Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal February 2004 Volume 2 (1)

Information literacy

Acquiring knowledge

Dorothy McLelland and John Crawford describe the Drumchapel Project, an important study of the ICT skills of school pupils.

In its mission statement, Glasgow Caledonian University identifies a duty to attract students from deprived backgrounds. Forging links with communities with low rates of progression to higher education helps in this aim. Contact between University library staff and school librarians in the Glasgow area led to a project which aimed to find out what school pupils know about computers and what their ICT skills level would be when they come to university.

The partners in the project were:

• Drumchapel High School, with approximately 660 pupils, many coming from unemployed or low -income families, and with few going on to higher education. Over 10% of the school population are children of asylum seekers. In 2002, the school moved to a new building with five ICT suites, an intranet connection in every classroom and a Library Resource Centre housing an ICT Learning Centre with 20 computers.
• Hyndland Secondary School, situated in a more affluent part of Glasgow, with 950 pupils. The recently refurbished school’s Library Resource Centre contains 24 PCs.
• Drumchapel Learning Centre/Community Library, which is included in the REAL Partnership, a Glasgow City Council initiative which aims to improve access to ICT, creating an integrated learning environment focused on individual needs. Young people are encouraged to use the facilities.

Methodology

In Drumchapel School, three focus groups were organised. A questionnaire on ICT use was issued to one class in each of the six year-groups. In Hyndland School, it was issued to one class in each of the S1, S2 and S5/6 age-groups. ICT self-evaluation forms were issued to pupils in both schools on a voluntary basis. Questionnaires for teachers were voluntary.

Of particular interest to the project was a recent study carried out by the Research, Economic and Corporate Strategy Unit of the Scottish Executive Education Department which attempted to determine the levels of performance of pupils at Primary 7, Secondary 2 and Secondary 4 on a range of ICT skills and abilities, their experience of and attitudes to ICT and the views of their teachers. Useful data was also found in Digital Glasgow a research report issued by Scottish Enterprise Glasgow (2002). Its purpose was to measure awareness of, access to, skills in and desired support for ICT by individuals in a representative sample of households in Glasgow, including some interviewees in Social Inclusion Partnership (SIP) areas, such as Drumchapel.

Results

Many pupils were very knowledgeable about computers and about the Internet, with the majority using computers between one and four times a week for both recreational and academic purposes. S1 pupils suggested that computers were very important for homework, for searching for information and for future careers or for university-level work. Older pupils considered these skills more from the viewpoint of their present schoolwork and were less sure about their general importance. In general, pupils thought that computers helped with spelling, neater work, correcting mistakes, easy access to information via the internet, yielded up-to-date information, could be faster than books and could add graphics and colour. However, some pupils complained of restricted access to sites, problems in logging on, viruses, forgotten passwords, and the dangers of chat lines. Difficulties included mastery of the keyboard and misuse of log-ins and passwords.

Focus group discussions showed that there were misconceptions amongst the younger pupils about ‘ownership’ of the Internet and the Web but that older pupils were more aware of this issue and consequently more selective in their use of electronically generated information. Older pupils were also better able to judge when books would not only be more accessible but also more authoritative.

Pupils use the internet as a learning tool, although this is a secondary activity, with word-processing being the most prevalent use of computers. They are sometimes frustrated by the lack of sites which present material at an appropriate level. On the other hand, the librarians found that some useful sites, usually on contentious issues, were barred by the network’s filtering system. It would seem that more research needs to be done on the availability and appropriateness of curriculum-related material. As with the selection of printed material, this may be a fruitful joint enterprise between teachers and librarians.

In fact, the expertise of the librarians is generally under-utilised, as evidenced by the low number of teachers and pupils who consult them on ICT matters. In both schools, the librarians have completed a programme which qualifies them to advise on the use of internet sites which support curricular subjects, to promote reading through ICT applications and to assist in the development of pupils’ skills. The school’s management would have to be clear, however, on the extent to which librarians can contribute in this way, given their existing library management and class-contact workload. Appropriate clerical support may be needed in the library, to allow for this use of the librarian’s time. In addition, the library may not be a suitable environment for teaching ICT skills, particularly with regard to noise levels.

Many of the points made by Todd (2001) in an address to school librarians were supported by the research results. For example, pupils tend to examine only the first screen of most sites and they sometimes have difficulty in evaluating sites, especially when a large number is presented as a result of a keyword search. This is a difficulty which can be tackled by librarians as well as teachers, and in Hyndland School some guidance is offered in a leaflet for pupils on the use of the internet, including the evaluation of websites.

The key role of the school in teaching ICT skills, especially in deprived areas, is highlighted by the research, with 64% of Drumchapel pupils learning most about computers at school. Use of ICT in general and of internet sources in particular was often dictated by the teacher’s awareness and expertise, with the majority of teachers stating that they only occasionally referred pupils to internet use in the classroom and never referred them to the library. This finding was supported by a study undertaken at Loughborough University (Merchant and Hepworth, 2002) which showed that although teachers interviewed were information literate, their skills and attitudes were not being transferred to their pupils. In the Glasgow schools, the lack of guidance by teachers on evaluation of websites and on copyright issues was also striking. Since the teachers’ questionnaires were completed on a voluntary basis by about half of the possible respondents, the evidence for this statement must be treated with caution, especially since a wide range of software (not necessarily internet based) was cited and pupils were required to use ICT in a variety of ways.

As the questionnaire showed, at least half of the pupils had access to computers at home, a higher percentage than the assessment made in the Digital Glasgow survey of 37% home ownership and 30% access to the internet. Overall, the majority of pupils used home computers for school work but it is reasonable to suppose that the internet was also used for recreational purposes.

Ownership of home computers is forecast to increase, thus making the use of other access points less likely. The Digital Glasgow Report states that only 3% of their respondents used the internet in the public library, and so it is not surprising to discover that in Drumchapel, only 29% of pupils used the ICT facilities in the local library/REAL Centre. However, it may be that this is considered a less important facility since pupils have easier access through the school’s provision during the day in term-time and, as time goes by, more have computers at home. Additionally, as the focus groups showed, not all pupils were aware that the public library’s computers were available for them. There is still scope for the public library to increase the take-up of their ICT facilities and to promote the use of ICT as a social and more personally-oriented activity. There is encouragement for this in the Digital Glasgow Report, which notes that respondents from SIP areas have comparable awareness, access and attitudes to ICT as those in non-SIP areas.

Within Drumchapel High School, in general, the opinions expressed in the focus groups were borne out by the results of the questionnaire. There is, however, one case where the evidence is contradictory. Members of the S4 focus group appeared to be less interested and less confident and felt that they had missed out on the tuition given to younger pupils. On the other hand, the questionnaires revealed that, at 76%, the largest percentage of home computers was available to S4 pupils. Only 24% of S4 hardly ever used computers in school, with 56% using them three to four times a week. According to their own assessment, 33% knew enough about computers to get by, and 46% claimed to know a lot. This corresponded closely with the school’s overall response of 36% and 44% respectively. In the ICT self-evaluation questionnaire high levels of competence were scored, with at least 52% of S4 pupils able to carry out all the processes.

The pupils’ self-assessment of ICT skills showed that they had a high level of expertise, even at S1 stage. Glasgow Caledonian University’s self-evaluation form for new students was used as a basis for the schools’ questionnaire and it is evident that S5 and S6 pupils from Drumchapel High School would have little difficulty in satisfying the University’s requirements. Since these two year-groups were not included in Hyndland Secondary School’s survey, it is not possible to make the same forecast for them, but the comparison of skills in S3 and S4 in both schools suggests that a similar level of expertise would eventually result.

Considering that large-scale ICT provision in both Drumchapel High School and Hyndland Secondary School is so recent, it is evident that, in the short space of a year or two, the acquisition of knowledge and expertise has been impressive.

Recommendations:

• The school library should be designated as one of the school’s centres for ICT advice and training so that the ICT training and expertise of the school librarian can be utilised more by teachers and pupils.
• Teachers should be encouraged to enhance their ICT expertise for the benefit of pupils’ learning.
• Teachers and librarians together should offer training to pupils on the choice and evaluation of websites and on copyright issues.
• The usage of REAL Centres by school pupils should be reviewed for effectiveness.
• More research should be done on the access to contentious websites which are currently filtered.
• A joint school/university research project on ICT skills training should take place.

Acknowledgements:

Thanks are due to: Wilson Blakey, Headteacher, and Jean Kesson, Librarian, Drumchapel High School; John F. Alexander, Headteacher, Joyce Morley and Patricia Aitken, Librarians, Hyndland Secondary School; Margaret McCann, ICT Skills Co-ordinator, Glasgow Caledonian University.

References:

Merchant, L. and Hepworth, M (2002). ‘Information Literacy of Teachers and Pupils in Secondary Schools.’ Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, Vol. 34, pp. 81-89.

Research, Economic and Corporate Strategy Unit (2003). The Impact of ICT Initiatives in Scottish Schools. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive Education Department.

Scottish Enterprise Glasgow. (2002). Digital Glasgow 2002 Household Survey. Glasgow: Scottish Enterprise Glasgow.

Todd, R. (2001). Transitions for Preferred Futures of School Libraries. Paper presented at the 2001 International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, 9-12 July.

Information:

Full report: Dr John Crawford, Library Research Officer, Glasgow Caledonian University (0141 331 3847; jcr@gcal.ac.uk).

Information Scotland Vol. 2 (1) February 2004

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