Excavating the Resources and Realities of ICT Classrooms

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Excavating the resources and realities of ICT Classrooms. Final Report

March, 2008

Dr Rita Egan, Dr Pat Jefferies and Antony Stockford

University of Bedfordshire

Polhill Avenue

BEDFORD

MK41 9EA

Tel: 01234 793178

Email:

Executive Summary

The aim of this research was a) to assess whether current ICT classrooms were fit for purpose and b) to provide advice on the design of ICT classrooms.

The case study reported here consists of an investigation of a total of 113 ICT classrooms in 33 partnership schools that offered placements to the University of Bedfordshire’s PGCE (14-19) trainees. These schools were based in nine counties: Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Suffolk. Data was collected between April, 2007 and March, 2008.

The average area of the classrooms visited in this study fell between 50 and 75 sq meters which was the typical classroom size reported by Becta (2007a) However, 73% were oblong in shape which in the extreme can cause problems with sight lines. The overall design of classrooms was deemed inadequate. The preferred presentation resource within most classrooms was the computer-linked projector and Interactive Whiteboards were prevalent. However, students were often unable to see the projector screens and whiteboards effectively and glare was apparent in many classrooms. Most classrooms did not contain workstations away from computers and it was hard to see how group work and discussion could take place. Only 10% of seating had castors and desks tended to be static and of one height. This made any adjustment for the size of child impossible. Occupancy levels in almost every case exceeded Becta and HSE guidelines and significant issues such as ventilation, lighting. acuity and sight lines were inadequately addressed.

Hardware was, in the main, found to be in good working order. Printing facilities were mostly found to be adequate although more than half of the classrooms did not offer colour printing. Computer control software was also found to be available in a number of schools but was not widely used. In addition, under 50% of the classrooms were judged to be very good/good in visual appearance and did not have displays on the wall that conformed to expectations in terms of supporting the learning experience.

Overall, the study showed that many ICT classrooms were not fit for purpose if published guidelines are taken into account. A self assessment evaluation tool is provided for schools to determine the extent to which ICT classrooms follow these guidelines. Further, two ICT classroom designs are provided which do comply with relevant guidelines.

Acknowledgement

Becta research grants 2007/08

Becta awarded 15 research grants to a wide range of organisations and across sectors.The grant programme aims to:

• build knowledge and understanding against key research questions relating to the DfES Harnessing Technology strategy
• support the technology for learning research field by promoting the development of models, methods, tools and modes of thought
• develop research capacity by supporting the work of those new to the field.

Copyright for this report resides with the University of Bedfordshire. For reuse permission please contact

Contents

Page No.

Introduction5

Literature Review5

1: Design of Rooms6

2: Class Size andOccupancy Levels10

3: General Appearance11

4: Furniture andEquipment12

5: Management of resources13

Methodology14

Pilot Study15

1: Background15

2: Findings from the Pilot Study16

3: Conclusions from the Pilot Study20

4: Recommendations from the Pilot Study21

Second stage of the project22

1: Classroom Design and Impact on Performance22

2: General Appearance28

3: Equipment28

4: Management of Resources29

Self-Assessment Tool32

Conclusions 33

Recommendations33

1: Classroom Design and Occupancy levels33

2: Environmental Conditions36

3: General appearance36

4: Hardware37

5: Computer Classroom Furniture37

6: Computer Control Software37

7:Resource management37

Concluding Comments38

References38

Appendices

Appendix A: Capacity Study Questionnaire42

Appendix B: Network Manager Interview Questions45

Appendix C: Head of ICT Interview Questions46

Appendix D: Self-Assessment Tool47

Explanation of Results:52

Acknowledgements: Participants in the research project53

Introduction

Over a 15 year period the British government will invest £45 billion in capital funding and PFI credits as part of their “Building Schools for the Future” initiative. (Select Committee on Education and Skills, 2007) In 2007-8 alone, the government will spend £6.3 billion upgrading secondary schools. (Design Council, 2007). Clearly this is a significant investment and, over a period of years, will set the standard of school design for years to come.

Research on the design of classrooms has, in the past, been limited. Greany, in the forward to Higgins, et al’s (2005) study, commented not only on the paucity of studies in the field (of school design), but worse, that the research that had been done was predicated on a traditional view of same place, same time learning. “The danger with this, as we set out on the government’s massive and exciting school building programme, is that we will use evidence from the past to inform a very similar future, when what is needed is a new approach and new solutions for school design to reflect the changing needs of learning in the 21st century.” (p.3). Encouragingly, there is now a great deal more advice available through consultancy companies, research and government agencies and a review of literature is provided in this report.

The aim of this research was, therefore, a) to focus on the design of computer suites and to determine whether they were fit for purpose and b) to provide advice to those responsible for funding and designing the classrooms of the future in order to improve pupil performance in ICT. The case study reported here consists of an investigation of a total of 113 ICT classrooms in 33 partnership schools that offered placements to the University of Bedfordshire’s PGCE (14-19) trainees. These schools were based in nine counties: Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Suffolk.

This report will provide an analysis of the extent to which a sample of Becta’s (2007a, b and c) guidelines regarding the design of ICT classrooms were being implemented in the targeted group of schools. Where guidelines were ignored, the researchers set out to determine why this was the case.

Research for this study was undertaken from April 2007 to March 2008. Prior to undertaking a pilot study in the placement schools a review of the literature was undertaken.

Literature Review

Research literature on the design of ICT classrooms broadly fell into five categories: 1) Design

2) Occupancy Levels 3) General Appearance 4) Equipment and 5) Management of resources. Much of the literature focussed on school design and equipment but detailed analysis of classroom design was less obvious. There was a great deal of literature on class size, but very little that addressed the issues in relation to ICT classrooms in secondary schools. The general appearance of classrooms and management of resources tend to be noted but under-researched. The relationship between classroom environment and academic achievement/teacher morale has been explored, but not in any detail in the field of ICT.

1) Design of Rooms

This research fell into three categories. These were a) the physical environment including heating, lighting, furniture/fittings and their impact on learning, b) workspace design and c) sight lines (acuity).

a) Classroom Environment and its impact on Learning

In 2001, the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), indicated that as many as 1 in 5 schools in England had accommodation that was in such an unsatisfactory state that the delivery of the curriculum had been affected (DfES, 2001). More recent studies have similarly suggested that schools in the UK are generally in a poor condition (BBC News, 2007) and, of even greater concern, is the fact that half of the schools that have been built in the last five years that were audited by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) have still been assessed as ‘poor’ or ‘mediocre’. (BBC News, 2007, CABE, 2006). Indeed in a recent (2007) online poll run by the Teacher Support Network for the British Council for School Environments (BCSE) only 12% of teachers surveyed thought the design of their school buildings was effective, while 32% said they were poorly designed.

“One teacher said: "The standard of the environment sets the standard for the quality of learning. If the impression given to students is that this room doesn't matter then the impression is that it doesn't matter what they do in this room." (p.1)

BCSE director Ty Goddard said the results were a "wake-up call" for the government's planned multi-billion-pound school rebuilding programme. "This new research shows the importance of getting the design and build process right, or we'll end up with new schools that don't work and fail our children, teachers and communities." (p. 1) Becta (2007a) have also noted, on their website, How to design ICT suites and workstations, “that pupils who rate a physical environment as good are more likely to be positive about aspects of teaching and learning within that environment.” This view is supported by the literature surveyed for this study.

For example, Edwards (1991) and Cash (1993), both found that the physical condition of classrooms impacted on the morale of teachers as well as the achievement of students. There also appears to be a strong link between student behaviour and performance as well as staff morale, when ownership of space is strongest. Lack of consultation and externally imposed solutions have all been found to have a negative impact. These findings are also supported by Corcoran et al (1988) who discovered that “where the problems with working conditions are serious enough to impinge on the work of teachers, they result in higher absenteeism, reduced levels of effort, lower effectiveness in the classroom, low morale and reduced job satisfaction. In the main, it would appear that extremes of environmental elements (for example, poor ventilation or excessive noise) have negative effects on students and teachers and that improving these elements has significant benefits. (Daniels, 2005).

b) Workspace Design

As far as the design of ICT room’s is concerned, Eadie’s 2001 study on transforming classrooms effectively for ICT is the most comprehensive. Various designs are discussed (p.13-14) as well as the critical features that such rooms should contain. The emphasis is on flexibility of design and workspace away from computers, features that this research would support. Sutton, Wait and Benseman’s (2001) have also given recommendations on the design of two new secondary schools in New Zealand. In determining the features that appeared to affect learning they drew heavily on the work of Tanner (1999, 2000, 2002) who has developed a School Design Assessment Scale. Tanner’s work is especially important as he is one of a number of researchers who have drawn clear links between the school environment and learning outcomes.

. Advantages / / Disadvantages
Room with natural discipline
No corners
Good visibility for teachers and pupils
All pupils have to turn 90° away from their computers making initial/plenary discussions effective without the need for moving pupils between different parts of the room / None that we have found

Fig 1 - Piers - Facing Out (Comproom, 2007)

There are many companies which offer design solutions for ICT classrooms. The diagram above is an example provided by Comproom. Comproom’s website includes a number of plans and each is critiqued for suitability. Figure 1 appears to offer the best solution, but there seems to be no provision for students to work awayfrom computers and sight lines on the right hand side are problematic. There are many configurations provided by consultants that schools can choose from but it is unclear how much Becta’s guidelines are utilized in the selection process. This could be because schools look first at the numbers of students who need to occupy ICT classrooms rather than how many workstations can be appropriately fitted into the classroom space.

Looking at JISC’s (2007) work on the design of effective learning spaces in higher education, it is interesting to see that some of the designs that are proposed offer low density, flexible alternatives, an approach that could be supported in secondary schools.

(p, 10)

c) Acuity

Good eyesight is crucial to ensuring that children succeed at school and are able to interact socially. A child’s eyesight is used for around 80% of their learning. If a child cannot see clearly they are not be able to learn as well as a child with good eyesight. Poor eyesight can, of course, have a detrimental impact on all aspects of a child’s life (EyeHelp, 2007) which is why the Snellen Test (Snellen, 1855) was devised to identify sight problems early in a child’s life.

The process of seeing is referred to as visual acuity, which is the spatial resolving capacity of the visual system. This may be thought of as the ability of the eye to see fine detail. (Kolb, Fernandez and Nelson, 1996). The Snellen chart (Fig. 3) is usually read while standing at a distance of 20 feet. Acuity is represented as a fraction, with the distance at which you are standing being the numerator (top part of fraction), and the normal maximum legible viewing distance ("Distance" on the chart below) as the denominator (bottom of fraction). So if, at 20 feet, you can read the letters on the row marked "40", this means you have visual acuity of 20/40 or better: 50% normal eyesight. From 10 feet, if the smallest letters you could read were on the "40" line, this would give you an acuity of 10/40: 25% normal eyesight. If you are nearsighted, your vision will become more “normal” the closer you stand to the chart (Fig 3).

Fig. 3 – Snellen Chart

Normal vision is referred to as 20/20 in imperial measures and as 6/6 in metric terms. The variations from this are termed Visual Acuity (VA). Translating these findings into linear values means that someone with 6/9 VA will need to be 30% closer to read with the same ease as someone with normal 6/6 vision (ICEH, 2006). The assumption is being made at this point that the majority case will be Myopia (Short Sightedness) rather than Hypermetropia (Longsightedness).

However, the ability of a person to see something is not just a function of ‘being able to see’. It is also affected by position and distance. The distance is a function of the resolution degradation of a fixed stimulus. Additionally, De Valois & De Valois (1988) have found that if the direction of gaze is known across the entire visual field, the human visual system can perceive approximately only one fifteenth of the visual detail that would be discernible if foveal resolutions were available for the entire field and, according to Davson (1990), the eye’s perfect resolution is an arc of 2o, which is the foveal arc, although it will ‘see’ through 35o eccentricity. Thus, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been investigating the manner in which underwater interface techniques can be applied to the learning of complex tasks for the U.S. Submarine Service and concluded that the following were key determinants in ‘target detection’. (Pfautz, 1996)

• visual acuity increases with high illumination
• visual acuity decreases with target motion
• visual acuity decreases with increased distance-to-target
• visual acuity varies with the visual task
• visual acuity varies with the target object used (Boff & Lincoln, 1988)

In a classroom situation the “target” will, of course, be the learning stimuli presented on, for example, some form of projection screen, and the effectiveness of learning will, it is suggested, vary in line with the determinants identified by Pfautz above. For example, in ICT teaching terms, the distance you might be sitting from the ‘interactive whiteboard’, the variation of eyesight of the student and how much the student is sitting to one side (the effective arc of acuity) is likely to significantly affect both issues of understanding and engagement.

In addition to the issues related to visual acuity and the positioning of the Interactive Whiteboard there are other concerns inevitably related to ICT classrooms. For example, there is now significant research being undertaken related to lighting and glare in computer classrooms (Ramasoot, 2007) and the work about to be undertaken by the University of Sheffield is likely to be significant. Anshel (2007) also notes the importance of appropriate lighting in computer classrooms and, amongst others, has provided useful information on the detrimental effects on children’s eyes when working with computers in classrooms.

“Visual demands in school require the integration of a number of different vision skills: visual acuity (sharpness of vision); visual fixation (eye aiming); accommodation (focusing); binocular fusion (forming a single image); convergence (turning of the eyes); field of vision (side vision) and form perception (recognizing shapes). These systems can be stressed and overworked if not used efficiently. Computer viewing is complicating how children use their eyes in school because these visual skills are not yet fully developed in children.” (p. 1) .

Thus Anshel (2007) suggests that classrooms designed for adults are not suitable for children. Furthermore, Computer Vision Syndrome is now an extensively reported effect of working too often with computers (American Optometric Association, 2007)

2) Class Size and Occupancy Levels.

There have been a great many studies undertaken regarding the impact of class size on learning outcomes. The findings from these studies have been fairly consistent. The Canadian Council on Learning’s (2005) summary of literature suggests the following:

• when it is planned thoughtfully and funded adequately, long-term exposure to small classes in the early grades generates substantial advantages for students … and those extra gains are greater the longer students are exposed to those classes;
• extra gains from small classes in the early grades are larger when class size is reduced to less than 20 students;
• extra gains from small classes in the early grades are found for various academic topics and for both traditional measures of student achievement and other indicators of student success;
• extra gains from small classes in the early grades are retained when students are returned to standard-size classrooms, and these gains are still present in the upper grades and the middle and high school years;
• although extra gains from small classes in the early grades appear for all types of students (and seem to apply equally to boys and girls), they are greater for students who have traditionally been educationally disadvantaged;
• (initial results indicate that) the greater gains associated with small classes in the early grades for students who have traditionally been educationally disadvantaged are also carried forward into the upper grades and beyond; and
• evidence for the possible advantages of small classes in the upper grades and high school is so far inconclusive. (Biddle and Berliner, 2002, 14)

These findings are mirrored by many other studies including those reported on the Classsize research website ( However, these studies tend to be general in nature or focus on the primary years (e.g. Blatchford, P., Bassett, P., Brown, P., Martin, C., and Russell, A, 2004) and whilst there has been much written about the effects of class size on performance ”there is still no clear consensus about the extent to which classes of different sizes promote the learning of students.” (Simpson, 1998, p.1)