Tablets and teaching practice

The head teacher twice stated in interview that tablets were intended to be used as electronic replacements for textbooks, thus reducing the weight of the pupils’ school bags, and my observation showed that Khawla did use them to replace the Arabic language textbook. For the first of her lessons that I observed (Chapter 4, Section 4.4.6) she had prepared a PowerPoint file reproducing three pages scanned from the textbook, which, following her instructions, the pupils read from their tablets before answering some comprehension questions. However, when she instructed the class to do the same thing during my second observation of her teaching, two girls decided instead to search through the text in the book itself to find the answers to Khawla’s questions. This was evident from the flapping of pages as they worked on this task.

The parents appeared to be aware of the problem of heavy school bags and to see the introduction of tablets as providing a remedy:

“These devices are useful, especially to get rid of the heavy bags our children carry every day. Why not use electronic books in tablets and one device will carry more books than what a bag can carry, so the weight will be light for the children. If each child had a device this would solve the problem.”

L3, Parents’ focus group

صلختلل اصوصخ ةديﻔم ةزهﺟﻻا " دﻻوﻻا يللا ةليقثلا طنشلا نم مدختسن ام شيل .موي لك اهوليشي زاهﺟلا يفو ةيحوللا ةزهﺟﻻا بتكلا نم رثكا لزنن نكمم دحاولا نزولاو اهليشت ةطنشلا نكمم يللا دنع زاهﺟلا .فخا نوكي حار ".ةلكشملا لحي حار بلاطلا

At the beginning of the project implementation, the teachers faced three challenges, having insufficient software and no internet connection, in addition to lacking the experience needed to deal with the situation they were in. Therefore, they used familiar Microsoft Office programs. However, they still faced the difficulties arising from the fact that using these apps on tablets is different from using them on computer. Each pair of pupils had control of changing their own slides and therefore did not always follow the teacher as she moved from one to the next, particularly as the sensitive touch-screen functionality sometimes caused them to change slides accidently.

Later, rather than simply displaying information and presenting it to the pupils on the tablets, the teachers instructed them to search for information using tablets. During phase three, internet connectivity enabled them to introduce pupils to performing independent online searches for information in the classroom. Both Safia and Ibtisam now planned parts of their lessons to allow the pupils the time to use their tablets in this way. However, the reliability of the internet connection did not allow these plans to succeed during my observations. As reported in Chapter 4, Sections 4.4.9 and 4.4.10 respectively, Safia and her pupils spent most of the lesson time trying to connect the devices to the internet, while Ibtisam had to abort the activity that she had planned because the internet connection was too weak.

The advice given by the technician also played a role in how the teachers planned their work and on at least one occasion the fact that it was poor advice affected the way the lesson was actually conducted. As noted in Section 5.3.5 and in Chapter 4, Section 4.4.9, Ali’s recommendation to use only one router meant that Safia had to work with fewer tablets than planned.

“Earlier when I was planning the topic I thought I would fail. As I was preparing the tablets and none of them got connected, I lowered my expectations, thinking I wouldn’t be able to achieve my aim. Thank God four tablets got connected and that was enough for the whole class.”

Safia, interview 3 " امل اقباس انأ هنأ ﻊم . دمحلا معن عوضوملا هنأ ،سردلا رضحا تنك تيﺟ امل هنا ببسب لشﻔلاب ءوب حار نهكبشا تيﺟ املو تاباتلا رضحا ا طقتلا نهنم بات ﻻو ةبكشلاب ةكبشل ردقا حار ام ينا يتاعقوت يف تيلخف ققحت هنا دمحلاو يفده ققحا فصلا َنﻔكو تابات ﻊبرا يف ابيرقت ".. لماك

Although Safia did not achieve any of her original aims for this science lesson, she was happy that the pupils had suggested solutions to the connectivity problem and that some interesting findings had emerged from the brief time during which four tablets were connected.

As to Ibtisam, she did not prepare herself or even think of unexpected results that pupils might encounter when using the internet in class. She thought of

her lesson and how the pupils would search the internet in order to accomplish the task.

“Of course there are cautions .. but I did not think about them as the question was obvious about cylinders for which search result will be about cylinders. It is known that search results are linked to search words. I did not expect that unrelated things might appear.” Ib sam interview 3 ام انا نكل ... ريذاحم ئيش ديكأ" حضاو لاؤسلا نﻷ... اهيف تركف ءايشا نوكتب جئاتنلاف ةناوطتساو طسﻻاب قلعتت هنأ فورعملاو ةناو ةطبترملا ءايشﻻا ﻊلطي ناونع يأ ﻊلطت نكمم هنا تعقوت ام .. هب ةﻔلتخم ءايشا ".

5.5 Summary

This chapter has presented the findings of the study in relation to each research question. It first identified the contextual factors that mediate tablet use as school location, teachers’ experience, time, classroom set-up, internet access and the school’s vision for tablets use. Next, it examined the influence on tablet use of the roles and responsibilities of the agents involved, namely the head teacher, the subject teachers, the ICT teacher, the ICT technician, external supervisors and parents. Lastly, the effects of tablet use on teaching practice were explored.

Chapter 6, which follows, concludes the thesis with a discussion and summary of these findings, consideration of the study’s limitations, its contributions and implications, suggestions for further research and a closing reflection.

6

Chapter 6: Discussion and Conclusion

6.1 Introduction

This study was set up to explore the introduction of tablet computers into Omani primary schools for pupils’ use, with the aim of determining the effects of their introduction and of various mediating factors on teaching practice in the classroom. In the previous chapter I presented a series of findings in response to the research questions set out in Chapter 1, Section 1.7. This chapter begins by discussing the main findings in relation to the available literature in the field. This discussion proceeds as follows: Section 6.2 considers the most important factors mediating tablet use in the classroom; Section 6.3 discusses the school’s vision for the introduction and use of tablets, particularly the organising vision; and Section 6.4 examines the roles and responsibilities of the agents concerned, addressing the planning of the project, the selection and preparation of the teachers and the involvement of the pupils’ parents. Section 6.5 then summarises the findings, Section 6.6 lists some limitations of the study, Section 6.7 considers its contributions to research and to education in Oman, Section 6.8 explores its implications and Section 6.9 makes suggestions for future research. The thesis ends with a personal reflection on my research journey.