Integrated Use of ICT Supporting an Active Student School

Integrated use of ICT supporting an active student school

Norway

NO004 Royse Primary school

A. Meso-level context of the Innovation

A1. School background

Royse Primary School is located in a small rural community one hour’s drive from Oslo. The school has 140 students between the ages of 6 and 13.

The reform project at Royse started with the ICT strategy of the municipality, Hole. In the strategic plan, the schools in the municipality were included as one of five target areas to highlight in the run-up to the year 2000. In 1996 a rather comprehensive ICT strategy was outlined for the three schools, triggering a large-scaled upgrading of the ICT standard. The strategy dealt with a period of three years and a sum of 8% of the total budget was set aside to promote more integrated use of technology in the three schools[1] in the municipality.

A2. School culture

The principal decided that from August 1, 1999 the school was going to change its educational practice to become a school for active students. The background for her decision was the national curriculum, which stresses project-based learning. An increasing number of bored students and an overrepresentation of boys who needed special education also impacted her decision. A curriculum change was needed and the importance of fostering learning and self-respect was stressed by the principal.

The pedagogical staff at the school agreed with the principal, and they decided to change the school from that day forward. Central to the pedagogical vision of the school is the students’ responsibility for their own learning. The students themselves know how they learn, how they want to work and the best way to find information. The teacher is seen as a person who helps the student in this process. One of the teachers puts the vision as follows: “Adults often think that we are going to do this and that because we are going to learn this and that. And we forget to tell the children they are going to do this so they can learn. We have to keep our focus on learning instead of doing.”

The curriculum shifted from a linear plan for predetermined learning outcomes towards a non-linear plan, based on student’s own knowledge creation. To be able to do this, they have changed the learning environment. It is a school with no classrooms in the traditional sense. Instead they have rooms with big and small working tables, two or three computers at the end of the room and no blackboard. The traditional time schedule and homework is replaced by weekly work programs where the students are free to choose when to work on the different tasks, which method to use and whether they want to work individually or in groups.

The principal can be defined as a strong and collaborative leader. She was a central actor in developing the ICT strategy in the municipality and the key actor in implementing the educational reform at the school level. All the teachers we talked to see her as the key person in the reform project: “The principal has been extremely important in the reform process. It is because of her eagerness and motivation that the rest of us have joined. She is the one who has done this, she is a very capable principal.” (Teacher)

The Innovation, focusing on “an active student school,” appears to be integrated into the prevailing school culture. Every teacher works by the philosophy of an active student school, and all of the teachers seem positive to the reform. When they first started everyone wanted to be a part of it and incoming new staff had to share the pedagogical visions of the school. One of the teachers chose to work at the school only because of the pedagogical vision and their use of ICT, even though he lives one and a half hour’s drive from work.

A3. ICT in the school and beyond

The principal and the teachers we talked to see the pedagogical reform as an integral part of the implementation of ICT since ICT cannot be a natural artifact if one continues with traditional teaching. “The Internet and the possibilities for communication force the pedagogical methods to be more active student-oriented.” (Teacher) The principal points out that it has to be the student who decides when to use ICT and when to use other learning resources. As we will show later in the report, this is largely what happens at Royse.

To be able to use ICT as a natural artifact, they find that good ICT training is important.

To be able to use ICT as a natural artifact, you have to know something about it. In the beginning we started with traditional courses for the teachers. But we found out that the teaching, both for the teachers and the students, have to be integrated with the tasks they are going to do. (Principal)

Therefore, the ICT training happens when the person needs it for the task she is doing.

A4. ICT support structure in the school

The ICT infrastructure at Royse includes 41 computers for the 140 students. These are installed in the computer room, library and all classrooms are supplied with a small number of computers as well. The teachers are mainly supplied with laptops and a few stationary computers. All the computers have access to the Internet and are equipped for Multimedia. And they are all installed with Office and Microsoft products such as Front Page, Publisher and Project. Opposite to what is commonly done in Norway, the school has an agreement with the local authorities to hand over outdated computers to the municipality administration. In addition to the computers, the school is equipped with video-canon and digital cameras and traditional video cameras.

The three schools in the municipality each have one technology support staffer. They all have a pedagogical education and are well grounded in ICT. The principal says they would not been able to meet their goals without such a person in a full-time position.

The three ICT coordinators have ICT training for the staff at the schools and for employees in the municipality. There is a degree of collaboration between the technical staff at the three schools.

A couple of the teachers are so-called “super-users” or more advanced users. Last year they held some ICT courses together with the ICT coordinator, and they also help and support teachers and students when needed. One of the oldest teachers at the school, who did not have ICT knowledge before the Innovation, says that the super-users and ICT coordinator have many courses, and are always there to help. She also stresses the other colleagues: “The colleagues have been extremely important. They say just come and ask. Even though I know that they have other things to do, they never say no.”

B. Macro-level context of the Innovation

B1. National and State/Provincial policies

The background for the ICT strategy at the three schools in Hole is the ICT plan from the Ministry of Education and the 1997 national curriculum. Both of the plans stress ICT as an integral and personal artifact at every level and in every subject. The plans also point out the importance of students and teachers as personal ICT users.

The three schools in Hole saw it as important for the school strategy to be deeply rooted in the municipality’s goals and the national goals for use of ICT in schools.For the important aspects of the ICT strategy plan for the school, see appendix.

C. Thematic analysis of the Innovation

C1. Curriculum content, goals and assessment

The reform at Royse focusing on “an active student school” has changed the curriculum content, goals and how the curriculum is delivered and organized. Each day starts with a “safety hour” in each class, where they discuss what they are going to do this week or the actual day. This is also a place to talk about national or international news and whatever the students want to discuss. After about 20 minutes, they start working on their weekly work program. The teacher sets the framework for the project, for example a project on health, but the students decide which theme they want to work on and what methods to use. They are also free to decide which subject they want to integrate and for how long. The teachers assist the students when needed and hold small talks on a topic for students who want to attend. Students who have problems keeping up with a weekly work program, receive a day-to-day plan. The schools have a lot of both smaller and bigger projects going on during the year. Different international projects have been considered important, e.g., a Comenius project, “The Internet as an English Textbook”, communication with students at Svalbard, etc.

During the day, the doors to all the rooms are open, and the students use every available room, including the computer room, whenever needed. With such an organization, it is also easier for the students to get in contact with students and teachers from other classes and levels. At the end of the day, each class gathers for a few minutes to talk about how the day has been, what they have done and what should be done.

In Norwegian primary schools, the students do not get grades, just a written assessment of how the students are doing. As a consequence of the Innovation, the teachers at Royse have changed their assessment strategy. The students are involved in the assessment process to a greater extent than before. The students fill out a log at the end of the week with comments on how well they have worked together, the subjects they have worked on and what they need to do better. It seems, however, that the teachers might have a different opinion on whether or not to give tests. Two of the teachers we talked to still find it necessary to give students traditional tests. For the lower classes they argue that tests are necessary for checking their progress in reading and writing while for the older students, tests are necessary as a preparation for secondary school. Another teacher thinks that as long as you have a process that stresses learning instead of doing, tests are not necessary: “The point is that if a child is very interested in something, and really wants to learn, e.g., ‘Yes, I want to learn this in mathematics,’ then you do not have to go in afterwards to check if he knows it.” The principal says that they are still working to find a comprehensive solution to this question. She stresses that the students have to be trained to evaluate themselves and their own progress. For this purpose the students get a form to submit. Together with an external consultant, the school is working on how to get the process focused more on learning instead of doing. They are also discussing whether to have tests or not, and how to make open-ended tests instead of traditional question-answer tasks.

C2. Teaching practices and outcomes

After Royse switched to being an active student school, the roles of the teachers and students have changed. All the teachers and students participate in problem-based learning. The teachers we talked to all say that they are more of a facilitator than a teacher. One of the oldest teachers said, however, that she finds it difficult to be a teacher after the Innovation. She is certain that the school is heading in the right direction and she thinks it is exciting, but as she says:

As a teacher I have always been the narrator, and I have always heard that I have been inspiring because I have experienced a lot in my life. But still I know that it is not the informative, talking teacher that is the best. But I find it difficult to carve out a place for myself between the role of informative teacher and facilitator.

The principal is, however, aware of this, and a teaching supervisor is available to her and other teachers whenever they need some guidance: “Then she does not have to worry about the quality of her teaching.” (Principal)The principal says the teachers at the school are very innovative and this is also our impression after our visit.

The main points the teachers stress when reflecting on their role as a teacher, is that they still set the framework for learning, but the students have the responsibility for their own learning. One of the teachers says: “Some of the students are working and some run around, so you have to drag them in and get them to work. This is very much what I am doing, as well as helping the students to get started and solve problems.” Another teacher stresses that the most important thing is to build up mutual trust between the teachers and the students: “If I say to the students that I am going to have their workbooks, I create distrust, because it is control, and control creates distrust.” Another important aspect of the teacher’s role that is stressed is helping students develop critical thinking skills and teaching them how to use different resources. The teachers are focusing on helping students deal critically with the overload of information they gather from the Internet. One of the teachers points out that the students often use the “cut-and-paste” method:

I had two students in the 5th grade who prepared a talk about monkeys from information gathered from the Internet. They wrote: “Monkey is the main producer of parts for racing motors,” or something like that, “in the States” (…). They had just pasted the text into the Word document. I mean, it said “Monkey is”, these two words were read. And the next term, main producer, a terribly long term, but ok, we will paste these two sections into the document. Because they have learned to find information on the Internet, their attitude is: “This is what I am going to have, this is what I am going to do, I am going to make a presentation and here there is some information about monkeys. I paste it in, and then I am ready.” But what we as teachers forget, is to say what you are going to do, is to learn something about monkeys.

In this example the teacher does not give the students the opportunity to master the technology used. They are doing an activity they do not master by themselves, without any guidance. As the teacher himself points out, he forgot to tell them the point and purpose of the activity, which is to learn. The end of the story is that the teacher and the girls went to the library where he showed them how to use the encyclopedia. The girls sat down on the couch with the book between them and read about monkeys. To get the students to be critical of what they read, the school has textbooks for each subject from different publishers, so the students can see that the different books say different things. “Being able to reject material as a bad source is just as important as understanding what it says. To be able to do this the student has to be a bit mature. But when their reading skills get better, then they should also be capable of doing that.” (ICT coordinator)

One of the reasons for the teachers’ attitude towards the Innovation may be the priority the school gives to training and courses for teachers. The ICT coordinator stresses the importance of teachers as personal ICT users: “ICT competence is having good enough knowledge about each of the programs so one can use it creatively.” But to get this competence, he says, they need to have an interest and a need. And this is the core of the training at Royse: teachers and students receive training related to their needs. One example is the oldest teacher at the school who did not have much computer knowledge when they started the Innovation. Her sons and grandchildren are living abroad, so the ICT coordinator showed her how to send an e-mail and print digital pictures of her grandchildren. She found this so fun that now she is making digital invitations etc. The ICT coordinator says that she became skilled in many programs, which is useful in her work with the students. The ICT coordinator and the teachers also stress the informal training at the school:

It is important to have enough machines, so the teachers are sitting together when they are working. Then they can look at each other and ask how are you doing this. If you sit by yourself, you do not get the flow of ICT knowledge. If they are sitting beside each other, there is more interaction. This is the best way to let the computer become a personal artifact. (ICT coordinator)

The teachers are very collaborative. They are divided into two teams: Teachers from grades 1-4 and the teachers from grades 5-7. One of the teachers on the grades 5-7 team said of the close collaboration:

The teachers on the big team work very closely together. After Christmas we are going to have a project on the world’s religions. All the teachers and all the students in grades 5 to 7 are working on it, and we will use all the learning resources we have. (7th grade teacher)