Case studies

Strengthening pedagogy with ICT: Early adopters' project - case study 8 - Wakefield

Background

Pedagogical development with new technologies: videoconferencing

Paul Butler, Secondary National Strategy Consultant for ICT for the City of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council worked on the project with the Wakefield Primary ICT Consultant. Paul writes:

Videoconferencing as a teaching and learning tool has grown rapidly in the district over the last two years. This project was established to focus on pedagogical development relating to this new classroom tool.

Three key messages from this project are:

• videoconferencing motivates and engages students and teachers
• classroom support for teachers helps embed this teaching and learning tool
• the resource needs to be developed strategically in school.

Like all classroom resources there is a need to investigate effective practice in order to motivate, engage and raise the attainment of students. Videoconferencing offers an exciting way to develop ICT across the curriculum in both primary and secondary schools. The Strengthening Pedagogy with ICT  DVD and management guide (DfES reference 0266-2006 PCK-EN) could be used to help focus teachers on strategies for creating effective learners. This is particularly useful when exploring how ICT can be used to support the development of speaking and listening skills.

Ten primary and three secondary schools across the City of Wakefield are involved in a pedagogy project, which aims to explore videoconferencing as a teaching and learning tool and the emerging pedagogy around this resource. The schools are:

• Normanton All Saints CE (VA) Infant School
• Sharlston Community School
• Upton Primary School
• Crofton Junior School
• Fitzwilliam Primary School
• Lofthouse Gate Primary School
• Oyster Park Junior School
• Redhill Junior School
• Southdale CE (VC) Junior School
• Streethouse Junior, Infant and Nursery School
• Kettlethorpe High School, a specialist maths and computing college
• Crofton High School, specialists in maths and computing
• Minsthorpe Community College, a specialist science college

Teachers are exploring how they need to plan their lessons in order to integrate videoconferencing most effectively and to consider progression in using such a resource with students in lessons. Each school has one or two teachers involved, ranging from headteachers to class teachers from a range of curriculum areas. The project was initiated in May 2006 but was launched in classrooms from September 2006. Each school has its own budget videoconferencing system and connect via the National Education Network.Budget equipment was purchased by schools initially as it was felt that there was a need to prove the technology before there was a heavy investment in hardware.

Wakefield LA and a small number of its schools have been involved with the UKERNA's national development of videoconferencing. As a Local Authority there was confidence that technical issues had been resolved and videoconferencing was a teaching and learning tool ready to be introduced for content delivery by schools. Wakefield LA was very conscious that there was limited research about how to best use such a tool in classrooms effectively. The LA invited schools to be involved in a pilot, which explored the pedagogy associated with the tool and exploring progression in the use of it.

This project was launched to focus on pedagogy rather than technical requirements by the Primary ICT Team and the Secondary National Strategy ICT consultants, overseen by the ICT adviser and strategy manager. This formed part of the LA's ICT across the curriculum strategy.