ICT in Schools - Activity 2: Attitudes and perceptions of ICT

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Activity 2: Attitudes and perceptions of ICT

Reading and Reflection: 1hr

1 hr

So where do you fit into all of this? By doing this course you are obviously one of those teachers at your school who has seen the value of ICT integration and is making the effort to grow in this field, but what about your colleagues? How did you reach your conclusions about ICT (some of which may only have been reached in the previous activity)? What is it about ICT integration that has changed your attitudes, and what have you experienced that has changed your perceptions of ICT?

We often over-simplify these questions and conclude that older teachers are technophobic and set in their ways. Let us examine this issue of attitudes and perceptions a little more closely. First read some comments in Silvia Ferrero's Two generations of teachers Differences in attitudes towards ICT. As you read this, make a note of the conclusions that either you or Ferrero come to. You will test these by surveying your own colleagues and teachers in an other school as part of your first assignment for this module.

Click here to read Two generations of teachers: Differences in attitudes towards ICT

ASSIGNMENT 1

Conduct a survey and analysis in two schools in which you test a conditional statement about teachers' attitudes towards and/or perceptions of ICT in education.

To complete this assignment we suggest that you follow these steps:

1. Record two conclusions that you reached when reading Two generations of teachers: Differences in attitudes towards ICT.

2. State the hypotheses as a causal relationship, for example:

<something happens> because <the reason why it happens>

e.g.

teachers smoke because they find teaching stressful (except that your example should be about attitudes towards ICT, based on the reading)

It may be advisable to check these statements with your tutor once you have formulated them.

3. Design a paper-based survey that will test the validity of these statements (whether they hold to be true or not).
Click here to read more about designing surveys.
Click here to read more about good survey questions.
Click here to see an example survey.

4. Administer this survey in two schools, at least one of which should have computers. You should try to receive at least 20 responses. This means that you should hand out at least 40 survey forms.

5. Process your survey results and analyse the responses. How do the two schools compare? What are the reasons for this? How do the results support your conditional statement?

6. Write a report of 3-4 pages on your survey and your analysis of the results. Create spreadsheet charts of the most illuminating survey data and include these in your report. Write conclusions that cite specific data and the data analysis. Declare whether the statement had been supported by your survey or not. Identify further work that could be done to clarify the results.

What to submit:

Save your survey as <your_student_number>-Core1B-survey .
e.g. 205654321-Core1B-survey

Save your survey analysis essay as <your_student_number>-Core1B-analysis . e.g. 205654321-Core1B-analysis

Save your spreadsheet chart as <your_student_number>-Core1B-chart .
e.g. 205654321-Core1B-chart

Send all three documents as e-mail attachments in e-mail to your tutor (using the subject heading "Core1B_Assignment_1").

Click here to go to Activity 3 - Roles of learners learning with ICT

ICT in Schools

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