A comparative study of 2 year-8 classes

1. Abstract

The world is constantly changing with ethical and educational reforms. The new technological advancements mean the world is smaller, and access to information is easier than ever before. Therefore, it is logical that to ignore the development of the ‘outside world’ and the way it is affecting younger generations would be detrimental to their education. Instead, this study will attempt to highlight some of the ways technology can benefit classroom teaching, inspire and promote progress. The education system should adapt to this changing and evolving process.

2. Introduction

The culture and the lives of the students heavily affect their learning process. Technology shapes the way we learn, and we teach: IPads, mobile phones, laptops, game consoles, and the internet actively engage children in a manner that is instantly rewarding. It is for this reason that some people believe a steady rise of ADHD (DuPaul and Stoner) throughout the last ten years has swept across America Nonetheless, although there is some evidence for negative effects on children and their learning with technology (Russell et al. 297-310).

This study will attempt to show how vital it is to embrace the rapidly transforming media in learning and how to utilize its many fantastic benefits.The Term ‘digital natives’ or the ‘Net generation’ (Gibbons, 2007) is a daily reality. More and more young people are submerged in technology from a very early age and spend their whole lives dealing with technology.

There is a big debate regarding the positive and negative consequences of the technology. If technology is used correctly, what is the impact on the student’s skills and learning process? Does technology affect the learning experience when acquiring a second Language? Incorporating technology into the classroom requires more that imparting elemental computer skills, but instead teachers need to adapt their lessons to make sure that technology is used in an efficient manner.

Children are born with curiosity and interests, but the constant and speedy development of technology primarily provide them with too many distractions (2008, Ken Robinson). Schools are like old factories, students are divided by years, they have to wait long queues for ordering food, bells are used to get them moving from one class to another……. the current education system is not working, but we can’t make a broad and simplified claim that all public education is the same around the world; is the education system the same in London, Spain, USA or Singapore?

The Article 28 from the Children’s Rights (Right to Education) states “Young people should be encouraged to reach the highest level of education of which they are capable”. Is the current education system helping them to reach their highest level of attainment? Is it encouraging creative thinking?

This research focuses on the effect that using computers have in the learning progress in MFL and how to use the computers effectively in the classroom. Year 8 will be the focus, and two groups will be compared:

 

• one who uses computers weekly to learn Spanish
• another who hardly uses the computers.

The research drew on three main initiatives: In-depth interview with teachers, Year 8 student’s surveys 120 participants and test conducted in May 2016 with a year -8 group. This research its limited due its time frame (two weeks) and some other variables like student’s honesty answering the survey.

It is appealing to mention that despite the technology, teaching tools are also rising very fast.  Most of the people still think that the biggest potential for the use of this technology for educational purpose is that direct. Nevertheless, it is the access to educational resources: songs, videos, games, YouTube that has been significantly improved by accessibility to this technology.

Our research will try to identify if the use of technology (computers and games) in MFL has a positive impact on the learning process to Spanish  students of Year 8

 

3. Literature Review

 

3.1 What is technology? Use of computers at schools

The word technology has its origin in the early 17th century from the Greek “tekhnologia’ systematictreatment’ from tekhnē ‘art, craft’ + -logia. It is defined as  “The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry”(Oxford Dictionary, 2016).Technology can be applied in different industries and different areas of our daily life. Obviously, it can be, and it is applied to education. But is it applied properly?

Over the last years, educators have been debating about the effect of the use of technology in secondary education. Several studies have concluded that the use of computers has a negative impact on the students learning. Others have related development in grades.Focusing on the use of the computers in the UK, computer technology has performed a paramount role in the last years. The UK declares to be one of the globe head to develop learning in the classroom. (Toyama 64-67).From 1994 to 1998 the number of computers in school increased to 820.000 and some of them were already using the internet (BESA, 2015)

In 2015 £15.5bn has been spent on educational technology in schools around the world, £900m is the total spending in the UK. (Gartner, 2015).  The UK is in the top 5 of students per school computers occupying the fourth position in Australia, New Zealand, and Macau with 1,4 computers per student

 

 

Fig. 1: 1,4 students per school computer in UK

 

 

A huge investment has been made in desktop computers, laptops, tablets………is this investment worthy? Do students who use computers at school get better results?  Should we reduce the use of Technology at schools? The debate continues with different opinions.

 

 

 

 

 

Particularly I have faith that the key resides in finding the right balance and the proper use of computers, being the number one in technology investment and having more computers per students that anyone else does not imply that students will get better results. Also, denying all technology to the schools that are underachieving could be undesirable and computers could be introduced in lower scale along with more experienced and better-trained teachers. Improvement should appear when computers are properly cohesive with learning.Whether or not the use of technology in the classrooms is advocated, it cannot be denied that technology is changing the way of teaching.

 

3.2    How Technology is changing the classrooms.

 

What did educators think of technology back in time? A Collaboration study between public schools and Apple Computer Inc. (ACOT,1985) explored how the use of computers would affect teaching. Researchers believed that the traditional classrooms would be transformed into student-centred places with drastic changes, but they didn’t have into consideration that the ability of computers could change radically in the last decades, they are more approachable with an enormous potential in education.

At the current time, researches are exploring how to improved instruction to better integrate technology in the classroom (Liu 87-104). Still more research is needed to discover how to integrate it effectively. The main problem found it is not what technology to use but how to apply it to increase the learning outcomes.

Multi- model teaching is a reality thanks to technology changing the classrooms concept. Almost 60% of a survey respondent (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2008) thinks that educators will impart lessons in more than one medium. At New York University classroom lessons are recorded with various cameras and in 30 minutes they are already available online. Complex enhanced videos and presentation tools are innovations expected to have a deep influence on the educational practice. Still the main benefit of technology is the access to great number of information.

3.2    Use of Technology to support education in MFL.

 

The main concerns regarding the use of Technology to support education are the accomplishment of improved learning results, the added and superior execution of the curriculum at the secondary level and the care for enduring learning in further education. But there is another use of technology that concerns fewer individuals; how to use technology properly to encourage education. (Laurillard 139-154).

This research will be based not just on investigating how the technology affects the learning experience in MFL but also how to use this technology to support education. The current educational system is not working, and technology has solutions to fix problems but can technology fix the educational problems?

Learning a modern foreign language requires arduous work. A determination to comprehend, to repeat correctly and to adjust the use of the new language in dialogue and written involves tremendous work during a vast period. Students can be inspired to maintain their curiosity and effort in the new language by the use of games. (Wright, 2002). Digital games are a practical example for game-informed pedagogy that can make over the MLF learning experience (Sykes and Reinhardt,2013).

Article 31 (Leisure, play, and culture) stated: “Children have the right to relax and play, and to join in a wide range of cultural, artistic and other recreational activities”.  It is up to us educators to make those leisure and playful activities part of the learning process incorporating new technologies.

Our research will focus on the use of Pearson Active Learn (a digital learning space for students and teachers), Linguascope (Number 1 Interactive Language Learning Platform for schools in the world) and TaskMagic (Interactive games for schools).  The research describes the preferences of teachers (personal interviews) and students from KS3 year 8 (surveys) concerning the use of these platforms also it will be analyzed if computers are used effectively in the classroom.

 

4. Research Design

4.1    School Context

A London Met partnership Lead school in Enfield (north-east London) established in 1956 with 1257 mixed students aged from 11-18 is the home for our Case Study. The school has specialist rooms in all the areas of the curriculum including ICT facilities. Many extra-curricular activities and homework clubs enhance learning with a solid dedication to teacher training and research at all stages and at all the levels:

 

• Around one in three students are eligible for pupil premium above the national average.
• More than half of the students are of White British heritage, with others from a range of ethnic groups including those from Other White, Mixed, African and Caribbean backgrounds.
• The proportion of students supported through school action or with a statement of special educational needs is above the national average.
• About one in five Year 7 students is eligible for the Year 7 catch-up premium.

 

 

4.2 Methods

 

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the use of technology has in the acquisition of a new language in two different year-8 groups in a community school in Enfield. The surveillances of this year-8 took place in May 2016 during two weeks. Year-8 is the chosen group due the impeccable circumstances that made them ideal for the research; two mixed ability classes with similar abilities with the merely difference that due limitations with the number of IT rooms at the institution one of them has access to computers games once per week all along the academic year we will refer to them as 8A and the other group hardly uses the IT room 8B.

The study is supported by previous data provided by the school, 96 years 8 students survey participants and personal interviews to MFL teachers. The research is limited due to its small time frame and other external variables like student’s reliability answering the questions.

Since there is a particular focus and due the interest in doing an evaluative case study a data triangulate method has been put in practice (Wilson 74). This includes different people who are involved in the research study to analytically involve educators and study groups (students).

Data has been collected in diverse ways combining quantitative and quantitative methods. “To include only quantitative and qualitative methods falls short of the major approaches being used today in the social and human sciences” (Perreault 103). A triangular analysis has been used (Fig 2).

Pupils were observed in the IT classroom setting witnessing their behavior, listening to their conversations and asking questions to collect data in a systematic manner.

In-depth interviews reinforced with Open- ended questionnaires have been used to obtain qualitative data to find out why teachers engage the use of technology. Closed-ended survey questionnaires have been used in year-8 students to discover how common form of using the technology is in this particular age group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig 2: Triangular analysis used in the research

 

 

 

 

Ethical dilemmas arise in the practice of research methods in education when involving and concerning people to participate (Cohen, Manion, and Morrison, 2002). Permission for the research project was requested by the school. It was made sure that the research protected the safety, rights, dignity and well-being of everyone involved keeping confidentiality all the time. Due the nature of the questionnaires and observations, the school decided that parents didn’t need to be contacted.

 

Article 16 from UNCRC (Right to privacy) states: “Children have a right to privacy” This research protected all student’s privacy. This research will do no harm.

 

5. Findings

 

This section starts by presenting the findings obtained from the research, in more detail case study of teacher’s opinions, evidence of this case study came from interviews with two teachers in the MFL department, classrooms observations and finally a comparative case study of two years 8.

The cases study’s endeavor to explore how using technology affect the learning experience of MFL and to start describing conclusions about the achievement of strategies.

 

5.1    Interviews

5.1.1    Teachers background

Teachers are from the school where the research has taken place. Furthermore, they are very well aware of the school policy. Their ages are right across the 45-55 age range. One female and one male. They had an extended teaching experience over 20 years, and one of them is the Head of the Department. The amount of time they spend teaching is approximately 60%. Both of them have a computer at home and access to The Internet. They use Pearson Active Teach and Learn, Linguascope and Task Magic in their IT lessons. (See Appendix A)

 

 

Participant	L1 of the participant	Teaching experience	Levels of Teaching	Role
Participant One	French	27 years	Introductory Advanced levels: more experience with advance levels	Head of the Department
Participant Two	English	15 years	Introductory Advance levels	Maternity Cover

 

Fig 3. Participants Information Profiles

 

 

 

5.1.2      Some general observations

 

Prior the interview, teachers were sent a list of open-ended questions (Geer 365). This gave them a chance to be prepared. They had the opportunity to debate any points they considered necessary.

 

Details of all the interview’s answers can be found in Appendix A.

Both of the teachers were interviewed if they do think the use of technology can help the learning experience of MFL then they were asked if they prefer a normal lesson or a computer lesson; they all prefer a normal lesson as it is easier to monitor the progress tend to be more structures and it is less difficult to use variety of task to adapt student’s abilities.

It was surprising that even if they prefer a standard lesson to one with computers they believe that computers help students to be more engaged. According to Participant 1

“Students instinctively associate using technology with fun and social times, so they are willing to be engaged. They think it will be easier, and the tasks often are. If a task is challenging, they will be as an equally investment as in the classroom. They enjoy the game element.”

Many students, not all, can be concentrated for the full lesson with computers but a 20 minutes’ lesson is more effective than 50 minutes one. Through my conversations with the teachers, I find that they are concerned mostly with the way to adapt the lesson plans (healthy lesson plans) to the use of computers (Carrier, Glenn, and Sales 59-68); a different seating plan, time spent checking equipment and less interaction with the students are important factors to be considered.

From the teachers’ answers, it is clear that teacher prefers the use of Pearson Active Learn platform to Linguascope or Task Magic (computer games) as Pearson is a very effective tool for formative assessment reinforcement. Still they are many impediments to its use like problems with logins, new students not in the system… According to Participant 2:

“Pearson Active Teach offers the widest variety of skills requirements.”

This finding shows that even if the use of computers can be effective for MFL allowing students to work more individually, to have a place within learning and to be more engaged, teachers believe that there is not difference in individual student’s progress and that that use of computers and games in languages should be more integrated.

5.2 Surveys:

A survey performed by 95 students from year 8 to examine their opinions and behaviour through closed- ended questions provided an extensive amount of data regarding the use of technology in the MFL classrooms. (See Appendix B)

 

 

Fig.4 Preference by gender in the use of computers

 

 

As can be seen from Fig 4., preferences by gender using computers are very similar. This is an interesting finding as it indicates that likes and dislikes are very similar in boys and girls but. does gender affect the usage of the technology?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig 5. Usage of computers by gender

 

 

 

 

Fig 6. How often do students use computers?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig 7 Comparative students who use and do not use computers

 

 

 

The usage of computers affects the answers of the students. Those who are more familiar with technologies embrace more using the IT rooms and believe that this has a positive impact on their learning: it helps them to be more engaged and to learn languages with platforms as Pearson, Linguascope or Task Magic. They apparently prefer a computer lesson to an ordinary one.

Most of the students believe that the use of computers helps them to acquire a second language but does it the use of technology affect in their learning process?

 

 

_{Fig 8 Comparative between 20 students from year 8A (they use the IT once per week) and 20 students from year 8B (they hardly use the IT room).}

 

 

As can be seen from Fig 8 year 8B rarely use the computer room at the school for learning MFL, but the answers are quiet similar apart from the learning process; The study tells us that 50% of the students in 8B think that the use of computers does not affect their learning. This is a not surprising finding considering they don’t visit the IT room as often than the other students which make them think that it is not indispensable for their learning.

 

 

 

 

Fig 9 Use of digital platforms for learning 8A/8B.

 

 

A 60% of 8A students prefer the use of Pearson Active Learn. This is a surprising finding as in previous surveys they said that they enjoy the use of digital games. To understand these figures and to analyze if they are representative or affected by some external variables 8B were interviewed; they prefer Pearson active learn because they find easier to use, they think that Linguascope and Task Magic they are too complicated even if they enjoy the use of video games. This finding shows that students 8A, who have a weekly visit to the computer rooms, are more familiar with the digital platforms and can enjoy the use of digital games as a result of their ability to cope with more complex platforms. Does this ability affect the time that students can use computers for learning Spanish without getting bored?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fig 10: For how long can students use computers to learn languages without getting bored?

 

 

 

5.2.1 Case Study Year 8A

 

 

 

Fig 11. Test results

 

 

 

The results from both groups are quite similar, but we can conclude that the use of digital games (Task Magic) helps students to learn vocabulary in a more efficient way achieving a higher grade of accuracy in the spelling. This is a very worrying finding as can make us reconsider the role of the teacher…but what about the long term? Are students who regularly use digital platform for learning MFL progress more than the ones who don’t?

Analysis data from the year assessments result from group 8A and 8B (See Appendix C)    indicate that there is no difference in individual student progress. Personal interviews with teachers revealed that the group that does not go into the computer room is ahead in the scheme of work.

6. CONCLUSION

In the early 19th century, Charles Babbage considered as the true father of the modern computer attempted to build something called a “Difference Engine”.In the early 1960s in the US, Professor Donald Bitzer created the world’s first teaching machine. Fifty-six years have passed since then, but the debate about whether or not computers could reduce teachers is still argued.The role of the teacher has changed over the years, at the present we are considered facilitators of learning. Can computers replace us? Can technology being integrated so effectively in the classroom that educator’s role will be reduced to just modest supervisors?

Research results show that students can acquire vocabulary in a more successful way using computers. This finding can be found disturbing, this new means of learning can facilitate independent learning which is the main goal of educators. Nevertheless, educating is more complex, and there is a social factor that can’t be forgotten. We, humans, have the need to socialize with others. Personally, I don’t think that social media can replace the interaction and the way to learn from another that takes place in a classroom with a teacher as facilitator. Teachers create bonds with their students, and they inspire them, and they recognize how to obtain the best out of each of them.

 

Does using technology affect the learning experience of MFL? It does, and it can have a very positive impact on the learning progress if it is integrated properly. It can quickly help to acquire new vocabulary in a very successful way as our research has shown.

The observations, interviews, and survey from these two weeks have helped me to understand how important is to plan a computer lesson effectively to achieve the best result. Computers help students to get more engaged and the more than the use them more comfortable they feel to operating different digital platforms to acquire a new language. Even if I embrace technology and the use of computers for learning MFL I have to admit that the result of my findings correcting the tests conducted to year 8A after dividing the class into two groups with and without computers was a little troubling. I wanted to beat the computer, but instead, the machine won. After analyzing the students’ individual progress and confirm that technology does not affect the students’ progress in a long term I felt a little more comforted.

Computers can’t replace teachers:

 

Do you need an Original High Quality Academic Custom Essay?