Avril Loveless

The role of ICT

Questions for teachers: why ICT? - Communications: Exchanging and sharing information - Finding things out - Developing ideas and making things happen - ICT for all: empowerment and limitations - Preparation, planning and review - The role of ICT in the classroom - Appendix: Keeping up to date

Technology, Pedagogy and Education: Reflections on the Accomplishment of What Teachers Know, Do and Believe in a Digital Age

In 2004 Technology, Pedagogy and Education published a review of literature which framed current understandings of pedagogy and the implications for the use of ICT in learning and teaching in formal educational settings. This article revisits the topic in the light of more recent developments in understandings of pedagogy. It offers three theoretical frameworks for understanding what teachers know, do and believe when using digital media in their practice: pedagogy and design; pedagogy and ‘Person-Plus’; and pedagogical reasoning and ICT. Examples of pedagogy and ICT are then illustrated by selected examples of research and related to a model of teacher knowledge which acknowledges the interaction between context, tools for learning and teaching, and content. The conclusions draw attention to how an approach to pedagogy which is constructive, interactive and complex is accomplished through praxis, the core of teacher education.

Creating spaces in the primary curriculum: ICT in creative subjects

This article identifies recent frameworks for describing creativity as an interaction between people, processes, domains and the wider social and cultural context, and outlines some of the concerns and policies in education in the UK. The characteristics of creativity proposed by the National Advisory Committee on Creativity in Education (NACCE) are related to definitions of ICT capability in the English National Curriculum. A view of ICT capability is presented which interacts with creative processes and provides a framework for considering a number of illustrative cases within creative subjects in the primary curriculum. Some implications for development in the primary curriculum are then discussed.

Preparing to teach with ICT: subject knowledge, Didaktik and improvisation

The article argues that preparing to be, in Shulmans words, ‘ready, willing and able’ to teach with ICT can be supported by an integrative framework of teacher professional knowledge which recognizes connections between subject domain knowledge, the didactic relation with information and communications technology (ICT), and an openness of mind in the moments of teaching, similar to improvisation. A study of teaching with ICT in an English primary school illustrates links between understandings of Didaktik and improvisation as teachers draw imaginatively upon subject knowledge to represent content and purpose appropriately for their pupils. The article discusses a relationship between understandings of Didaktik and improvisation, and the importance of conceptual subject domain knowledge in primary teacher education at a time of debate about curriculum, technology and professional knowledge.

Information literacy: innuendo or insight?

There is discussion about the definition of literacy in the ‘Information Age’ and the nature of the experience, skills, knowledge and understanding that teachers will need to develop in continuing professional development. This paper discusses the context of policy and curriculum discussions; critiques an approach to information literacy; outlines the use of a framework of ‘good practice’ in using information technology in the classroom and illustrates the reflection of these ideas in a research project. It proposes that information literacy for teachers is more than competence and capability in information retrieval and presentation, but requires awareness of the ideological, cultural, epistemological and pedagogical practices in which these capabilities are developed.

Making a Difference? An Evaluation of Professional Knowledge and Pedagogy in Art and ICT

The paper presents a research perspective on a Secondary school-based project, Art on the Net, which explored the interaction between practising artists, students and teachers using digital technologies in the visual and performance arts in school settings. The study illustrated the role that art education plays not only in providing an authentic context for the use of digital technologies, but also in offering insights into conceptualising the nature of ICT capability. This paper highlights key themes arising for participants engaged in such intervention projects and illustrates the interaction between professional knowledge and pedagogy in Art and ICT.

Create-A-Scape: Mediascapes and curriculum integration

The paper is a theoretical reflection on a research study of ‘Create-A-Scape’, a software resource for making mediascapes to support learning in the primary and secondary school curriculum. Mediascapes are collections of location-sensitive texts, sounds and images that are geo-tagged or ‘attached to’ the local landscape, and learners use mobile technologies, such as PDAs, to roam in a space or landscape to detect and respond to these multimedia tags. The study, commissioned by Futurelab, was conducted in the summer of 2007 in England. Its aims were to investigate the Create-A-Scape resource and present insights into its use, perceptions of use, and the implications and potential of mediascape tools for learning, teaching and pedagogy. A survey of all who had downloaded the software outlined early perceptions and use of the resource. Five selected case studies were developed through visits, observations and interviews with teachers and pupils using the resources to create mediascape activities. A cross-case analysis articulated three distinctive theoretical perspectives, namely creativity, teacher knowledge and a sense of place. The paper presents the conduct and findings of the study, develops the discussion of the theoretical framework, and considers the potential of such resources for mobile technologies in curriculum integration, and supporting learning in meaningful physical places.

IT'S Just Another Plate to Spin: primary school mentors’ perceptions of supporting student experience of information technology in the classroom

ABSTRACT The effective training of primary school teachers through partnerships between schools and initial teacher training institutions is the subject of much discussion in the United Kingdom at present. The quality of development of information technology (IT) capability for teachers depends on an understanding of the contribution of IT to teaching and learning, a technical competence and an ability to organise IT resources effectively in the classroom. Models of partnership should include clear definitions of the distinctive roles played by schools and initial training institutions in the students’ experience of developing IT capability. The study of mentors’ perceptions and expectations of students’ use of IT in their school experience presented here indicates that IT is not yet seen as a priority. Students’ use is limited, for a variety of reasons, and mentors do not focus particularly on IT as an area for supervision. The expectations of students’ IT competence, however, are high. The need for clea...

Creativity, visual literacy and information and communications technology

ICT can be a catalyst for an interaction between practising artists, learners and teachers facing the challenges of developing pedagogy appropriate to new aspects of subject knowledge. This paper focuses on the ways the wider community can make a contribution to the ongoing curriculum, and provide insights into how ICT can extend the cultural experiences of children. It addresses some questions about the contribution of ICT to children’s learning in the visual arts when artists bring their knowledge, understanding and practice into and beyond the school environment.

Reviewing the landscape of ICT and teacher education over 20 years and looking forward to the future

In 1992 JITTE was the first journal in its field and some said that there were not enough scholars to fill its issues. This special issue celebrates the very fertile field that is spread before us twenty years later with reviews of the landscape of ICT and teacher education. Peer reviewed papers by the journal’s editorial board provide thought provoking perspectives on the development of the field over one or two decades, including reviews of belief, pedagogy and the ways in which teacher and teacher educators have responded to ICT. This editorial also reveals influences on the scholarship of initial teacher education and digital technologies, including the editorials of this journal. Research that is starting to provide glimpses of alternative futures and the reviews in this journal, it is not difficult to see that the journal has a place in the landscape for decades to come.