping up in this research is that a small but significant minority of teachers fail to exploit ICT and e-learning. This is something we have found in the training community, particularly among freelance trainers, who often seem to see it as a threat. Maybe they still believe the nonsense that was peddled by some of the early e-learning vendors that ICT-delivered material would lead to massive cost savings by replacing rather than enhancing traditional trainer-led courses.

Emerging Technologies for Learning
www.aclearn.net/display.cfm?resID=15820
A review covering mobile technologies, the ambient web, the future of human – computer interaction, social networks and the broadband home.

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