Activity & Learning
Activity and Learning Teaching IWBs Other-ICT
Types of activity were different with ICT compared with non-ICT. Games were more common with ICT and had different characteristics from manual ones. Speed was a key feature of ICT, and was valuable where it generated rapid feedback on learning, but when time constraints were a feature of a game or challenge, the learner tended to prioritise speed over strategic thinking or accuracy. Scoring generated competition but often diverted attention from the learning intended to developing strategies for gaining a high score. ICT activities often lack a progressive structure, particularly when tasks were generated randomly.
ICT-based quizzes were used widely and were seen as fun by pupils and easy to manage by teachers – often with ‘voting systems’: dedicated hand-held multichoice response devices for pupils which allowed the frequencies of different responses to be displayed without identifying individuals. Even quite young pupils could manage such activities in groups without full teacher supervision. The rapid feedback without exposure to ridicule was valued and answers were recorded for the teacher to analyse later. In some cases, the emphasis was purely on what was the right answer, but other teachers used the results formatively and probed particular pupils concerning reasons for their correct or incorrect answers. This effect was also achieved quite easily in non-ICT classes using mini-whiteboards, however.