Current Trends of Research in ICT in Education

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Current Trends of Research in ICT in Education

• Kwok-Wing LaiFaculty of EducationUniversity of
  OtagoPO Box 56, DunedinNew Zealandwing.lai_at_ston
  ebow.otago.ac.nz

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New Zealand
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University of Otago Clock Tower
Information Services Building
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Two faces of the Central Library - Information
Services Building
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• Seminar outline
• Growth of ICT use in schools - challenges
• Trend 1 cycles of ICT use and research in
  education
• Trend 2 Research on impact of ICT on education
• Break
• What are the problems? Some suggestions.
• Current ICT research areas
• Your own understanding - group exercise
• Conclusion further questions

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• Challenges
• We are a generation in transition. Generally
  reared in a print-period, but increasingly
  required to function electronically. We are
  required to teach in a way that we have never
  been taught (Spender, 1995).
• Developing future teachers who know how to use
  modern learning technologies to improve student
  learning is a major challenge facing our nations
  teacher preparation system
• (Preparing Tomorrows Teachers to Use
  Technology, 2002).

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• Growth of ICT use and Internet connectivity in
  schools and classrooms
• US - 92 of classrooms in public schools
  connected in 2002.
• UK - 50 of all schools and 90 of secondary
  schools connected to broadband in 2003.
• New Zealand - 86 of primary schools in 2002, 78
  of secondary schools in 2001 had Internet
  connections.

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• Huge amounts of resources invested in ICT
  hardware, software and professional development
• UK - 510 million (2002-2003), by the Department
  of Education and Skills (657 million,
  1998-2002). 230 million to help increase
  the competence of all teachers in their use of
  ICT in teaching and learning.
• US - 5.7 billion (E-Rate Program) to speed up
  Internet connectivity (1998-2000).
• Clinton administration (US) - 8 billion
• A computer in every classroom
• Every classroom wired to the Internet
• Computer training for all teachers
• Instructional software available to all students

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• Why do we conduct ICT research?
• To gain knowledge and improve our understanding
  of the functioning of ICT in education at
  different levels.
• To guide policy development and practice (reform?
  transform? action research?), and to improve
  educational practice through research.
• ICT research is primarily applied research.

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• Trend 1 - cycles of ICT use, and cycles of ICT
  research
• Great expectations (new technology)
• Promotion by academic studies (research)
• Limited classroom use
• Teachers are blamed (Cuban, 1986)

Four Main Waves of Computers in Schools
(Brown, 2004)
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Educational use of ICT has been very much
technologically (both hardware and software)
driven Educational research in ICT also has
been very much technologically (both hardware and
software) drivenIs this your experience?
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• Research evidence - what do we know (from
  research) about ICT use in the classroom?
• Classroom use of ICT has continued to be uneven,
  slow, and of decidedly mixed variety (Cuban,
  1999).
• Intractable workplace conditions do still limit
  widespread classroom use of computers (Becker,
  2000).
• ICT to become embedded in the work of the
  schools is a reality in only a small minority of
  schools (Office for Standards in Education,
  2004).

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• Primary and Secondary Technology Projects
  (e-Learning Initiatives, 2000-2004)
• 150 primary and 26 Secondary schools in southern
  New Zealand.
• These schools received some 6 million dollars in
  local funding to purchase computer hardware
  and peripherals.
• Schools were located within an urban population
  of about 115,000, as well as in several small
  provincial towns including small rural
  schools.

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• Technology Adoption
• Stage 1 Awareness
• Stage 2 Learning the process
• Stage 3 Understanding and application of the
  process
• Stage 4 Familiarity and confidence
• Stage 5 Adaptation to other contexts
• Stage 6 Creative application to new contexts
• (Knezek Christensen, 1999)
• 60 of primary teachers and 42 of secondary
  teachers were at Stages 5 6.

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• Lack of Integration
• Teachers use of ICT is predominantly for
• Preparing handouts
• Writing lesson plans
• Recording and calculating grades (Becker, 2000)
• Student experiences with ICT primarily occur in
  four contexts
• Separate courses in computer education
• Pre-occupational preparation in business and
  vocational education
• Exploratory uses in elementary classes
• Word processing of work for assessment

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• Barriers to using technology
• Costs
• Teacher knowledge of equipment and value of use
• School managements understandings about value
  of use
• Availability of equipment and resources
• Provision of back-up support
• Software licensing
• Knowledge necessary for technical planning and
  integrating technology
• The huge investments in technology hardware just
  dont seem to be enough

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• Use and integration of technologies in teaching
  is a complex issue affected by
• Attitudes and pedagogical beliefs of teachers
• School and work culture
• Leadership and management at the school and
  system levels
• Professional development opportunities
• Provision of technical support by the school

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Teachers should ask 3 questions before using
technology in their classrooms
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• Computer-supported learning environments
• Integrated
• Engaging
• Real-world driven
• Extended
• Student-centred
• Teacher facilitated
• Collaborative
• Multi-media based
• Assessment compatible

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Is the lack of use, lack of integration, your
experience as well ? What are the factors
limiting the use of ICT in your own classroom?
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• Trend 2 Lack of hard evidence on impact
• What do we know so far from research about the
  impact of ICT on education ?
• Has ICT had an impact on education? Is ICT likely
  to have a profound and positive impact on
  education?
• There is yet no conclusive evidence that ICT has
  universal benefits or its use is appropriate in
  every learning situation.
• Schacter (1999) has summarized seven major
  reviews on the impact of technology on student
  learning and he concludes that computer assisted
  instruction (including integrated learning
  systems), simulation applications, and open-ended
  applications all have positive effects on
  learning.

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• Kuliks meta-analysis of 500 individual research
  studies of the impact of computer-assisted
  instruction (CAI) on achievement (Kulik, 1994).
  The CAI applications (particularly the tutorial
  programs) reviewed by Kulik (1994) were often
  used to support a teacher-centred learning
  environment.
• Scardamalia and Bereiters (1996) Computer
  Supported Intentional Environment (CSILE) (now
  known as the Knowledge Forum, refer Scardamalia,
  2000), a project which creates a student-centred,
  constructivist, learning environment to support
  in-depth knowledge acquisition and creation for
  young learners. This review shows that technology
  could be used to promote virtually any value
  system into the classroom (Pea, 1998).

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• Becta (British Educational Communications and
  Technology Agency) reports in 2000 there is a
  consistent trend for primary schools with better
  ICT resources to achieve better grades for their
  pupils in KS2 national tests for English,
  mathematics and science.

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• What are the problems with ICT research?
• Technology becomes domesticated (eg CAI
  research)
• Technocentric focus - expectation that
  technology, all by itself, will bring about a
  change (Impact of ICT)
• Law of the Hammer
• Misguided research - methodological
  issues(Salomon, 2000, http//construct.haifa.ac.
  il/gsalomon/edMedia2000.html)
• There is a lack of systematic and longitudinal
  research in ICT (Panel on Educational Technology,
  1997, http//clinton4.nara.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/NSTC/PC
  AST/l-12ed.html).

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• New ways of analysing (Roberson, 2003)?
• Rational - barriers of use, resourcing, training,
  leadership, etc, how about a match between
  beliefs and usage?
• Cultural - dissonance between ICT and teachers
  professional culture,social context, user needs
• Historical - a long term view of
  socio-technological adoption - simplicity and
  specialism, IT labs and purposeful devices (PDA)?
• Gender/cultural - female teachers alienation
  from ICTs male discourses, male dominance
• Gender/cognitive - teachers learning and
  interaction styles
• Cognitive - common human preferences for learning
  and interaction style

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• How do we know about the trends of ICT research
  in education? Current research areas?
• Participate in national and international
  conferences (or review their proceedings)
• ICCE (International Conference of Computers in
  Education)
• NECC
• WCCE
• SITE
• Ed-Media
• Review journal articles
• Computers and Education
• British Journal of Educational Technology
• Educational and Information Technologies
• J of Interactive Learning Research
• J of Technology and Teacher Education
• Journal of Research on Technology in Education
• Journal of Educational Computing Research

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• Information Explosion
• The first million abstracts in chemistry took 30
  years (1907-1937) to be accumulated. The most
  recent one took one and a half years (Noam,
  1995).
• The whole Encyclopaedia Britannica takes up 37
  volumes in print, but only one CD-ROM.
• The Web has about 3 billion documents.
• The computer exposes students to a lot of
  information, but how relevant is the information
  (Secondary teacher, 2000).
• The Internet gives you too much information
  (Secondary student, 2002).

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Knowledge or information A clear distinction is
necessary between information and knowledge
(Salmon, 2000).
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• What are the current trends in ICT research?

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• ICCE (International Conference of Computers in
  Education) 2004 Paper Topics
• Distance Learning Education (19 Building
  learning communities on the Web, 14
  Mobile/wireless education, 4 Virtual
  universities).
• e-Learning and Knowledge Management (5
  Application of instructional design
  theories, 15 Developing an organizational e-
  learning strategy, 3 Devising mentoring and
  coaching programmes, 3 Human resource
  management/development, 20 Instructional
  design for e-learning, 9 Knowledge construction
  and navigation, 4 Life-long learning).
• Evaluating Teaching and Learning Technologies (4
  Accreditation of new competencies and
  evaluation, 28 Assessing the use of
  technology in teaching and learning, 12
  Educational software and hardware, 4 Equity
  and social issues, 13 Evaluation and
  performance measurement, 4 Evaluation of
  e-Learning programmes, 1 Evolution of
  national policies, 3 Tutor role in virtual
  communities).

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• ICCE (International Conference of Computers in
  Education) 2004 Paper Topics
• AI and Networked Learning (19 Interactive
  learning environments, 11 Intelligent
  tutoring systems, 6 Pedagogical agents and agent
  technology, 6 Virtual reality in education).
• Leadership in e-Education (19 Innovative
  pedagogical methods, 8 Policy and strategy
  for technology implementation, 10 Vocational
  training and education).
• Learning Technologies (18 Architecture and
  system design issues, 6 Authoring systems
  and tools, 15 Computer-Supported
  Collaborative Learning (CSCL), 14 Human-computer
  interaction and education, 1 Learning
  companions, 2 Learning Object Metadata
  (LOM), 2 Ontology in education, 1 Standardization
  of learning technologies, 2 Student
  modeling).
• Web Mediated Learning Tools (11 Multimedia and
  hypermedia, 8 Networked and distributed
  learning systems, 1 Web-based ITS, 12
  Web-based Training Systems).

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• WCCE (International Conference of Computers in
  Education) 2005 Paper Topics
• Knowledge as a resource
• Networking the learner
• ICT as a catalyst for change
• Learner-centred teaching
• Flexible and distance Learning
• Integration of ICT into education and training
• Innovative pedagogical methods
• Changing role of tutors
• Teacher Education
• Informatics as a subject for study

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• WCCE (International Conference of Computers in
  Education) 2005 Paper Topics
• Educational software and hardware
• Equity and social issues
• Progress in developing countries
• Evolution of national policies
• Professional development and vocational education
• Evaluation and accreditation
• The role of the school in a knowledge based
  society
• ICT and the changing school
• Why they failed unsuccessful projects
• History of Educational Computing

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• Conclusion
• Educational research in ICT is largely driven by
  advance in technology.
• No conclusive evidence on impact of ICT in
  education
• There is a big gap between research and practice.
  Teachers rarely read educational research
  articles. How about practitioners journals (ISTE
  journal - Teaching and Leading with Technology,
  Computers in New Zealand Schools)? ICT
  researchers do not use ICT to communicate
  research results to practitioners.
• Lack of involvement of teachers the need for
  collaborative and action research (eg e-learning
  fellows in New Zealand). Few teachers publish
  reflective documents, their teaching experience
  can help shape education research topics.

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Research to predict the future?
640K ought to be enough for anyone (Bill
Gates, 1981).
There is no reason why anyone would want a
computer in their home (Ken Olson, President,
DEC., 1977).
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Technology use will change but as teachers and
educators we should be clear that our main
objective is to teach, facilitate, and support
students to become Independent, mindful
thinkers, skilled in life long learning, capable
of intelligently handling complex problems alone
and in teams, and guided by some social values
that transcend egotistic benefits (Salomon,
2000). Technology must be used to support
teachers to achieve this!
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• Thank You!