Using & Teaching Educational Technology
Could do better: 4 ‘malfunctions’ in ICT the provision of England and Wales
By Terry Freedman
Tue, 26 May 2009, 11:09

According to David Anstead of Ofsted, there are 4 systemic problems in the provision of ICT, these being the use of assessment, some qualifications, value for money, and getting ICT to the learning. At the Naace 2009 Conference he discussed each of these. Here are my notes from that session.

Note that the session was timed to coincide (more or less) with the publication of Ofsted's report into the state of ICT, which I referred to in an article in Computers in Classrooms.

Malfunctions

The use of assessment

These slides depict how assessment is used, and how Ofsted thinks it should be used:

The ACTUAL use of assessment in ICT

In this model, ICT is taught as a discrete subject, and is then assessed. Pupils’ use of, and achievement in, ICT in other subjects is not taken into account, and tracking does not take place either. As for pupils’ own evaluation of their capabilities, forget it.

The IDEAL use of assessment in ICT

In this model, the assessment of ICT is continuously tracked (assessment for learning), and the use of ICT in other subjects is fed into the assessment process too. Bizarrely, there is an arrow leading from 'assessment' to 'self-evaluation', whereas I should have thought that it would logically be the other way round, or even going in both directions.

This is all very well, but in practice, in my experience, the assessment of a pupil's achievement in ICT in another subject is problematic, for these reasons:

 
• The teacher has enough to do as far as her own subject is concerned, let alone assessing another subject too.
 
• The teacher often does not have the expertise to assess the use of ICT properly.

When I raised the second point as an issue, Anstead agreed with me, and thought the answer lay in training. But that simply begs the question: how do you get colleagues to attend training on how to assess ICT?

On the first issue, Anstead suggested that perhaps a quid pro quo of using the technical facilities is that teachers be expected to assess its use. In my experience, a lot of teachers will either not bother to use the facilities, or the 'assessment' will deteriorate into a box-ticking exercise. In any case, I think using the facilities should be a right, not conditional on doing something extra.

I do not wish to sound unduly negative, but in my experience it is extremely hard to get other teachers to assess ICT at all, or properly. A far better solution, in my opinion, is to recruit enough ICT staff to enable them to visit other lessons and/or look at pupils' work in order to arrive at their own conclusions.

I'd be interested in your opinions on this issue.

Qualifications

Surprise surprise, some qualifications at Key Stage 4 (16-18/19 years) are not especially challenging as far as ICT is concerned. Several of them ask the student to demonstrate mastery already achieved rather than to learn new skills.

Apparently, some vocational qualifications have not been approved by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, so any course that is based on them may not cover the National Curriculum in ICT, which is statutory.

Best value

Another statutory obligation on the part of schools is to achieve best value for money. Most people (me included) tend to think of this in terms of obtaining the best price for something, through competition. However, as Anstead pointed out, there are 4 aspects of best value:

 
• Competition.
 
• Comparisons: the need to benchmark your school's performance against that of other schools.
 
• Consultation: the need to consult with all stakeholders, such as pupils, staff, parents and teaching assistants.
 
• Challenge: you need to challenge why a service is being provided at all; this is clearly part of the 'so what?' principle which underlies much of the inspection process.

There is more on best value at Teachernet.

Getting ICT to the learning

I am afraid that I made no notes on this part of the talk, so I can only assume that it means that ICT should underpin learning throughout the school.

Improving ICT provision

Anstead suggested that in order to move ICT from satisfactory to good, the following had to be undertaken:

Moving from satisfactory to good

I think this is very sound advice. And once again, the importance of senior leadership and management in this process is highlighted.

Wordle summary:

This is reflection #14 in a series of 25 reflections on the Naace 2009 Conference.

© Terry Freedman Tue, 26 May 2009