Tideway School, Southdown Road, Newhaven, East Sussex, BN9 9JL
Case Studies
Case Study 4: Student Voice
In the Debating Chamber on Fronter a number of discussions have taken place.
Some have been aimed at raising awareness of natonal issues - for example, the war in Iraq - the brother of a student had just returned from active service and his experiences were recounted online.
Some have a direct bearing on the student experience of school - for example, when Ruth Kelly announced a ban on 'junk food' in schools in 2005, a message forum was set up asking students for their views on the subject and the ways in which the school canteen service could be improved.
Some points .....
- there were a minority of inappropriate comments on message forums and forums do need to be moderated daily.
- the general lifespan of discussions was about two weeks.
- finding a way for student comments to influence school policy can be difficult.
- management tools need to be flexible and easy to use (i.e. it should be easy to restrict who has access to what and at what time)
- the use of txtng by students was an issue eModerators grappled with (although recent research points to its benefits CLICK HERE)
- where message forums are used for collaborative purposes it can be difficult assessing learning.
- whilst the technology is routinely used by students outside school many students do not see an educational use for it in school.
- the technology is designed for collaborative learning (don't mistake this approach with the cooperative tasks that students are given)
- students rarely accessed message forums out-of-school-time.
- use could be made of such forums by your school council as a means of canvassing student views.
- a critical mass of teachers need to understand the technology before it can be used effectively for learning.
- effective use may require a change in pedagogy.
'(There is) a recurring theme in research on ICT in education and that is optimism – an unwillingness to give the bad news.' (Selwyn/Gorard)
