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In the classroom
Misconceptions
Two kinds of misconceptions are discussed here, but
both have a common theme - that of confusing activity with learning -
and both concern misconceptions held by (amongst others) the writers of
web-based materials. The first relates to how interactivity with web-pages
is judged, the second is the misconception held by a number of people
who write educational resources (including those published on the Internet)
concerning the nature of lesson plans.
Interactivity: this is regarded as a 'good thing'
- but what does it mean? Some people judge the interactivity of a web
page by the number of clicks ('interactions') that a person makes on it
in a given time - more equaling good. But this misconception does not
consider the type of interactivity that one should aim to encourage -
or how one can know that it is happening. Think about the game 'Free Cell'.
What does interactivity mean in this context? Imagine two pupils: one
clicks away at the cards, randomly and quickly, while the other sits staring
at the screen for a long time, mentally manipulating the cards to see
which is the best move to make. Both are 'interacting' with the programme
- but which is better? And how can you easily tell the difference between
the latter pupil and one who is simply sitting, looking at the screen
bored out of his/her mind? For the purposes of teaching and learning one
wishes to encourage mental interactivity not (simply) physical interactivity
- encourage 'minds on' not (just) 'hands on'.
Lesson plans: You may have come across many examples
of 'lesson plans' that are not. You may find it useful to compare some
of these plans with the criteria we have discussed. A number of teachers
(and others) confuse lesson resources with lesson plans - and in particular
they confuse planning for activity with planning for learning. Lessons
are planned with the objective of pupils learning something - not with
the objective of them just doing something. Again the point is 'minds
on' not (just) 'hands on'. Of course your lessons will involve the pupils
in activities - but the purpose of these is to aid (specified) learning
- not to be an end in themselves. This distinction is discussed in greater
length in the sessions devoted to lesson planning, but your experience
of finding and evaluating lesson plans and resources should have given
you a better understanding of it - and hence of the difference between
a lesson resource and a lesson activity.
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Classroom examples
A teacher has posted to the Teacher Resource Exchange
a link to some evaluation
forms she has successfully used with Year 9.
The Teacher
Resource Exchange is a useful source of lesson ideas. There is no control
over what is published so a number of the ideas are pretty dire (some spectacularly
so...) but nevertheless it contains numerous gems, and it is worth browsing
it regularly since it now appears to be 'taking off' with regular additions.
You might even consider posting something there yourself!
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Teaching point
You completed some of this activity in pairs. Working
in pairs or larger groups often happens in IT lessons, either because
the teacher believes group work is a good thing, or because of shortage
of equipment. Two points about this:
First, how has the pair worked? Two possibilities
are cooperatively and collaboratively. Working cooperatively, you would
have divided the task between you and each taken part of it, so that,
while working on your own, you cooperated to finish the task. Working
collaboratively, you would have (at least) discussed your findings with
each other and learnt from each other. Some tasks are better suited to
cooperation (for example the finding of the resources) and others to collaboration
(for example the deciding on an evaluation framework and then using this).
The distinction between these two ways of working is important - and of
course also has implications for your assessment of what individuals have
learnt and done.
Second - how is credit amongst a pair/group to be
allocated? How can you as a teacher find out about the attainment of each
member of the pair or group? A number of you have had first-hand experience
of this issue since some universities set tasks to groups of students
and then give all the students in that group the same mark - so your degree
classification may have depended on the work of others. We will consider
this issue when we discuss your evaluations.
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Other Resources
The DfEE Schemes of Work
Before the session, you should
look at the following units of the DfEE schemes of work:
Key Stage 3: unit 2 Information
and presentation; unit 10 Information:
reliability, validity and bias.
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Books/Papers
See chapter 4 of 'Learning to Teach Using ICT in
the Secondary School' edited by Marylin Leask and Norbert Pachler (Institute
library reference Loyx Ref LEA), which discusses the use of the Internet
as a teaching and learning tool, and chapter 5, which discusses the evaluation
of multimedia products.
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