HMCS Vancouver Pre-Deployment Brief - May 2024 (Web Version).pptx
Isatt2013 juli 4
1. #ISATT2013
Can mobile technologies mobilize teaching and learning?
An exploratory study of teachers’ thoughts and practices
concerning the use of tablet PC’s
Natalie Pareja Roblin
Jo Tondeur
Johan van Braak
Ghent University
Joke Voogt
Petra Fisser
University of Twente
Griet Mathieu
Bram Bruggeman
Het Perspectief
3. Little attention to teachers’ perceptions
Would it fit
with my
course
content? What can we
achieve with
them?
How should
we use
them?
4. Goals of the study
• Analyze the ways in which teachers use
tablets in their teaching practice.
• Understand the rationality underlying
teachers’ decisions regarding the use of
tablets in their teaching practice.
How?
Why?
5. Practicality Ethic
(Doyle & Ponder 1977; Janssen et al., 2013)
– Expression of teachers perceptions of the
potential consequences of attempting to
implement a change proposal in the classroom.
– Central ingredient in the initial decision teachers
make regarding the implementation of a proposed
change in classroom procedures.
6. Practicality Ethic
(Doyle & Ponder, 1977)
INSTRUMENTALITY
Specification of procedures that
have classroom validity
COSTS/BENEFITS
Relationship between effort and
resources required and the return
teachers might expect from it
CONGRUENCE
Correspondace with teachers’
present teaching philosophy and
practice
7. Research context
Project: “Path to the digital world in the class”
• 3 technical/vocational
secondary schools in East
Flanders (n= 9 teachers).
• Each school received 16
tablets for a period of 3 to
4 weeks.
• External support:
• Kick off session
• Workshop about tablets
and apps
• Online support
8. Research context
Characteristic School 1 School 2 School 3
Number of students 414 720 500
Number of teachers 75 120 100
Subjects involved in
the project
Dutch
History
Public Relations
Dutch
History
Mathematics
French
Bikes
Bikes & Motors
# Students
Year
Specialization
9 students
6th year
Public Relations
9 students
4th year
Technical Sciences
7 students
5th year
Auto motors
Period where
tablets were used
April – May 2012 May - June 2012 September –
October 2012
Remarks Tablets remain in
the school
*Workshop for
students
*Students take
tablets home
Tablets remain in
the school
9. Methodology
• Exploratory multiple case study (Yin, 2003)
– Case School (n=3)
– Units of analysis teachers (n=9)
• Data sources
Why?
• 14 classroom observations
• 9 teacher reflections
• 3 focus group discussions
• 9 recall interviews
How?
• Data analysis
– Deductive + inductive analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1994)
– Constant comparisons (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000)
10. Participants
School Teacher Age Teaching
experience
in years
Subject # Lessons
taught with
tablets
Personal
tablet
School 1 Karen 33 8 History 4 (1h) No
Laura 51 26 Dutch 3 (2h) No
Susan 42 17 Public
Relations
1 (4h) No
School 2 Valerie 48 11 Dutch 5 (2h) Yes
Martha 57 32 History 3 (1h) Yes
Melanie 60 25 Mathematics 3 (2h) Yes
School 3 Wouter 37 5 Bikes &
motors
4 (2h) No
Frans 39 4 Bikes 3 (2h) No
Bert 50 28 French 3 (2h) No
12. Fix a bike with the help of a
tutorial
Search for and critically assess
information on the internet
Film and critically assess their own
presentations
Draw a time line of historic events
Make a movie-clip with the
characteristics of first films
Overviewofmain
typesofuses
15. Congruence
Extent to which the use of tablets is aligned with teachers’ present teaching philosophy
and practices
Compatibility with:
• Content
• Available apps
• Previous ICT use
• Personal goals/intentions
“When the project started, one thinks about ones lessons and how to force the apps into
them. But then I turned this around, I looked first at the apps and at what I wanted to
teach, and what I could do with this app to achieve it. Then it works much better, I
believe” (Valerie, S2)
21. Benefits – Student learning
Teachers’ perceptions about the advantages of using tablets in their teaching practice
Motivation
(?)
Active
involvement
New
competences
“They were obviously more enthusiastic, but the question
is whether that was because it was something new for
them” (Bert, S3)
“They can now do something creative and that is also
what I liked so much about it, that you see talents of
students that would have otherwise not been seen”
(Karen, S1)
22. Benefits – Teaching
“[…] you can combine quite a lot of it by using
the tablet, because then you have that for ICT,
for ongoing issues, you have connection to
the internet, you can easily integrate that
in your lessons”
(Valerie, S2)
“That they can see each other […] then they
can also see and hear the results of other
groups, for that it is very interesting”
(Bert, S3)
23. Benefits – Teaching
“Purely taken that was, well, I won t say a waste of time
because it is always good for that basic vocabulary, that can
never harm, but it did not really connect to those things
they need to know” (Bert, S3)
“I will be honest, I can do a better job with that on my active
board. On my active board I have the entire class, so I put on
my Google and show it to them” (Martha, S2)
24. Costs
Teachers estimation of the extra effort, time and risks associated with the use of
tablets in their teaching practice
Finding (suitable) apps
“At home I looked what [apps] I could use, I found that to be very frustrating” (Valerie, S2)
“The searching for apps, looking for what fitted best to the lesson content. So, looking what I
could use, that cost the most time, was the hardest” (Melanie, S2)
25. Costs
Teachers estimation of the extra effort, time and risks associated with the use of
tablets in their teaching practice
Loss of control over:
• Ways in which lessons unfold
• Classroom management
“In groups that I have of 24 students it would be much
harder. That I can hardly see myself being able to
control”(Martha, S2)
“At this moment I have very tough classes, very large
groups and I do not find them ready to work with it
right now, so I will certainly not risk it now” (Laura,
S1)
26. Conclusions and discussion
• Tablets were used in ways that aligned with previous practices: only minor
changes were made.
• Access to (suitable) apps, and integration with course content (TPACK) are
perceived as major challenges for integrating tablets.
• The costs (e.g. finding suitable apps) and risks (e.g. classroom
management) of integrating tablets were experienced by most teachers as
higher than the perceived potential benefits for student learning and for
their own instructional practices (cf. McGrail, 2005).
• How can professional development programs:
– help teachers see and understand the ways in which tablets can be used to
facilitate teaching and learning?
– inspire and challenge long held routines and beliefs?
– contribute to bridge practicality considerations and change? (cf. Janssen et al., 2013)
Teachers usually integrated tablets in ways that aligned with their daily practices. Multiple criteria were used by teachers to decide in which lessons and how tablets would be used. These criteria include: 1) compatibility with course plan/content, 2) compatibility with available apps, 3) compatibility with previous use of ICT, and/or 4) compatibility with personal goals and/or intentions.
While teachers integrated tablets within activities that they would normally do, adjustments were usually made. Sometimes these adjustments were minor and did not affect the nature and/or characteristics of the learning activity (e.g. use of a new technology to support the same learning activity). In other occasions, however, adjustments included the incorporation of new elements that increased the complexity and/or expanded the scope of the learning activity at hand (e.g. active student engagement in the creation of a learning product).
Teachers perceived that the use of tablets in the classroom resulted in increased student motivation; however, they also acknowledged that this could be attributed to the “novelty” of tablets and therefore may “water down” with time.Next to increased student motivation, teachers noticed that students were more actively involved in their learning process. In the view of some teachers (n=3), active student involvement often led to a better understanding of the content at hand. This was particularly observed in those lessons where the use of tablets was closely integrated with course content.All nine teachers also acknowledged that students were able to develop and/or demonstrate competences that normally do not receive much attention in the curriculum, such as creativity, problem solving, or the ability to search and critically assesse information on the Internet. While the opportunities to support other types of competences in the classroom could be attributed to the multimedia possibilities offered by tablets, it could also be related to the type of activities students engaged in (i.e. more student centered and task oriented).
Teachers acknowledged that the characteristics of tablets (i.e. small and portable, multimedia, Wi-Fi connection) facilitated the integration of technology in the classroom by making it more efficient (e.g. no problems with cables, no need to go to the computer room, multiple resources in one single device) and flexible (e.g. mobility of teachers and students, access to Internet anywhere and anytime). The opportunities for increased interaction with and between students were also acknowledged as a potential advantage of tablets, and more specifically of the possibilities offered by the Apple TV to share and display individual screens (n=4). One teacher further acknowledged that the non-obtrusive nature of tablets facilitated interaction with students by enabling eye contact. Finally, another potential benefit of using tablets identified by teachers was the opportunity to bring diversity and variety into the classroom, and thereby increase student motivation and/or facilitate student learning.
While all teachers perceived that tablets had a positive impact on student motivation and involvement in the learning process, not all of them were fully convinced about the extent to which tablets contributed to improve student learning. Some teachers (n=3) found it difficult to integrate tablets with the course content and therefore wondered about the extent to which tablets may contribute to student learning and thereby result in improved outcomes. Moreover, when comparing tablets with other technology normally used in the classroom, some teachers (n=3) wondered what was the “added value” of using tablets, instead of other technology.
While the use of tablets was generally perceived as simple and effortlessness, the use of specific apps sometimes required additional technical knowledge and skills from teachers, and occasionally also from students. Furthermore, the fact that most apps are in English demanded extra efforts from teachers as they searched for apps as well as from students as they worked with the app.Beyond getting acquainted with the apps and the potential restrictions related to language, what seemed to have demanded most time and effort from teachers was finding (suitable) apps for their course. The limited information available about the apps made it difficult for them to, within the large range of available options, 1) differentiate between educative and non-educative apps and/or 2) identify those apps that are most suitable for their specific subject domain. This was perceived by all teachers (except one) as a time-consuming and frustrating experience. Searching for suitable apps as well as finding ways to integrate them in their lessons demanded an important investment of time from teachers. Seven out of nine teachers experienced that lesson planning demanded more time from them. Nevertheless, they also acknowledged that time investment would reduce as they become more familiar with the apps and gain more experience with the use of tablets in the classroom.
A perceived risk associated with the integration of tablets relates to the sense of “loss of control” over classroom management and over the way in which the lesson would unfold. All the teachers who participated in the study believe that the use of tablets may significantly increase students’ “temptation” to go on social media or play games, and thereby distract them from the task. Teachers identified three factors that may potentially increase the risk of student distraction -and overall make classroom management more difficult: 1) group size, 2) age, 3) group type.Next to the sense of “loss of control” over classroom management, a couple of teachers perceived that they had less control over the lesson and the ways in which it unfolded. On the one hand this relates to the fact that the use of tablets in the classroom was something new for teachers, and therefore difficult to predict. On the other hand, the sense of loss of control relates to the implementation of learning activities where the control over the learning process relies not only on the teacher but (mainly) on the student.