Designs for learning: ICT and knowledge in the classroom

This paper explores the relationship between Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and learning in schools. It draws on the preliminary results of the InterActive Education Project, which is concerned with learning within the subject areas of English, history, geography, mathematics, music, modern foreign languages and science. Within the project teachers, teacher educators and researchers work together to develop and evaluate learning initiatives (called Subject Design Initiatives). These SDIs are concerned with learning about particular areas of the curriculum which students might normally find difficult and where a particular use of ICT could enhance learning. The idea is to use ICT which is readily available in schools and yet under utilised, for example Word and drop-down menus in modern foreign languages, the Oxford English Dictionary on-line in English, and graph-plotting software in mathematics. One aspect of the project is to understand why, despite three decades of government initiatives and academic research, the use of ICT in teaching and learning remains only partially understood by educationalists and inconsistently practised in schools. The InterActive Education project is predicated on the view that ICT alone does not enhance learning. How ICT is incorporated into learning activities is what is important. Here the role of the teacher is crucial and a focus on design within the InterActive Education project foregrounds the teacher’s responsibility to craft a learning situation. Feedback on student learning is provided by digital video recordings of classroom interactions, together with students’ work and interviews with students.