What are the issues facing ICT in the early primary curriculum in the light of new initiatives?

Simon Elliott, 20th June 1998

Introduction – The importance of getting IT right.

With the many initiatives currently being put into action in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in schools, one must look at what impact these changes may have on the curriculum delivered in schools.  It is also important to consider how the emphasis on skills found within advice from central governmental may cause tensions when compared with the visions of some practitioners, who wish to take things further than the acquisition of isolated collection of skills.  It is also important to identify what is an appropriate direction for the ICT curriculum in the primary curriculum and in the early years in particular.

The face of ICT is undergoing, what is perhaps its most radical change, since the introduction of the personal computer in the late 1970’s.  Computers are being seen as essential household items with the result that many students are arriving at school with considerable IT skills; often well beyond that which the use of ICT in school will demand. However, the cost of such a purchase is beyond the reach of many families thus resulting in the emergence of a skills gap between the “haves” and “have-nots”.  To remedy this, the use of ICT in schools must start as early as possible.  The Stevenson Report puts this in strong terms;

All young people, whether they have access to ICT at home or not, should be able to apply a basic confidence and competence in the use of ICT in all aspects of their learning experiences.

The change in ICT is not simply to do with the equipment used.  It is to the level which ICT skills have become as important in the workplace as numeracy and literacy.  The Stevenson Report says;

ICT is such an important issue, both educationally and for the long term prosperity of the UK, that the level of the funding allocated must be whatever it takes to get it right.  Developing students’ competence in ICT is now an essential part of the nation’s infrastructure and, that in the national interest, Central Government cannot afford not to do it.

It is in the light of this that education must use ICT to underpin learning in its diverse entirety and not merely isolate it to specialist ICT lessons (although these have their place in the right context).  ICT must be firmly embedded throughout the school for all students to be guaranteed a consistent level of access. Snowdon says that

The school organisation that allocates the computer (facilities) to each class for one day per week is not satisfactory.  It can become intrusive and dictate the curriculum instead of enhancing it.

However, many initiatives have been introduced since the 1980’s to the point where, if one disregards the age of the equipment, the UK has a higher ratio of computers per schoolchild than almost any other country, including the US and yet, as Goldstein comments

In only one third of schools at KS1 (inspected during 1995-1996) did pupils achieve good standards.  In over one fifth of schools at KS1 pupils’ overall achievement was poor.  Only half of primary schools met the requirements of the National Curriculum in ICT.

Two visions?

If ICT is to have a real and secure place in education, it must take its place in school at a point where it has an impact on the curriculum as a whole and is not seen as an end in itself.  This may be at odds however with the emphasis on skills that is often found within governmental publications.

The statutory National Curriculum for ICT states for the first part that;

Information Technology (IT) capability is characterised by an ability to use effectively IT tools and information sources to analyse, process and present information, and to model, measure and control external events. 

This involves using information sources and IT tools to solve problems, using IT tools and information sources, such as computer systems and software packages, to support learning in a variety of contexts and understanding the implications of IT for working life and society.

Students should be given opportunities, where appropriate, to develop and apply their IT capability in their study of National Curriculum subjects.

It should be noted that this introduction to ICT in the curriculum talks specifically about ICT as a tool to assist in the performing of tasks throughout the curriculum in general and not as a subject in its own right (even if it is put in ICT-centric terms).  ICT should therefore be used to support teaching and learning in such specific areas as numeracy and literacy as well as throughout the curriculum as a whole.

If students are to learn the impact of ICT on the real world, then it will be through the acquisition of non-ICT specific skills such as drafting and revising pieces of extended writing rather than simply how to word-process text.  This must be balanced with students having opportunities to learn how to use these skills effectively within the contexts of ICT.  It is this balance between the governmental focus on skills and the emphasis on meaningful context from the “visionaries” that the school must find.

At the outset it is perhaps difficult to see how the many complexities of ICT education fit in with the Infant (KS1) Curriculum.  It must be considered, however, that familiarity with everyday technology, of which computers have surely become a part, will often begin before in pre-school learning situations and through these experiences, a confidence and dexterity with technology will develop.  The ICT Programme of Study at KS1 describes generally the direction that should be taken;

Students should be taught to use IT equipment and software confidently and purposefully to communicate and handle information, and to support their problem solving, recording and expressive work.

Students should be given opportunities to use a variety of IT equipment and software, including microcomputers and various keyboards, to carry out a variety of functions in a range of contexts, explore the use of computer systems and control technology in everyday life and to examine and discuss their experiences of IT, and look at the use of IT in the outside world.

Students should be taught to generate and communicate their ideas in different forms using tables, text, pictures and sounds, enter and store information and to retrieve, process and display information that has been stored.

Students should be taught to recognise that control is integral to many everyday devices, give direct signals or commands that produce a variety of outcomes, and describe the effects of their actions and use IT-based models or simulations to explore aspects or real and imaginary situations

It is clear here, as in the generic aims for the curriculum, that ICT is not talked about as a subject but as a number of skills to be acquired by students in a range of contexts.  It is important to identify these contexts in such a way that the focus on learning is based upon the task and not the tools that will be used and has an impact upon learning across the curriculum as a whole.

Dearing who defined the distinctive purpose of Key Stage One provided further direction by stating that it should lay the future foundation of learning by developing the basic skills of reading, writing, speaking, listening, number and information technology.

It is through exemplary material that those developing schemes of work can then see how to realise these skills into meaningful activities.  SCAA gave examples of these in 1997 when it provided suggested expectations for students at Year 2;

Creating labels, including text and pictures, for objects within or areas of the classroom.

Using a paint package to produce pictures, including tessellations and progressing onto exploring the effects of changing colours and shapes using features of the package.

Entering results of surveys into charting programs to allow the visual comparison of data.  Identifying examples of control systems in the home and classroom.

Using a word-processor to draft and redraft written work.

ICT has brought significant advancements to society in general, perhaps the most important of which is the obtaining, storing and managing of information as well as the accessibility to such information via communications technology.  It should not be surprising that this is reflected within the statements in the National Curriculum.  However, students need to develop new skills from those that are commonplace in the classroom.  Information presented in printed form for example has always been trusted as having authority.  Students will now have to become sceptical learners as they are confronted with on-line information, which can be of varied quality and reliability.  This will have to be introduced carefully from the start of Key Stage One if the skill is to be acquired effectively by all students.  However it must be recognised that a four-year-old will not know when to be sceptical and when to trust information completely.

Constable  points out that it is the meaningful use of ICT that is important.  One suggestion made is to ensure that students avoid simply typing up pre-written text, but instead teach them the use of word-processing software in drafting, redrafting, editing and spell-checking.  ICT can be a tremendous motivator for some students who have trouble presenting work as differences in ability for using margins, writing neatly and laying work out effectively are levelled by even the most basic of word-processing software.  Even this simple context brings up issues when one considers the current emphasis on student literacy.  It could be said that the computer is merely simplifying the act of referring to a dictionary.  However, many would argue whether it is appropriate to allow the early years student the use of automated spell-checkers.  The mistrust of allowing students to use the ICT tools available to them is to ignore the progress that students are already making.  All too often it can result, as previously stated, and as also stated by Heppell, in students simply typing a best copy of their work drafted in pen elsewhere.  This fights against the way in which ICT is being used for creative writing in the world-at-large and this is one of the issues most critical to consider;  whether the teaching and learning of ICTdin the primary curriculum is, at least in part, engendering a true understanding of the role that ICT plays in the “real-world”.  It is also not the way that students are learning to use ICT in the out-of-classroom environment.  Indeed, as Heppell comments further, it is the students who are changing the way they learn, faster than the way education changes the way it teaches.

Constable does go on to suggest that a well balanced Key Stage One package should include a word processor, a database, a graphics program, modelling software, some music software and a range of clip-art.  The emphasis is placed upon using a limited range of software well rather than giving them access to a large range that they will never fully exploit.  She also states that;

ICT is a skill and not a subject, a tool for learning rather that a topic to be explored.  We do not teach, learn or assess other skills in isolation, but through the medium of a subject or theme.  Similarly ICT skills are best acquired, used and assessed through the medium of other curriculum areas, so we are not only assessing the student’s ICT capability but also the understanding of a given subject through the medium of ICT.

This is also commented upon by Davis who says that ICT skills are more easily learned in the context of some other pursuit and go onto argue that, for ICT to have a positive impact on learning, the aims of ICT in education must go beyond simple skills acquisition and ask what can be done with ICT that could not be done without it.

As long ago as 1984, Chandler was suggesting that the appropriateness of task was vital in using ICT in a meaningful way.  Students should be thought of as explorers rather than data-handling systems and likewise their use of ICT should facilitate this.  It was pointed out, however, that some aspects of ICT could frustrate some students.  The use of word processing software can result in work as never being seen as finished but merely in its most satisfactory stage of editing.  Thus, even the most appropriate task holds pitfalls for the unwary.  In early years education the use of the word-processor will need to be carefully structured to avoid overwhelming the student.  Customised menus with limited choices would be an example of differentiating student access to the tool with menus graded for ability and consideration must be given to the writing task itself being meaningful and within the child’s cognitive ability.

It does not seem satisfactory to simply suggest an appropriate range of tools, as does the National Curriculum, without giving examples of appropriate activities in which to introduce them however the tasks available to the curriculum manager are dictated, to a large extent, by the programme of study and the facilities available.  For example, word processing software could be seen as a tool for presenting students’ work in a more effective manner than might be achieved by hand.  In other words, as Snowdon says;

ICT must enhance the curriculum not merely replace certain parts of it

The use of text-justification, variations in font and font-size used as well as the use of embedded pictures and even sound and video are all tasks made possible by the use of ICT.  Thus the young learner is free to concentrate on their imagination and leave the complexities of presentation to the software.  The tools therefore should take second place to the task, especially in early years education.

It is through more complex documents such as those outlined above, that ICT can also be used to facilitate collaborative learning.  The class “newspaper” for example, allows for the use of small groups for creating the textual content, gathering pictures (perhaps with a digital camera) and sound as well as editing the final document.  It is at this final stage that the expertise of the classroom teacher can intervene in the process, especially when the problems of ICT resources in most schools are taken into account.  This situation can also be used as an opportunity for the teacher to introduce the skills needed for the students to use the ICT present in the classroom.

As already stated, it is important to begin the development of these skills within, if not before, Key Stage One.  Heinrichbelieves that a clear programme of study must exist at the nursery / reception class level with clear intended outcomes that are met for all children before the onset of Key Stage One.  The basic skills required by the pupils can be split into two stages beginning with pupils learning how to use the mouse, including the select button and move the cursor around the screen using the mouse.  Once these skills are mastered, pupils can move onto further use of the mouse, including double-clicking, accessing work on disk drives, keyboard skills (delete, cursor, shift and caps-lock keys) and the everyday use of computers.

If these skills can be engendered into all children by the start of Key Stage One then the differential in skill levels due to home background would be largely removed even if the differrences in experience and understanding.  It should be noted therefore that there exists a basic set of skills that the user must have in order to have access to the ICT equipment that they will use.

Children need tasks that are related to them.  The bundle of CD-ROMS that come with many educational computers may appear attractive however when the Multimedia World Atlas, for example, shows their town as a small dot, the material ceases to become relevant to their situation.  To the young learner, their world is very often home and school.  They need resources that they can comprehend and recognise readily and this is where multimedia-authoring tools will come into their own.  Through these, teachers and students will be able to create resources that fit better into the curriculum of that school and the locality that the school is situated in.

The extended classroom and its role in teaching and learning

The government has recently provided further impetus for change with the proposal for a National Grid for Learning (NGfL). This was described as;

A mosaic of interconnecting networks and education services based on the Internet which will support teaching, learning, training and administration in schools, colleges, universities, libraries, the workplace and homes.

The drive for this ‘new’ revolution in many ways has been the publicity given to the Internet by the media.  This is largely due to its commercial possibilities but also because, for those with access to it, the Internet can provide almost unlimited information, which is delivered at the point of use.  However this does require skill on the part of the user in reviewing and evaluating material in order to discard that which is less than useful.

The Internet is often thought of as being the point at which the “C enters ICT”.  However the one-way delivery of information to the passive viewer is not ‘communication’ in its true sense, it is simply dissemination (after all, how many conversations are one-way?).  It is only through the active-user accessing tools such as E-mail, discussion groups and the ability to upload information, as well as download, that ICT becomes revolutionary.

This is a powerful suggestion as students at present are not part of a learning community wider than the classroom or school that they learn in.  However this does not, in itself, tell us how it will support teaching and learning.  Again it is the context of the learning, which is vital to establish.  The Internet opens up the opportunity for students not only to access learning resources supplied by others (as is normally the case in most classrooms) but also to contribute to the learning resources available for others through the creation of web pages.  It should be commented that even after the NGfL initiative has been fulfilled, the internet will only form a part of the school’s strategy for ICT.

The use of ICT to support teaching should offer the teacher some hope of reducing the workload rather than increasing it.  Take the example of schemes of work that, with the requirements of the National Curriculum, often follow a similar path from teacher-to-teacher and school-to-school.  A collaborative approach could be used with teaching staff and the Internet to give a forum for developing common schemes based upon shared good practice.  Teachers will then not only save time as duplication of work is eliminated, but will also benefit from the experience of a wide range of peers that can come from their own locality or even world-wide.  This forum would also allow newly qualified teachers to be supported by local and national government agencies as well as more experienced peers in a more direct way than possible now.  It will also assist those teaching at Key Stages One and Two when working outside their area of speciality as the learning community produces shared resources.  Thus ICT could have a direct impact on the quality of learning resources (and thus hopefully on the learning) available.

Many would question the actual benefits of using the internet within the classroom itself?.  The answers presented below offer some suggestions;

The information presented on the Internet, as stated earlier, forces students to think critically…it also opens up a tremendous range of resources at little cost.

Students can download resources in other languages to use within modern-foreign language lessons or to increase cultural awareness.

The use of E-mail can result in real-time or near-real-time communication between students and sometimes between students and individuals in work.

Teachers can enrich changing curricula with up-to-date resources that are very often free.

The last point above offers perhaps the biggest impact for students. With the range of resources and sources of information already on the Internet, there should soon be an end to students being faced with textual resources that are sometimes ten or twenty years out-of-date.  Teachers can visit appropriate web-sites before the planned learning activity and then either download them for off-line browsing or print out the resources and copy them for the group.  This means that students working on a topic such as “Our World” can use resources such as news reports of a volcanic eruption that occurred the day before and thus the learning resources become more relevant to the students.

The resources on the Internet need not be a one-way affair either.  As mentioned earlier, students now have the opportunities to publish their own work on the Internet either on schools’ web-sites or via other student-focused web-sites.  This can be a great incentive for students to focus on the task at hand as they realise that “real people” may look at their work and even respond via e-mail.  Learning resources can also be placed on school Intranets, that is web pages stored on a local computer rather than on the Internet, which offers much faster access for the students and allows for a more specific controlling of the range of content by the teacher.  This may be the most appropriate way for Key Stage One classes to access web pages and to trial school web pages before displaying them on the Internet.  However those managing the learning resources will have to download sufficient resources to cover the curriculum and keep them up-to-date.

The NGfL will, therefore, have an impact on all teachers in some form, especially on those schools that are at or approaching the embedded stage of ICT implementation.  The real issue is that, without classroom based ICT resources throughout a school that are sufficiently modern to take advantage of the internet and without teachers who feel confident at using the new technologies, whether the NGfL will have an impact on all students.

Realising an embedded curriculum

Once opportunities for the use of ICT have been identified within the curriculum and resources required to achieve these are known, there are then three levels which a school must pass through in order to get to the stage described as embedded;

ICT is used to support the curriculum already being offered

ICT is used to enhance the curriculum to offer it in a better form.

ICT is used to extend or even change the curriculum.

If this embedding of ICT is to happen in the curriculum then it is important to define success criteria by which this state can be recognised.  One view of when this could be seen to have happened is when;

Management supports ICT users and applications across the curriculum, and ensure that ICT development is represented on SMT

The ICT Co-ordinator meets needs as they arise in the support of all staff

Parental and outside support is recognised at senior management level

Regular updates are made, and new challenges are internally set and created

Teachers use curriculum and administrative ICT fluently

ICT is integrated into school staff development, rather that being treated as a separate issue

Problem solving and questioning are learning approaches that are supported increasingly by the use of ICT

ICT skills for students are seen as necessary and readily achievable, but less important than what students can achieve by using them

Technical support becomes less of a problem.  Access to spare or less-used equipment is available in the event of maintenance or breakdown

Funding is allocated and particular senior managers have responsibilities to meet the targets required

Open access is encouraged and students are able to use the equipment without having to ask permission every time

The school seeks to match its ICT development approach to suit community ICT needs and expectations

Considerations of quality are high on the agenda.  The contribution that ICT makes to increase quality within the resource base, environment and relationships is considered carefully

ICT records are used to inform development and planning within the school

National organisations and external agencies sought to support school review and assessment process

ICT used at the embedded stage is still largely risk-free and is controlled firmly by the teaching staff.  The activities in which ICT is being applied to are not in any way innovative and are based on researched actual practice and thus fall within the abilities of the staff and the support structure of the school.

This embedded stage must be seen as a target for all schools to work towards.

If this is a target for schools to aim at, and many would suggest that this is not at an unreasonable level, then a great many schools will find themselves with the need to make considerable investment in equipment and training.  However this is not a task to underestimate, as Constable says;

Though some schools are fortunate to have the time, finances and expertise … the reality for most primaries is one of struggling with under-funding and lack of time to maintain basic ICT provision.

Issues for Initial Teacher Training (ITT)

These issues of the competency of teachers at using ICT will be addressed, to some extent, concerning those whom are starting ITT in autumn 1998 onwards.  The document for the use of ICT in subject teaching describes a set of skills which trainee teachers must demonstrate by the end of Initial Teacher Education.  There are two main sections to the document, which divide the skills into separate areas, the use of ICT in effective teaching and assessment and the competence in ICT itself.  The document begins with a statement that summarises many of the comments quoted earlier in this essay;

This curriculum (ICT in ITT) is different from those for primary and secondary English, Mathematics and Science because it does not relate to a particular subject.  It is concerned with the ways in which ICT can be used effectively in the teaching of other subjects in the pupils’ National Curriculum.

ICT is more than just another teaching tool.  Its potential for improving the quality and standards of pupils’ education is significant.

The first section is based upon trainees being taught techniques for using ICT within their curriculum area such as when ICT can enhance students learning and when it is not an appropriate tool.  It is split into different sections;

The benefits of ICT in achieving teaching objectives in the subject and phases and when it would be less effective or inappropriate.

The implications of ICT functions on the achieving of teaching objectives.

The effect of using ICT in the curriculum on teachers’ planning.

The most effective ways of organising classroom ICT resources.

The recognition that ICT can have a specific contribution to the teaching of students with specific educational needs.

The development and consolidation of students’ ICT capabilities within the context of the taught subjects.

The monitoring, evaluation and assessment of both the teaching and learning in the subject being taught when ICT is being used and to evaluate specifically the contribution that ICT has made to the teaching of that subject.

The importance, where applicable, of introducing students in nursery and reception classes to the use of ICT and to recognise the contribution that ICT can make to this age group.

These areas of competence address the teacher’s abilities in recognising how ICT is best used in the classroom, in terms of curriculum management.  However newly qualified teachers have to the identify situations where ICT would enhance the curriculum and then develop confidence in using ICT in the areas that they have identified. 

This second section deals more specifically with the demonstration of the teacher’s ability in the competent use of ICT itself and their awareness of relevant research and good practice.

Teachers will have to demonstrate that they can use and manage a range of ICT resources such as computer hardware and peripherals as well as software including the efficient use of the operating system that they have.  This should ensure that new teachers are self reliant in the classroom and, for example, when the printer stops working in the middle of the lesson they are able to correct simple faults without the flow of the lesson being spoilt whilst the school “expert” is summoned.  Support therefore needs to exist to make these skills accessible to existing qualified teachers

The requirement will also be there for teachers to show that they understand how to acquire, evaluate, manipulate and ultimately present information in a form that is useful to the students in the learning situations that will arise.  This means that they will have to understand how to get the most out of the Internet and other information sources such as CD-ROMS as well as how the information may be communicated between teachers and students.

The real-world solutions that ICT is used to achieve is another area of knowledge that teachers must gain if they are to be able to instruct in just this area of the curriculum.  They must also demonstrate that they understand how to choose examples that fit the age and ability range of the group that are in the learning situation.  It is in this area that the use of ICT for controlling environments and processes as well as simulating such processes fits.  This is often the biggest area of weakness as it is not something that people come into contact with in the course of their everyday lives.

Finally teachers are expected to demonstrate that they understand how to use the ICT resources available to them in the creation of learning resources for the students, the best ways that such resources may be presented and how these resources will satisfy the requirements of the National Curriculum.  They must show an awareness of health and safety legislation regarding the use if ICT, the Data Protection Act, Copyright issues and the availability of illegal or immoral material from such sources as the Internet.

All of these areas of knowledge will go a long way to ensuring that newly qualified teachers are both competent and confident in their use of ICT however it then raises the issue of retraining those teachers who qualified when such skills were not part of ITT.

Conclusions

In the course of researching for this essay, as any ICT Co-ordinator will know, it was alarming at the lack of resources available for those wishing to investigate the use of ICT in the primary curriculum as a whole, let alone Key Stage One.  The majority of works written were published in the microcomputer boom of the early 1980’s and are software specific.  Hence, resources that can easily be applied to the modern classroom are few and far between and those on using the Internet in teaching tend to be almost exclusively American in origin.

It is clear that the implications of the “new” revolution in ICT are wide reaching for schools but only if there is a comprehensive and wide-reaching change in attitudes amongst teachers in general.

To avoid a “haves” / “have-not” skills gap, comprehensive access to ICT must begin at, or before, Key Stage One.  In order for this to happen, schools need ICT resources at the point of learning as well as in situations that allow specialist ICT training such as suited computers to ensure integration into the whole curriculum.  The use of these ICT resources in the school should seek to build high level success in a small range of resources rather than low level success in a wide range and, if ICT is to be useful in the Primary school, it must support teaching and learning across all subjects.

In order for teaching staff to feel confident and be competent in their use of ICT, they must have access to effective training that keeps their skills relevant to current technologies.  They must also have access to ICT resources outside the environment of the classroom and have a clear overview of how they will introduce ICT activities throughout the programme of study in the context of the limitations of the available classroom ICT resources and their own skill level and through effective support, of both a technical and pedagogical nature, at a school, LEA and Central Government levels.

In order for them to create a positive environment for ICT in the classroom, schools must have a clear understanding of why ICT is important in the modern world, where it fits into the everyday educational life of the school and when its use is inappropriate.  This philosophy must then be, and be seen to be, universal throughout the school if students are not to receive mixed messages about the importance of the role of ICT in the modern world or worse, receive unequal access to ICT resources depending upon the teacher or school that they find themselves being educated by.

As well as new skills, the educational system needs has to have the foresight to engender skills to four-year-olds that will be applicable in or around 2010 when they are preparing to enter the workplace.  It is pointless to teach skills that are already out of date today or are not transferable to new technologies as they arise.  This can only come about if the equipment used is not itself out of date.

Finally, as has been demonstrated by the many projects supplying hardware to schools over the past two decades and the resulting unacceptable variation4 in the use of ICT within the primary sector, the supply of more hardware, as part of the NGfL initiative will be an irrelevant and costly mistake if it is not accompanied by an unprecedented level of training available for all teaching staff.   This must be maintained at a level that creates a competent and confident profession with respect to ICT in education.

Bibliography