Adult Learners and ICT: An Intervention Study in the UK

The study’s aim was to develop effective ICT based teaching strategies through a series of trials using theoretically grounded ICT task designs targeted at specific adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL learning objectives. Both the development of literacy skills through the use of ICT and the acquisition and development of ICT skills were examined. Working with a group of nine practitioners who agreed to participate both as teachers and as action researchers, we developed nine teaching interventions based on schemes of work that embedded ICT literacy within adult Literacy, Language and Numeracy classes as well as introducing new pedagogical techniques. Seven of these projects were taken into an intervention phase were the approaches and strategies employed were evaluated. Involvement of tutors was a key element of this process, both in deciding on the development of the ICT interventions and in the research process through reflection on their developing practice using ICT. Participants were, interviewed, observed, and the learners were assessed at the start and end of their 8 week course for attainment in reading and listening skills in English, as well as background, attitude and attainment in ICT literacy through bespoke questionnaires and assessment materials matched to the Skills for Life ICT curriculum. Findings support hypotheses that use of ICT boosts adult learners’ confidence in learning as well as rapidly gain ICT skills and double the value of study time by acquiring two sets of skills. 1 ICT to support Skills for Life: the UK case One important aspect of the strategy proposed by the Moser report [1] was the use of ICT to support delivery of basic skills, “At the heart of improved quality in delivery and materials must be increased use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to improve basic skills”. Specific claims were: ICT is a powerful tool to raise levels of literacy and numeracy. Computers and multimedia software provide attractive ways of learning. The Web enables access to the best materials and the most exciting learning opportunities. ICT offers a new start for adults returning to learning. And: 1 This project was part of a group of Effective Practice Projects supported by ESF and NRDC (the National Research and Development Centre for adult literacy and numeracy). Learners who use ICT for basic skills double the value of their study time acquiring two sets of skills at the same time. By 2003, ICT was itself coming to be seen as a “Skill for Life”, in the White Paper, 21st Century Skills: Realising Our Potential [2], ICT skills are for the first time included within the Skills for Life programme: “Until now, basic skills have referred to literacy and numeracy. In today’s society, we believe it is as important that everybody can also use Information and Communications Technology (ICT), particularly in the workplace. So we shall offer basic ICT skills as a third area of adult basic skills alongside literacy and numeracy within our Skills for Life programme.” This has been a time of great change in adult education in UK and the use of ICT in Skills for Life. During the period that the present study was being carried out, the standards for adult ICT user skills were developed [3], a pilot project looking at the implementation of these standards was carried out [4] leading to the development of a draft for the ICT Skill for Life Curriculum [5] and the ICT Skills for Life Pathfinders project which is currently under way in England. These measures and strategic developments are part of a series of changes the present UK government has implemented as technology is recognized to play a major part in the solutions to each of three major challenges which globalization is setting modern governments economic productivity, social justice and public service reform. 2 ICT, Teaching and Learning The issue of how to teach ICT skills in adult education has not been explicitly addressed. Tutors who adopt a wide range of strategies for developing learners’ literacy and numeracy skills sometimes adopt a purely didactic form of teaching when approaching ICT skills, or alternatively adopt a time intensive strategy of individual tuition. There is little research in this area of how best to use ICT to teach basic skills and this study has sought to fill this gap. We have based our thinking about the role of ICT in teaching and learning on the framework developed by Ivanic and Tseng [6], summarized in Figure 1. We incorporated within this framework some of the insights derived from the literature on ICT and learning. (An overview of approaches to learning and ICT can be found in Mayes and de Freitas [7]). Ivanic and Tseng classify the use of ICT under ‘use of resources’ in the context of teaching/learning events. However, in this study we are focusing on the learning and teaching of ICT skills themselves as well as the learning of language supported by ICT, so each aspect of the framework (which originates in linguistics) has implications for our study. We would argue that ICT is actually implicated in most, if not all, of the factors identified by Ivanic and Tseng, and so has a much more significant role in learning and teaching than is implied by describing it merely as an educational resource. Below we will indicate some of the ways that we believe ICT further adds to the density of each of the factors they have identified. Evidence from our case studies (see appendix 1 for a summary and a full account shortly in www.nrdc.org.uk) provides additional illustration for these interactions. Within the following discussion we will highlight those areas that specifically informed the design of our interventions, and which may be of specific concern for ICT in adult learning. Figure 1: The relationships between teaching and learning: a conceptual framework (Ivanic and Tseng 2005, p 9) Factors Affecting Learning-Teaching Events Participants’ beliefs, intentions and resources Learners come with beliefs about the role of technology in learning which impacts upon the way that they use technology. Earlier work on media more generally has shown that the impact of media on learning and on motivation for learning is itself related to learners’ beliefs and expectations about their reactions to the media and not just the media themselves [8]. Learners also have different intentions relating to what they want to get from the courses in terms of the balance of ICT skills and literacy skills, rarely (in these courses at least) is ICT seen purely instrumentally, as simply the means to another learning objective. Access to ICT resources (ownership of technology and access to the internet), personal resources in terms of ICT experience and attitudes to technology, as well as supporting social networks of ICT knowledgeable family and friends all play important roles in learners’ take up and use of technology. The ability of ICT to motivate adult learners, both to come into learning and to stick with learning has often been discussed, however, ‘traditional’ digital technologies, such as the desktop computer, may well be losing their appeal, and this project was keen to explore the motivational impact of the use of a variety of technologies, such as mobile phones, tablets, and digital video. Moreover, much of what has been said about learners applies equally to the tutors, who bring differing beliefs about the role of technology in learning and the balance of skills that they are trying to teach, and who have differing skills and access to supporting social networks. Tutor’s familiarity and confidence with technology is an important factor in how easily they can integrate technology in their teaching. Through the qualitative data of this study we were also able to record the development over two years of the participating tutors. This is reported elsewhere (see NRDC report due September 2006 at www.nrdc.org.uk). The Nature of Learning-Teaching Events The context ICT is an important element of the context of learning and teaching events, though ICT is not a single technology, and it is important to look at the ways in which a wide range of digital technologies enter into teaching and learning. There is also an interaction between ICT and other elements of the context, for example issues arising from the physical location of technology (often restricting movement in the classroom) and the liberating effects of mobile technologies (at least in terms of space). Approaches to teaching Using ICT in teaching caused tutors to reflect upon, and hence change, their pedagogy. However, there is no single best way of using technology in teaching, and a wide range of approaches needs to be adopted. In attempting to put some structure on the discussion of this range of approaches Conole et al [9] suggest three axes along which to describe uses of technology in education: ‘Information – Experience’, ‘Reflection – Non-reflection’ (discussed later under the heading ‘How to learn’), and ‘Individual – Social’ (discussed later under the heading ‘Social interaction’). The dimension ‘Information – Experience’ highlights the use of ICT for repetitive practice (also referred to as ‘drill and practice’) at the one extreme, and at the other learning involving the construction of concepts through the construction of artefacts (see for example Papert and Harel [10]). In our projects tutors rarely used ICT for repetitive practice (though this was sometimes done, particularly in the use of Web sites for practice of literacy skills), but commonly took the construction of an artefact as the central part of their activity. Another way in which ICT was used, was to allow the learners to experience a variety of roles (for example as news interviewer) thus aiming at both literacy and language skills through the medium’s affordances (video camera/tape recorder). Much discussion of learning in recent years has centred on Lave and Wenger’s concept of ‘communities of practice’ [11], and some work in adult and community learning has put the idea of learning communities centre stage (see Cook and Smith [12]). We have evidence of one case study only where the tutor was already working with this idea before his involvement with the project and incorporated this thinking within his scheme of work [13]. Social interaction and construction of social identities Because of the nature of adult education, all tutors were interested in the benefits of social interaction between learners in the classroom and its effect on learning. Some tutors used technology to promote social interaction and learners’ reports show appreciation of an ‘improved ambience’ in class. Earlier research in use of ICT in schools has shown the difficulties with children in developing successful collaborative activities around ICT [14-16], and more recent work by Mercer [17] looked at modes of talking in learning contexts (including the use of ICT). They all suggest that careful preparation is necessary for ‘group chemistry’ to work. The Creation of Learning Opportunities The management of learning One of the vital elements for us in thinking about the management of the learning was the role that ICT was seen as having in this learning. Ginsburg [18] identified four rationales for the use of ICT in adult literacy; “Technology as curriculum”, “Technology as complement to instruction”, “Technology as instructional tool”, and “Technology as delivery mechanism”. Tutors reflected on their particular approaches and strategies by being explicit about why they were using ICT. They were also encouraged to move away from the view of the ‘tutor as expert’, often attributed to them by learners, to a more realistic view of the tutor as facilitator for learning, and supporting the development of learner autonomy [19]. This clarity about the role of ICT in the learning process, we believe, plays an important role in encouraging learner autonomy which is a crucial for adults who need to take charge of their own learning outside the formal learning contexts. Different Types of Outcomes Content We were always concerned with two kinds of content, ESOL, literacy and numeracy on the one hand and ICT skills on the other. To build the ICT literacy test we used the definitions of ICT skills adopted by the recent ICT Skill for Life Curriculum [3]. Although restrictive these definitions incorporated a concept of ‘purposeful use’ which is very intuitive in this field. A number of other definitions have guided us to a wider definition as well as concept of informal development of ICT skills. Two approaches which we found particularly useful were those of Carvin [20] and The International ICT Literacy Panel [21]. Carvin [20] distinguishes a number of elements of relevant new literacies, including: i. Technological Literacy: the ability to utilize common ICT tools, including hardware, software, and Internet tools like search engines. ii. Information Literacy: the skills to ascertain the veracity, reliability, bias, timeliness, and context of information. iii. Adaptive Literacy: the willingness to learn new tools and to apply previous ICT learning to new situations. How to learn ICT has often been seen as allowing learners to reflect upon their own learning processes [22], and some of our tutors saw this as an important aspect of their work. Use of Language of ICT The use of the language of ICT within the literacy/language classroom can be seen as a distraction from more useful language. The use of this language clearly presented a challenge for literacy and ESOL tutors and they developed different ways for dealing with this challenge. Some incorporated it in the vocabulary lists to be mastered as technological terms and others left the learners discover the terms and their meaning for when they were needed. It is clear that digital technologies are changing the nature of literacies; in particular there is a changing relationship between graphic and textual elements. Whilst this changing nature of literacies was not reflected in the literacy and ESOL tests used here it was nevertheless an important element of changing practice that we observed. Wider benefits of learning For many learners developing ICT skills is crucial in their everyday lives, whether it opens up work opportunities, enables them to help their children with homework or communicate with distant relatives by email.