Table Of ContentAdams and Brindley_pb.qxd 19/2/07 15:43 Page 1
TEACHINGSECONDARYENGLISHWITHICT
● How can secondary English teaching and learning be enhanced by
the use of ICT?
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● What is the current research knowledge about teaching and
learning secondary English with ICT?
P ● What good examples of using ICT in secondary English can be
found in classrooms nationally and internationally?
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Teaching Secondary English with ICTuses best practice and research based
findings to examine the potential of ICT in English teaching. It explores
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examples of successful work involving the use of ICT in speaking, listening,
reading and writing, with a focus on the new literacies and how ICT shapes
new language and literature experiences within the English classroom.
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Drawing on the expertise of international figures in the field, classroom
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teachers and academic researchers, the book highlights ‘good practice’ in
accessible discussions on research findings, with an emphasis across a
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number of countries on the interplay between classroom and theoretical
G approaches.
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r Inviting critical engagement with key ideas on teaching with ICT, this book
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a is essential reading for teachers and teachers in training, as well as other
education professionals.
w
E
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- Anthony Adams, now retired, is a Senior Member of Trinity Hall and
continues to research widely in the area of ICT. He was previously a
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H Lecturer at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education and Director
I of Studies in Education at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
i
l T Sue Brindleyis Course Leader of the Secondary PGCE and English PGCE
l courses at Cambridge University Faculty of Education. She is Chair of the
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MEd for Researching Practice.
E Anthony and Sue are the Series Editors of the Open University Press series
d P Teaching and Learning with ICT. They are well known for their work in the
field of secondary English teaching.
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TEACHING SECONDARY ENGLISH
WITH ICT
Learning and Teaching with Information
and Communications Technology
Series Editors: Anthony Adams and Sue Brindley
The role of ICT, in the curriculum, is much more than simply a passing
trend. It provides a real opportunity for teachers of all phases and subjects
to rethink fundamental pedagogical issues alongside the approaches to
learning that pupils need to apply in classrooms. In this way it fore-
grounds the ways in which teachers can match in school the opportunities
for learning provided in the home and community. The series is firmly
rooted in practice and also explores the theoretical underpinning of the
ways in which curriculum content and skills can be developed by the
effective integration of ICT in schooling. It addresses the educational
needs of the early years, the primary phase and secondary subject areas.
The books are appropriate for preservice teacher training and continuing
professional development, as well as for those pursuing higher degrees in
education.
Published and forthcoming titles:
A. Adams and S. Brindley (eds): Teaching Secondary English with ICT
R. Barton (ed.): Teaching Secondary Science with ICT
L. Florian and J. Hegarty (eds): ICT and Special Educational Needs
M. Hayes and D. Whitebread (eds): ICT in the Early Years
S. Johnston-Wilder and D. Pimm (eds): Teaching Secondary Mathematics
with ICT
A. Loveless and B. Dore (eds): ICT in the Primary School
M. Monteith (ed.): Teaching Primary Literacy with ICT
M. Monteith (ed.): Teaching Secondary School Literacies with ICT
P. Warwick, E. Wilson and M. Winterbottom (eds): Teaching and Learning
Primary Science with ICT
J. Way and T. Beardon (eds): ICT and Primary Mathematics
TEACHING SECONDARY
ENGLISH WITH ICT
Edited by
Anthony Adams and Sue Brindley
Open University Press
McGraw-Hill Education
Shoppenhangers Road
Maidenhead
Berkshire
England
SL6 2QL
email: [email protected]
world wide web: www.openup.co.uk
and Two Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121-2289, USA
First Published 2007
Copyright © Anthony Adams and Sue Brindley 2007
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of
criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher or a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency
Limited. Details of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained
from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd of Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street,
London, EC1N 8TS.
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
ISBN-10: 0 335 21444 4 (pb) 0 335 21445 2 (hb)
ISBN-13: 978 0 335 21444 0 (pb) 978 0 335 21445 7 (hb)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
CIP data applied for
Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed in Poland by OZ Graf. S.A.
www.polskabook.pl
Every effort has been made to trace and acknowledge the copyright holders of material
reproduced in this book but if any infringement has occurred then this will be rectified at
the first opportunity if notice is given to the publishers.
CONTENTS
Series editors’ preface vii
1 Computers, literacy and thinking together 1
N. Mercer, L. Dawes, R. Wegerif, C. Sams and M. Fernandez
2 Writing – and other language matters 18
Anthony Adams, Kate Sida-Nichols and Sue Brindley
3 Models of reading in the secondary classroom: literature
and beyond 36
Sue Brindley, David Greenwood and Anthony Adams
4 What can technology do for/to English? 50
Chris Davies
5 New media and cultural form: narrative versus database 67
Ilana Snyder
6 Constructing (and deconstructing) reading through
hypertext: literature and the new media 80
Teresa M. Dobson
vi CONTENTS
7 New technologies in the work of the secondary English
classroom 98
Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel
8 Research on teaching secondary English with ICT 126
Richard Andrews
Index 137
SERIES EDITORS’
PREFACE
Of all subjects, English must be the one which poses simultaneously most
problems and most opportunities for using ICT in the classroom: most
problems because it is a subject which is oracy based, and so many times,
though hopefully not in the English classroom, the use of computers is
interpreted in the classroom as an individual, screen focused and, sadly,
silent (except for the tapping of keys) event; most opportunity because
English is a subject ready to think about new ways of constructing reading
and writing; about the pedagogical value of collaborative work and the
possibilities afforded by the renaissance of learning made possible through
ICT.
English, and English teachers (and we mean by this all those teaching
English, media and drama), have of course thrived on being different. In a
subject which deals with values and beliefs it would be a depressing state
of affairs if we were relegated to the transmission of correct ways of punc-
tuating text, or caring overly about the right uses of prefixes and suffixes.
These are important: we would want to acknowledge that. But they are not
at the heart of English. The dilemma perhaps is that ICT loans itself very
well to the surface correction of text. Spell and grammar checks (with the
caveats of the nonsenses that can be caused by the application of rules
above sense that computers can come up with) enable a; focus on these
areas which was not available before ICT. But ICT can do so much more. It
is not, as Davies cautions, a ‘solution’ to bring about effective English
viii SERIES EDITORS’ PREFACE
teaching: only when teachers understand the deep pedagogy of their sub-
ject (and these will be teachers who will be acknowledged as expert practi-
tioners) can we see ICT being used with real impact: good use of and
knowledge about ICT is actually very little to do with understanding the
technology: it helps, of course, to know about new software packages
which allow you to annotate text but it will still take a good teacher to
know when and where this feature will allow students to learn in more
effective ways. But perhaps most exciting is when English teachers are
freed by ICT to consider how speaking and listening can be an integral part
of work with computers, as Mercer et al explore; how writing can move
beyond the individually produced text, or reading be re-visioned (and we
do mean this term) to include graphics, hypertext and texts which only
‘end’ when the reader decides so to do; when teaching texts in the class-
room can allow students to engage with ideas such as literary theory
which once were the preserve of university undergraduate teaching– and
to do so in ways which promote afar deeper understanding of text than the
standard literary analysis can.
So we expect the use of ICT in the English classroom to be controversial:
it would be disappointing if English teachers did not actively debate their
subject and the dynamics of change. Our hope is that this volume con-
tributes to those debates, offers an account of where research has illumin-
ated ICT and English teaching, explores ideas about reading and writing
and ICT within and beyond the UK and challenges thinking about the
ways ICT and English belong together. We hope you enjoy reading the
chapters here (which include contributions from English teachers as well
as those researching the area): but mostly, we hope the debates within and
about English continue, so that new life continues to be breathed into this
most important of subjects, and that the discussions about English and
ICT is one such oxygenating force.
Anthony Adams & Sue Brindley
1
COMPUTERS, LITERACY
AND THINKING
TOGETHER
N. Mercer, L. Dawes, R. Wegerif, C. Sams and
M. Fernandez
Introduction
In this chapter we begin by presenting a particular, socio-cultural perspec-
tive on the use of computers in relation to the English curriculum. Next,
we explain how this perspective was used in the classroom-based research
that provides the basis for this chapter. That research has led us to the
conclusion that there are two important aspects of the use of ICT for
developing children’s awareness and capability in using language. The
first is to design activities, using appropriate software, which will enable
children to use language to ‘think together’. The second is for the teacher
to give explicit guidance to children in how to use language to communi-
cate effectively, in ways that take account of the communicative needs of
particular audiences, situations and tasks. We illustrate both these aspects
with classroom examples from our research projects, and conclude the
chapter by summarizing the significance of our analysis for educational
practice.
A socio-cultural perspective on education is one which gives particular
attention to the roles of language and other ‘cultural tools’ (Vygotsky
1987) for enabling the development of each new generation. Language
is not merely a tool for providing information or facilitating social
