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The School of Information and Media,
The FACULTY of MANAGEMENT Teachers' ICT skills and knowledge needs Final Report to SOEID Section Four | ||
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4 Problems and challenges We have seen that the use of ICT by teachers is generally low both in frequency and variety. The use of ICT by primary teachers is generally restricted to word processing, and the use of specific educational software packages. While secondary teachers make more use of a range of generic software such as spreadsheets and DTP as well as specific educational packages, word processing still dominates their use of ICT. Any other forms of ICT such as Internet and WWW, e-mail, computer conferencing, video conferencing, fax, digital scanner and digital camera are used relatively little. What, then, are the reasons given by teachers for not using a broader range of ICT? What are the problems and challenges which need to be overcome if ICT is to be used most effectively by teachers and their pupils? 4.1 Availability and knowledge of ICT Lack of availability of some ICT resources (1eg Internet, e-mail, computer conferencing, video conferencing, fax, digital camera, digital scanner, on-line information sources) is the main reason given by primary teachers (Table 5). This should not necessarily be taken to mean that there might not be other inhibitive factors such as lack of knowledge or skills, or lack of support, but rather that access to the technology tends to override all other factors in determining use. Thus in Table 5 where there is a high response to 'not available at all' the other figures for that resource may be underestimates. Unsurprisingly, the resources with which at least 90% of primary school respondents are familiar (word processing, externally produced educational software packages) are the resources which are used most frequently. Moving beyond that narrow range of resources, however, more than 10% of primary teachers report that 'lack of familiarity' is a reason for not using 11 of the 15 resources listed in the questionnaire. 'Lack of skills' in the use of databases and spreadsheets is seen as an inhibiting factor by more than 10% of primary school respondents. Ten percent or more of primary respondents consider that the main reasons for not using resources such as e-mail, video conferencing, fax, spreadsheets and DTP is that they are inappropriate.
Table 5 Reasons for not using ICT resources – p = per cent of primary teachers, n=352 s(n) = per cent of secondary non-computing teachers, n=283 s(c) = (per cent of secondary computing teachers, n=46)
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Amongst secondary (non-computing) school teachers total lack of availability is less of a problem although a sizeable proportion (30-40%) indicated that video conferencing, network computer conferencing, and digital cameras are not available at all. Thirty six percent of secondary (non-computing) teachers report that they do not use the Internet and WWW because it is not available at all or is not readily accessible when needed. The figures are only slightly lower for computing teachers. Similar reasons are given by 31% secondary non-computing teachers for not using e-mail. More than 10% of secondary (non-computing) teachers report that they are 'not familiar with' eight of the 15 ICT resources listed. 'Lack of skills' is a barrier to use of the Internet, e-mail, computer conferencing, video conferencing, DTP and digital camera for more than 10% of secondary (non-computing) teachers. Ten of the resources listed, including e-mail, video conferencing and fax, are considered to be inappropriate by more than 10% of secondary teachers.
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Lack of familiarity with ICT resources is not confined to non-computing specialists. Interestingly, 13% of computing teachers say that they lack familiarity with the Internet and video conferencing. Comparing primary and secondary teachers, primary teachers tend to indicate that ICT is 'not available at all' much more strongly than those in the secondary sample. This is as might be expected given the generally lower provision of ICT in primary schools. It is not surprising that for secondary teachers other reasons such as lack of familiarity or lack of skills occur more frequently than primary teachers given that secondary teachers tend to have access to a wider range of resources in the first place. Neither cost nor lack of technical support are reported as strong inhibiting factors in either sector although they emerge in the additional comments and interviews. It is likely that the importance of these factors are masked here by the fact that, for primary teachers in particular, it is the overwhelming lack of access and lack of availability which are the predominant inhibiting factors. This also emerges in teachers' own comments. Lack of availability of ICT within school is seen as a major problem in primary schools and on two levels. Some teachers have problems with trying to share scarce equipment across a whole class or a school: "For the variety of experience [we need] lots more computer equipment. One PC ....doesn't go round a school of this size at all." (Primary) or of finding that the computer is confined to one area of the school: "Our senior teacher, this is very much her baby and she gets it first and she holds on to it and tries it out first. We have got a PC but it's not accessible to anybody else who is in her classroom. That's a resource that should be in the library, it should be a shared resource" (Primary) In comparison with primary teachers, total lack of availability of equipment is not such an important issue for secondary teachers. This can be explained by the fact that many education authorities have, in the past, placed more emphasis on equipping secondary schools as a starting point in meeting their ICT targets. However access is still a problem in secondary schools but this is more often a problem of lack of access to up-to-date resources rather than total non-availability. One teacher commented that: "the materials that I bought say seven years ago are all BBC materials, and now this is considered to be so old fashioned that we don't use it." (Secondary) Secondary teachers also feel that not having ready access to a PC in the classroom can cause problems in planning and class management: "If you want to access the 486s, there has to be negotiation around that because they are not available. They are in departments that make heavy use of them obviously." (Secondary) "We had to book the computer in the library in advance and then send them through unsupervised except for the librarian. So to show them how to get through to that site you have to leave half the class behind.....it's awkward." (Secondary) "There is a room in the library. To some extent we use that, but again that's very limited. There is one machine there and you've got a class size of 30 per teacher, and it becomes again an impracticality." (Secondary) Over 40% of primary teachers and half of the secondary teachers responding to the survey took the opportunity to give additional comments on the factors which encourage or hinder their use of ICT, an indication that many of them feel strongly about these issues. The lack of technical support and the need for time emerge more strongly as general problems for primary teachers in particular. Overall, however, these comments from both primary and secondary teachers tend to reinforce the message that lack of access and lack of skills and knowledge are the major inhibitors of ICT use by teachers. The main problems mentioned in the survey of primary teachers were: - lack of time (16 teachers) - do not know what to do when something goes wrong (15 teachers) - insufficient/inaccessible computers (14 teachers) - insufficient training/lack of skills/lack of knowledge (12 teachers) - lack of (appropriate) software (11 teachers) - lack of money (11 responses).
Secondary teachers (both non-computing and computing) talked about: - insufficient training/lack of skills/lack of knowledge (27 non-computing and 5 computing teachers) - insufficient/inaccessible computers (27 non-computing and 2 computing teachers) - lack of money (20 non-computing and 3 computing teachers) - out of date/out of order computers (16 non-computing and 5 computing teachers) - lack of time (16 non-computing and 1 computing teacher) - lack of resources (14 non-computing and 3 computing teachers) Conversely, primary teachers consider that the factors most like to encourage use are access to resources, training and familiarity with ICT, and more support. The most frequent responses in the survey were: - more computers, more up to date computers, more accessible computers (63 teachers) - more training, more available courses, more skills (47 teachers) - time to practise/become familiar with (20 teachers) - technical/specialist support in school (19 teachers) Secondary teachers also consider that access to resources, training and familiarity with resources are important. However, unlike primary teachers, they make little mention of technical/specialist support which they already have available to them through their computing departments, technicians and librarians. The most common responses from secondary teachers (made by more than 10 teachers) were: - more computers, more up to date computers, more accessible computers (35 non-computing and 6 computing teachers) - banks of software (25 non-computing and 3 computing teachers) - Internet available (12 non-computing and 4 computing teachers) - more training, more available courses, more skills (12 non-computing and 2 computing teachers)
While it cannot be assumed that if teachers had greater access to, or were more familiar with, a broader range of ICT they would tend to use it, it is clear from their responses that many teachers are currently not in a position to make informed judgements about the suitability of a wide range of ICT.
4.2 Classroom management and planning. The main issues which preoccupy teachers on a day-to-day basis are often to do with classroom management and organisation of a limited range of resources. While teachers are finding innovative ways forward, for many these factors are still perceived as problems and barriers to ICT use. For some teachers the priority is towards finding ways of giving pupils fair and equal access to the technology: "If you are sitting with a class of 30 children, how do you choose which ones are going to get the 15-20 minutes doing one of the packages?" While those who are more computer-literate can be left unsupervised : "....the kids who are in P7 .....are quite good because they have got them [computers] at home. So you can send them to the computer room and leave them unsupervised" (Primary) in other cases, and particularly in the early and middle primary, the focus is on planning and managing classes to ensure help is on hand: "The main thing I have to watch is to make sure that everybody gets fair access ...and keep a balance, some are keen and some aren't interested" (Primary) "Equality is important - you need to be aware of group dynamics when pupils are using ICT." (Primary) For most primary teachers, the use of ICT is synonymous with group activities. They prefer to work in small group - "two or three at the most", "just two or three", "very very small groups". The following comment is the exception rather than the rule: "I think the way that education is going we are coming back now to whole class lessons. Well why not a whole class lesson on computers, i.e. this is a floppy disk and this is a CD-ROM and this is a monitor, rather than working with 2 or 3 at a time." (Primary) Small groups and pairs are often seen as the solution to coping with mixed abilities or with the teacher's own lack of knowledge. Primary teachers gave examples: "What I tend to do is I have 'technicians' - children that are confident enough on the computer.....I will show them what they have to do, and they can go and remedy as much as they are able to do rather than children always coming up to me. They are designated technician for the computer." (Primary) "...I normally put them initially with partners, so you put a more confident child with a less confident, I've got a mixed age group here, I'm lucky so I put the P2 with the P1." (Primary) "A bright child can take it that stage further and think it through. You have this peer group business, whereby the brighter children see one or two others through the course." (Primary) "Luckily there are children who have computers at home and they are quite confident, so I tend to buddy-up pupils, and they actually come and help me when I'm stuck. I admit to the children that I am limited" (Primary) The use of parent helpers is one solution being used by primary teachers: "....I've got parents who are trained in certain aspects of computers so would sit with the children" (Primary) "I tend to have parent helpers. There are a lot of parent helpers that help with activities which involve a lot of children. That frees me to go to the computer with a smaller group.." (Primary) However, while other pupils or parents can be the solution, some teachers are still struggling to find the answer to providing access to one computer in a class of widely varying learning abilities. In the words of one primary teacher: "If this was a smaller class, i.e. 21 or 22, I would have more time, but when you have got to get through 31 children [including] a dyslexic, a non-English speaking child and a behavioural problem child, you can't leave these children. I think a lot depends on the balance within the class, and the age of the children. You don't want to use the computer as a reward." (Primary)
While the survey indicated a high level of motivation towards developing ICT knowledge and skills, there is also a feeling amongst many teachers that there are other more important priorities than investing in ICT at a time when resources are scarce. For some, the cost of software is prohibitive. One secondary teacher, commenting on the cost of educational software packages, says: "All the ones I've seen cost about £45. I get about £110 per year for my whole department - I can't even afford to buy books." (Secondary) Support staff also voice concerns. One technician was concerned that a wider view of software prices needed to be taken: "There are machines out there not being used by the departments because they can't afford the software that they need to run. We are talking about CD-ROM based stuff...There is so much, it is wonderful. But we can't afford it....So what we need is a Scottish, UK or European [body] - I don't care where it comes from - to negotiate decent software prices" (Technician) Another technician outlined the problems trying to upgrade machines: "...upgrading for us becomes a real burden on the school's resources. And although these people are in an educational division, you will always find them saying things like 'it's only £1500'. Well, in education, how can you possibly put the words 'only' and '£1500' so close together in the same sentence?" (Technician) Teachers also indicate that ICT spending has to take second place when there are more important priorities: "The incentive is not there really to pursue [ICT development] much because we are so constrained. We know for a fact that there is nothing that we can do to develop our IT capacity in the department because we can barely keep pace with buying replacement textbooks." (Secondary) "There is not the same level of support for basic development in computing skills like there use to be, and that is partially because of general cutbacks, and the fact that the staff development money this year is supposed to be geared exclusively to Higher Still, so there is nothing left for anything else." (Secondary) The latter comment is an interesting example of the feeling held by many teachers that ICT is an extra pressure, competing with, rather than integrated with other developments such as Higher Still. Cost and prioritisation are also seen as issues in relation to training. Many teachers, particularly primary teachers, talk about the difficulty of getting cover to allow them to take up training opportunities. As resources are limited, they find that they cannot always attend courses which they think would be valuable: "When a school this size is offered courses we might have money for maybe 1 person or 2 people to go on the courses...don't expect that you're automatically going to be on these courses. With the Internet course at the moment there is only going to be one." (Primary) Problems of lack of cover are cited by another teacher: "I would like to go on this course but it really would be have to be done in my own time at the moment unless days come up and then ... if your name comes out of a hat then you can go. It's because of the money for getting somebody in while you are away." (Primary) Additionally, a strong feeling emerges from primary teachers of a bias towards those who teach in the upper primary levels and/or are senior teachers: "Our senior teacher in charge of computers is a senior stage teacher so things that are bought tend to be focusing up there. But down here it is sadly lacking. We've got an assistant head now that's for us and our head teacher is more infant orientated so hopefully the money will come now. But then again we are going into being linked up to the Net, so that costs money and again I assume, not having seen it, but it will probably be more senior based people that are going to be using it." (Primary) These issues would not be seen as such a barrier if teachers felt confident that there were mechanisms for ensuring that those who have been on courses could disseminate their knowledge to others. However, according to one teacher, lack of time can make this process less than effective: "You've got to think well there is a couple of people involved, and then you've got to be willing to come back and share ideally. It's OK reading notes, but I think that there has got to be some contact time, because when you are reading notes, they may make sense to you but when somebody else is reading through them, they think oh no they've jumped a step or missed something there. Especially the computer jargon. I think there is too much jargon in it." (Primary) The whole question of teachers' experiences of ICT training as well as their training needs and priorities are considered in Section 5.
4.4 Information and resource management The further concern for teachers is their own management of, and access to, ITC resources. Primary schools show considerable evidence of joint selection and sharing of resources. They rely heavily on other teachers for advice: "Anybody who has been on a course has come back and either recommended it to the senior teacher, who might go out and get us a copy, or the person will recommend it to the rest of the staff. Plus Learning Support sometimes involves what she hears about." (Primary) "In our departmental groups we had departmental meetings. Take away one [program] review it and share it with the others. So that does happen". (Primary) Primary schools also appear to be more proactive in organising centralised ICT resource bases within the school: "We've got 'quiet rooms' they are called where resources are held. So we have got an environmental studies room....one wall of the room is a stack of shelves that holds computers. So everyone knows where they are. You can go in and they are catalogued and colour coded so blue is environmental studies and yellow is whatever. So if you have something specific in mind you can go and hopefully it will be in that category." (Primary) "Plus these catalogues with the list and the breakdown and there is folders of overlays and other things that teachers have worked on" (Primary) Primaries are also seeking their own solutions to the time consuming business of evaluating and selecting computer-based resources. In many cases it is a senior member of staff who carries out the initial selection: "The deputy head considers most of that. What generally happens is that the deputy head says well I have this, would you like to try this out and tell me what you think. So she brings it to you." (Primary) "...it's usually the head teacher that gets it. Quite often packages are recommended by the advisory staff. So advice and information comes from the advisors. But it is up to the head teachers to decide if they want it." (Primary) While some welcome this and consider it saves them time which they feel they do not have to review and evaluate resources, some are beginning to feel they would like to be more involved: "We have a list. We have no say. I asked years ago" (Primary) Secondary and primary teachers talk about the difficulty of evaluating software: "The problem is that you never buy a book without looking through it, and you can't do that with software. You see the box and that's it.. You need what's inside.....a little taster before you buy it". (Secondary) This is also problematic for some librarians: "I would like to be in touch with people who could advise me. It's difficult when you are working on your own, looking at the kind of material you get in through the post from publishers and things like that. Trying to decide just from that, or even from sample copies, what's useful and what's not, what's value for money and what isn't." (Secondary school librarian) The models for ordering and storing software are varied. In one secondary school the librarian has full control, although the librarian is aware that some teachers do not like the system: "All ordering of CD-ROMs and software goes through me, so I can keep a general eye on it, also try and keep a database of what is held, so that everyone knows what is available" (Secondary school librarian) In other secondary schools each department has responsibility for their own ordering and storage. This causes concern for one librarian who has mixed messages from staff, some seeing software as a central resource which should be in the library, while others: "...fight for their corner and get jealous and want to keep the resources for themselves" (Secondary school librarian) The other problem which surfaces is that of incompatible hardware. This can hamper the transfer of ideas and skills: "A lot of the schools are using different hardware and software, you are not going to get any co-ordination as people move from one school to another, both teachers and pupils." (Secondary) "I don't have a computer in my room. I know I can go down to the computing room or use the one in the staff room but they are different systems, one is an Apple Mac and the others are Acorn or something......we have been taught how to use the Acorn one and then if I want to use the one in the staff room it's different." (Secondary) Incompatibility of hardware within a school also limits the value of information resources: "We have a pupil database on the administration network, which should be accessible by staff for the class lists, for mark sheets, timetables, all of the usual stuff. It should be accessible by pupils if they want to see a record of achievement and other things. We can't do it. It is a waste of resources." (Secondary)
Lack of support is particularly problematic for primary teachers: ".....if something goes wrong there are one or two people who know quite a bit. I wouldn't say that they know any more than I do. We had support years ago and of course nothing has been done since. It's not in our development plan." (Primary) Secondary teachers often rely on the computing teacher to help with ICT problems. While this is clearly an important source of support, some worry about the extra burden they place on colleagues: "They don't have the time either to deal with you. They are usually very helpful, but it's unfair to expect them to cope with a teaching load and then to deal with everybody's IT questions and problems as well." (Secondary) "Any problems at all we go to him and we do expect him just to drop what he is doing and show us how to do it. It puts me off going down and using the computer, because I feel that whenever I try to do anything different I get stuck and then I have to ask." (Secondary) Particularly in rural areas, other forms of help can be many miles away: "...when things go wrong I have to depend on somebody.....but I've got to contact the technician who is based over 20 miles away." (Secondary) More localised examples of support cited by primary school teachers include: "Well we're very lucky here because the head of the computing department of the academy comes down at the moment. You just need to 'phone and he will come down after school.....and he will come down on a Friday at 6pm at night if there is something to do. But if we lost him....?" (Primary)
Secondary school teachers may have the option to turn to a technician or a librarian. The main problems of teachers which come to the attention of technicians are of a technical nature: "A lot of it was like changing printer cartridges and fixing up printers to machines, installing CD-ROMs and that sort of thing. Quite basic things" (Secondary school technician) In one secondary school it is very much left to the librarian to fix computers because there is no technician support. "I am the head of repairing things, this school is trying to get hold of a technician. It's 'sellotaping' and keeping things going" (Secondary school librarian) The importance of support within the school or the local authority is stressed by many teachers as a key to encouraging them to make more use of ICT. The ideal for many teachers is to have access to immediate troubleshooting support at the end of a telephone. Resource centres can also offer advice and support. Teachers who have responsibility for purchase of resources find it useful to have access to resource centres where they can access a range of software before making purchasing decisions: " the ITSU (Information and Technology and Support Unit) have a large library of resources, which we can't actually take anything away from, but we can actually go out there and look at and see what things are, and if they are useful or not." (Primary) The same centre is praised by this teacher for its flexibility in running courses out of school hours and for the fact that: "...they also once a year now send out somebody who comes to the school for a day, and will run mini in-services on topics that you choose, which again is quite useful." (Primary) These are clearly issues which many teachers are aware of and, as the examples above show, many imaginative and practical solutions are beginning to emerge where teachers, schools and authorities are determined to move forward. The impression gained, however, is that these issues are also still stumbling blocks for many who may be less motivated, less competent, or lacking in the supportive environment necessary for change to take place.
Problems and challenges
- lack of access/availability of hardware/software - lack of familiarity, skills and knowledge
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