Set in freshly fallen snow, the Beyond Technology group met in Aalborg, Denmark in January 2019 to discuss what we observed and worked with over the last 6 months and our plans for the next 6 months. One of the exciting news was that we were joined by Olli Rekonen a Finnish Master student (see also news from Finland). The teams will work together with their classes on the Children’s Manifesto on smartphones – watch this space.
The goal of researchED is to bridge the gap between research and practice in education, with a specific agenda of bringing together teachers, researchers, and policy makers. At the March 2018 event, three member of the Beyond Technology team present their work which relates to the project.
Kathrin spoke of her work with the use of video in educational research. Her presentation dealt with some of the uses of video in research and how to deal with ethics of data that may reveal the identity of research participants.
Eva’s presentation explored how the Comparative Judgment (CJ) method can be used to facilitate formative assessment practices in STEM education.
Andrew spoke about his PhD research which explores the relationship between policy and practice in technology education, and the use of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) frameworks to explore this relationship.
More information about researchED and these presentations may be found here – https://researched.org.uk/.
For the second time in the Beyond Technology project, we have met now towards the end of the school year to exchange experiences, ideas and think about where to go.
We have discussed ideas to do with affect and digital technology, programming, media consumption, and when at the confluence of on-and offline technologies students can become navigators of their own learning.
Nordplus project Beyond technology made the front page of Tekniken i skolan #3, a journal for teachers in technology.
Vad använder ungarna egentligen telefonen till? (What do kids do with their phones?) https://liu.se/cetis/nyhetsbrev/2017-3-vad-anvander-tfn.shtml
Link to #3 of Tekniken i skolan https://liu.se/cetis/nyhetsbrev/2017-3.shtml
Tekniken i skolan– edited by Centrum för tekniken i skolan, 4 issues a year. Both e-version and paper version (9000 copies) and is also distributed in paper to every school in Sweden. Issue #3, was also distribute to all delegates at the biannual teacher conference Tekniken i skolan.
You can prescribe to Tekniken i skolan here https://liu.se/cetis/nyhetsbrev/prenumeration.shtml
Participants from Sweden
This project is undertaken with 26 year 4 class students (school year 2016/2017) and their teacher Helena Björk at Ribbybergsskolan in Haninge. Researchers from KTH Royal Institute of Technology participate as well.
Ribbybergsskolan
Ribbybergsskolan is situated in Haninge municipality, 15 minutes south of Stockholm. There are 520 students (6–12 year-olds) and about 55 teaching staff.
School’s website
Researchers
Dr Niall Seery, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Dr Eva Hartell, Utbildningsförvaltningen, Haninge kommun and KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Are we the only ones in Sweden? Wow! Year four students said in chorus when they were made aware of their participation.
Ribbybergsskolan
What we did:
We asked the students in the 4th grade to write about their phones and how they use them.
The text should be based on the following topics:
The best thing about my phone
The bad thing about my phone
What I use it for
How I can use it in school
Reflection:
When we asked them to write about their phones they were excited. When they actually were allowed to take them out of their bags to draw a picture of them they could hardly believe it! According to their school’s policy they are not allowed to use their phones while they are in school but an exception can be made if the teacher allows them to use it for schoolwork.
When we read their stories it was obvious that they use it a lot but almost never to make phonecalls. They use it to visit social media to communicate with their friends, watch Youtube and play games on different apps. They also use it to text someone. It is also very obvious that they really like their phones and the only negative part about them is when they don´t work the way they are supposed to.
In terms of school work most of them suggested that they could use the calculator during math class but that was about it. Since mobile phones are prohibited during the school day at Ribbybergsskolan- we interpret that this limits their thoughts and imagination on what to use them for. This is something that we can develop together with students during this project but we still have to consider the rules that are set for the school.
Kathrin Otrel-Cass and Eva Hartell presented an overview of our project at KTH research school QUEST meet-up in Mariestad on the 15–17 of March. We shared with teachers and other researchers what we had done so far, including surveying the classes where we established that all of the students in our project own a smartphone.
The 15th of November 2016 parents of first and fourth graders at Ribbybergsskolan were invited to an introduction meeting to our Nordplus junior project Beyond technology.
Besides the teachers of the classes, one researcher from KTH Royal Institute of Technology were attending in person and one via Skype from Ireland. Sharing aims and purpose of project.
Great discussions over a cup of coffee regarding project and pros and cons regarding mobile devices in school.
