Understanding Change with eLearning inSecondary School English – an ANT Perspective
Alberto Rizzo
Doctorate Candidate, Deakin UniversityAustralia
ABSTRACT
In this Case Study I follow the story of the successful implementation of an innovative educational technology in which I played my part as change-agent, essentially helping to ‘stitch together’ various agendas and opposing logics in order for the innovation to be taken up. Being involved in this experience had a transformative effect on the teacher involved, a teacher of English of over 30 years experience, who had previously characterised himself as a ‘techno-sceptic’.
I use Actor-Network Theory to interpret how getting people to take up a technical innovation and change their practices is a political, strategic act that involves forging alliances and networks and identifying available ‘spaces’ and colonising them. The job is to ‘translate’ what the innovation means at the local and individual level. This is what good managers have always done, but what is new is that it is applied to education and ICT where we have always tended to look at the technology first and ignored all of the rest of the context.
INTRODUCTION
Recent studies on the adoption of ICT in educational settings in Australia, have made increasing use of ANT as a way of interrogating the way this happens (see for example Simpson, 2000, Bigum, 2000). Bigum (2000) in fact states that ‘a more productive approach to the study of things as they are being implemented and taking on new forms, especially when this is applied to the study of technological innovations in educational settings, is offered by the sociology of translation or Actor-Network Theory’.
Actor-Network Theory (ANT) developed in studies of the sociology of technology and science.(Callon, 1986, 1987; Latour, 1988, 1996; Law, 1986; Nespor, 1994). ANT can be characterised as a form of ‘relational materialism’ in which networks develop from negotiations and trade-offs between a set of ‘actors’. ANT acknowledges that the process of successfully introducing and stabilising an innovation involves the construction of an assemblage of diverse relationships between various human (language-bearing) and non-human (non-language) bearing actors or stakeholders, and the active maintenance of relationships between these actors or stakeholders, so that the network is maintained and operates in the desired way as a result of negotiations between the actors. Roles and capacities are not pre-determined but emerge as a result of negotiations, trade-offs and compromises between them. All the stakeholders in a network continually re-negotiate one another’s roles in a move and counter move process. This means that the key person at the centre of a network – the person often charged with responsibility for the idea or innovation – is always involved in trying to stabilise the network.
The key difference to other approaches is that according to this theory the take up of an innovation is not so much determined by any particular inherent sets of characteristics supposedly held by the innovation itself or of by its adopters, rather an innovation progresses only by interesting stakeholders and forming an alliance with them, that is ‘networks’ and for this to happen two ‘translations’ need to occur. One is to move the interests of the actors so that the idea is seen as a solution to a problem and the other is that in doing so, to move the innovation as needed. That is, in order to effect recruitment of new allies, the innovation itself has to change.
Thus from this perspective stability of networks is never assured. The network builder must continually ensure the actors remain true to their defined roles. Network building is essentially a story of the relationships of power.
This paper is an accountof the events and circumstances leading to the successful take up of a technical innovation in the form of Digital Storytelling and consequent transformative change in a teacher’s classroom practices. Digital Storytelling requires that computers be used extensively. The teacher and students need to learn to use a new software program along with making use of digital cameras, audio recording instruments, scanners, image and audio-editing software and so on.
I tell the story from the perspectives of the two Project leaders, the main human actors in the network, myself as change-agent and Malcolm as the teacher in charge. Using the ANT perspective the contexts and the situations surrounding the take up of this technical innovation, reveal that what appears on the surface to be a single stable situation, is in effect the convergence of very many disparate elements (actants) in very heterogeneous networks becoming for a while aligned in some way, to the point of ‘punctualisation’, that is the network disappears from view and becomes what Bruno Latour (1993, 1996) would call a ‘Black Box’ .
The Technical Innovation and Its Application to the Curriculum
Digital storytelling takes the ancient art of oral storytelling anduses computer software to construct audio-visual tales using still images, graphics, music, and sound mixed together with the author's own voice to produce a video-clip. Digital Storytelling requires that computers be used extensively. The teacher and students need to learn to use a new software program along with making use of digital cameras, audio recording instruments, scanners, image and audio-editing software and so on.
Digital storytelling relates back to the development of a production workshop by Dana Atchley at the American Film Institute in 1993 that was adapted and refined by Joe Lambert in the mid-1990's into a method of training promoted by the San Francisco Bay Area-based Center for Digital Storytelling.Melbourne’s Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) is the National centre for Digital Storytelling and runs several workshops and exhibitions each year.
The philosophy behind this type of digital storytelling is one of using technology to enable those without a technical background to produce works that tell a story using "moving" images and sound. The lower machine requirements for using stills rather than video, and the ease of use of iMovie or MS Photostory with the so-called "Ken Burns" pan effect, allowed for the creation of films by non-techies.
In education, digital storytelling has broad application across all three Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) strands, inspiring deep, relevant, interactive learning for all ages. The process of making a digital story involves creative and critical thinking, inquiry, multimodal literacy, writing, discussion, design, production, reflection and presentation. It provides opportunities for students to enhance the expression of their own stories, thoughts and ideas in creative and engaging ways, across a diverse range of learning contexts. Good digital stories are personal, begin with the story/script, are concise, use readily-available source materials, include universal story elements, and involve collaboration, such as story circles, where the story is shared by its authors with a group of others who will listen carefully and make suggestions aimed at improving it.
In 2006 a successful Pilot Project, called ‘Unsung Heroes’, was run involving a small group of Year 10 students from Greystone Boys Grammar[1] a highly respected and well resourced independent school in Australia, and their English teacher Malcolm, with my assistance as the school’s eLearning Coordinator. The Pilot Project’s success resulted in Digital Storytelling being incorporated into the mainstream offerings of the Senior English curriculum.
Basically students were partnered up with an elderly person at the Brotherhood of St.Laurence inner suburban’s drop-in centre for the elderly and homeless or lonely people, and through ongoing conversations helped draw out the interesting,rich life-stories that theseindividuals were happy to share, such as the homeless 75 year old Marathon runner and the 95 year old Sri Lankan volunteer Piano player whose husband had helped set up the Brotherhood of St.Laurence in Australia, thus helping to dispel students’ stereotyped conceptsof the old, poor or disadvantaged.
Using equipment brought from school, students scanned old photos and documents, recorded voices and favourite music and put them all together in brief Film-clips (Digital Stories) of 2 or 3 minutes each and typically used between 15-20 images and took 4 or 5 meetings to construct. The project includedStorytelling and Narrative Genres, Storytelling elements, Scripting, Storyboarding, Photo manipulation, film editing, Narration, digital sound and music editing, student assessment, technology tools, Digital storytelling resources.
How It Happened
–The eLearning Coordinator’s Story
I first became aware of the potential of Digital Storytelling software when in Term 1 2004,as part of my role I attended a Microsoft presentation aimed at IT Managers and Coordinators. Along with other public relations activities designed to get schools to buy Microsoft products and up-grade packs,Microsoft MovieMaker, Photostory and a Power Point plug-in called Producer were presented along with their possible uses in education. I then attended a presentation on Digital Portfolios at a teachers’ professional association conference where the potential and ease of moviemaking software were demonstrated.I attended a session run at another independent school with a USeducatorfrom BerkleyUniversitywho was a pioneer of Digital Storytelling and now promoted the use of Digital Portfolios as a means for reflective practice and self-assessment with teachers. I spent several sessions during the next couple of months researching Digital Storytelling and Digital Portfolios and investigating its potential for my school.
I started Semester 2 training activities by preparing and distributing handouts specifically aimed at the English and Learning Strategies curriculum alerting teachers in those subjects to the usefulness of Digital Storytelling software in getting students to engage with the structure of Narrative Genre from a very personal, first person perspective. I also pursued teachers across several other subject areas and followed up with lunch-time and after hour in-house workshops demonstrating Photostory digital storytelling software and its potential place in teaching programs across the board. Although feedback from teachers was good, this was not matched in any way by any evidence of a take-up by anyone as I had hoped.
I also prepared and distributed handouts alerting teachers to the usefulness of Digital Portfolios in responding to the Standards of Professional Practice required by Victorian Institute of Teaching’sfor all new teachers, and ran workshops on Digital Storytelling with Photostory and on creating professional Digital Portfolios using Powerpoint. Although the response was good, there was no discernible take up by teachers present until well into the following year.
During April 2006 Malcolmapproached me to accompany a group of students to a Brotherhood of St. Laurence drop-in centre called the‘Coolibah Centre’as part of the Community Service he organisedand to report back to him as to its suitability for future visits. I was most impressed and wrote an extremely positive report suggesting a project that would fulfil both English and Community Services objectives bygetting students to create Digital Stories about the elders at the Centre.
Malcolm, who was at this stage under pressure to transform the Community Services program from its tokenistic approach of one-off isolated experiences, to one where students built significant relationships with people and agencies over a period of time, accepted my prompts to attend a 2 Day Digital Storytelling workshop run by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and produced his own personal Digital Story. Malcolm suggested that we pursue further conversations withthe Brotherhood’s education Coordinator. The three of us met and decided that to ensure its success, it was best to proceed at first with a small scale Pilot project. In this way, student notes, assessment tasks, project documentation, and so on could be tried out and modified as needed before final introduction into the mainstream curriculum.
The ‘Unsung Heroes’ Pilot Project begun with six hand-picked students from one of Malcolm’s classes who visited their allotted BSL elders during the once a cycle double period lessons. The rest of class time was allocated to the ‘writing up’. The project concluded with a final morning tea celebration at Greystone Grammar attended by the elders and Year 9 classes. The Headmaster was the only member of the school executive to accept the invitation; he was extremely impressed by the student outcomes and very supportive. The School’s public relations officer also attended, and despite her initial misgivings was also greatly impressed, taking lots of photos and urging the writing of an article for the school community publications.The Headmaster mentioned ‘Unsung Heroes’ in his articles in two separate weekly parents Bulletins. A full page article with photos articulating the experiences enjoyed by students engaged in the ‘Unsung Heroes’ and its final celebration was published in the glossy twice-yearly school magazine.
Malcolm submitted a proposal for a Semester Unit in Yr 9, 10 English to the Head of the English Faculty and Curriculum Committee and was approved on condition that I was available to support the entire project. I accepted readily because access to classrooms and co-teaching relevant Units of work was exactly part of the eLearning strategy for the school and together with Malcolm, successfully submittedan application for financial assistanceto cover the costs of running both the Pilot and Mainstream Unit, including Audio-Visual support, ACMI Coordinator and the donation of three old PC’s to the BSL Centre so that elders could communicate online with students.
During the first Semester 2007 the Yr 9, 10 English Digital Storytelling Unit in was run with co-teaching arrangement between Malcolm and myself and assistance from AV and IT Departments. Once a cycle double periods were used to bus students to the BSL Centre. A final celebration hosted by Greystone Grammar but this time run at the BSL Centre was held at the end of Semester. Again this proved to be extremely successful, the Headmaster once again attendedand this time the Director of Teaching and Learning also attended.
Digital Storytelling has now become an ongoing part of the year 9 and 10 English curriculum offerings
How It Happened
– The Teacher’s Story
Malcolm taught English to years 9 to 12 boys at Greystone Grammar for over 20 years. He is a highly competent professional and his students consistently obtain excellent results. Students generally sit quietly in his class while he does most of the talking in a conventional teacher-centred didactic approach and interruptions are not easily tolerated. Reading and responding to texts and writing of essays are common student tasks. Homework and assignments are punctiliously corrected and returned to the students the following day or two and very often carry many lines of suggestions and comments.Most discussions are whole group discussions mostly led through the teacher with little encouragement or training for students to engage in small group activities. Students are not as a rule given tasks requiring a great deal of cooperation, let alone asked to submit work produced collaboratively, and in all fairness Years 9 and 10 boys at this school do not generally display a highly developed sense of being able to direct their own learning, stay on task and collaborate constructivelyonce the teacher’s attention is diverted.
At Greystone Grammar he was soon appointed Head of Boarding House a position with substantial Pastoral Care responsibilities that he held for 14 years, caring for over 60 boys 24 hours a day throughout the academic year. So it was not entirely surprising that in 2001, on retiring from Boarding House duties, he was approached by the then Director of Staff to assist him with the Year 9 and 10 School Community Program. As coordinator of the Community Services program his duties consisted of placing Yr 9 and 10 boys with Community organisations for one day a year to assist in whatever role those organisations deemed useful and special annual collections and door-knocks for the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and so on, and maintaining an extensive and growing data-base of contact names, charitable organisations, worthy projects, and so on.
Although feedback about the program was positive, Malcolm become increasingly critical of the one-off and artificial nature of this approach and began to question its educational value. Some Community organisations did not have worthwhile activities for the boys to do. Some boys preferred not to turn up to their allotted organisation. Teachers reported dissatisfaction with some placements.
Conservation Volunteers Australia, Keep Australia Beautiful and other worthwhile charitable organisations were contacted including a personal contact by the Headmaster with the newly appointed Education Coordinator of the Brotherhood of St. Laurence who had already expressed the BSL’s wish to get greater involvement by young people in their programs.
During Semester 1 2006 Malcolm acted on the Headmaster’s suggestion and placed some students as part of Community Services day,at an inner-suburban BSL’s drop-in Centre. He also requested that I accompany the students to the Centre and stay all day, instead of only dropping in for 20-30min as is the usual practice. Malcolm also asked me to report back on the organisation and its running. I spent all day and wrote a very positive report for Malcolm where I suggested the possibility of aYr 9, 10 English Project linking Community Services and relevant curriculum objectives using Digital Story-telling and recommended that Malcolm attend a 2 day Professional Development workshop run by ACMI where participants created their own personal digital stories. I applied for Professional Development funding, including replacement costs to cover Malcolm’s attendance for the 2 days. Malcolm received time off to attend ACMI’s workshop and constructed his own Digital Story becoming convinced of its educational potential.