Does the setting of technology-based homework affect the quality of the writing?

Rationale: As the world becomes increasingly technological, computers and other high-tech equipment are becoming significant components in professional institutions. This rationale suggests that we need to be teaching children to utilise technology in their daily lives, developing their digital literacy skills, which forms one of the three key strands of the new Primary Computing Curriculum. What am I hoping to achieve? Pupil confidence and enjoyment when independent writing. Quality of independent writing. Quantity produced when independent writing. Who will take part? All pupils will engage with the research pilot, but six children will be selected to be the targeted focus of the research. The rest of the class will provide a control sample, with the target children being studied in detail.

What does the research say?: “Blog owners and pupils using social networking sites reported to be significantly better writers compared to pupils who don’t use blogs or social networking sites.” (Clark and Dugdale, 2009) What does the research say?: “Blog owners were significantly more likely to enjoy writing for family/friends than non-blog owners.” (Clark and Dugdale, 2009) What does the research say?: “bloggers were more likely to write online and offline.” (Pew Internet, 2008) What does the research say?: “International evidence suggests that even though teenagers engage in technology-based writing, they do not think of it as writing.” (DfE, 2012)

Child C: Female Reluctant homeworker Constant struggle to get her to do homework and hand it in on time. Child D: Male Less-able writer Enthusiastic, but struggles. doesn’t receive support when writing at home. Child A: Male ‘lazy’ writer Takes no enjoyment or pride in writing and will hand in the bare minimum. Child B: Female Poor confidence Enjoys writing, but struggles getting started & feels work isn’t good enough. Child E: Male Physical act of writing Full of brilliant ideas, but finds handwriting physically difficult. Child F: Female Getting started Totally intimidated by idea of committing pen to paper & spends. hours on homework.

Cycle One: Action points: Creation of class website. Share with parents and gain support. Introduce to class. Launch of technology-based homework. Training sessions on various technologies if needed. Results: Inconclusive. Explanation: Homework this term has mainly had a science focus in preparation for the year 5 science fair. Next steps: Cycle Two of the project to set homework tasks with writing foci.

Cycle One: The website was launched successfully and children are excited about the project. The website also allows in class events and celebrations like Star of the Week and educational visits to be shared with the class and parents/carers and support and feedback from parents is good. The only concern is that there are not many writing homeworks this term...

Cycle Two: Action points: Setting of homework with writing foci. Results: Qualitative and quantitative data collected. Some improvements in homework quality and quantity noticed with specific individuals. Feedback from parents raised new issues. Explanation: There appears to be a decline in the standard of homework across the control sample. This could be due to the fact that homework is not handed back marked and shared with parents. The ‘gravitas’ of homework could have been diminished. Next steps: Create a balanced approach that addresses new issues.

Cycle Two: Some of the children have stopped submitting homework entirely and other than speak to them or refer to parents, it is difficult to follow this up. They are being made to catch this up at homework club, but this then undermines the nature of the project as they then complete this in a school setting, using traditional writing methods. How can I address these issues…?

Cycle Three: Action points: Follow up letter to parents. Share with children new approach to homework. Homework to be completed on technology devices, but then printed and submitted for traditional marking (printing to be offered to children unable to do this at home). Results: Increase in ‘on-time’ submission. Quality better. Explanation: Now that homework is again being marked and followed up on, children appear again to be taking more time over, and more pride in, their work. Next steps: See conclusion…

Cycle Three: The website has clearly been a success. Parents and children have indicated that the ease of being able to access homework sheets from home has been hugely convenient – removing issues such as forgotten homework books or mislaid or damaged sheets. Parents in other classes have approached me about rolling this tool out across the school and there should be serious consideration of how this could work.

This is sooo cool! [control child] My mum says that all the classes should do this. [control child] This is fantastic, we should be sharing things like this so people know that they are going on! [parent] It’s much better. [child] would always forget their sheet and then we would have to race to get [homework} done on a Monday night. Now I can just get her to download it from the website! [Child C’s parent via ]