In undertaking a year of research I wanted a study that would be useful to the classroom teacher, that might lead to an “aha, I could use that” moment for my professional community.

The idea of using ICTs within the writing process at forming intentions stage arose from a personal love of photography, computers as learning tools and a newly developed love for writing. This was paired with the professional frustration I had with developing ways to successfully allow my students to grow as authors and take control of the writing process. At this point in my learning journey I had scaffolded forming intentions as a noisy organisational time, successful in allowing the students to converse as authors and unsuccessful in developing the students personal understanding of the process and therefore control of it.

As a Junior and Middle school teacher I had explored a variety of literacy programmes to teach writing to my children; unpacking the new English curriculum, spending my Professional Development (PD) budget, participating in school wide PD, conferences and absorbing the vibrant programmes in other classrooms. From all this came my own rich and vibrant written language programme, with powerful modelling, feed forward and celebration of many language forms.

Yet I wished for more for my students and of my teaching. For students to be able to converse easily as authors, to use a more enriched language, to use higher order thinking skills, to take control of the process, to make personal choices, and to comfortably express themselves in their chosen form. I wanted my students to progress further as writers and engage more in their own learning during their time with me.

My school environment nurtured the learners’ knowledge of themselves and their own learning through developing student knowledge of the brain and body and how they interact. Having children identify their personal learning styles and adapting the teaching and learning environment to reflect them. Actively using DeBono’s hats, Gardiner’s Multiple Intelligences and the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning within the everyday environment, and deepening the student’s understanding and control of that learning as they grow. Now, our learners are developing ways to take control of their own learning by developing, practising and experimenting with these skills. As educators we are developing responsibility in the learner through knowledge of where their learning is at, where to go from here and how to get there, thus allowing access to the learning by the learner.

The Literacy and Numeracy strategy from the Ministry of Education (New Zealand) have used “lifting professional capability throughout the system so that everyone plays their part in ensuring that the interaction between teacher and learner is as effective as possible,” as one of the key themes in organising the framework. The Literacy Contract is moving us forward in the teaching of the language of ‘writing’, how to talk about writing, words to use to describe the process and how to talk to others about it. We are learning to “walk the talk” as writers, we as teachers are becoming writers and model successfully the process, problems and solutions to our learners. The Literacy professional development project focuses in phrase 2, “the building of knowledge and implementing changes through active learning.” Learning that “leads to collaborative problem solving and helps teachers to enhance their literacy knowledge and pedagogical skills” (Ministry of Education, NZ, 2004, website)

In my research I looked to continue this journey through empowering the learner by allowing them the opportunity and skills to access the writing process modelled by their empowered teachers. I “walked the talk” of our Literacy PD and grew as a writer. I interacted with my peers in their growth and learnt from them. I now celebrate being an author and continue to develop my skills. As an educator I want to give that “gift” to my students.

Amongst my teaching community there were views of computers in classroom learning:
• time consuming for both teacher and students in supporting tool use and planning for teaching and learning experiences
• time consuming in adding to the length of time to complete learning intentions
• ‘play things’ and therefore large amounts of off task behaviour
• supportive of a range of learning styles
• application of learning through problem-solving, and creative and critical thinking
• real and relevant to our learners

I wanted to see if the negative views were true and if the positives could be applied within the writing process.I was wondering, “How was I going to focus the talk of my students to allow them to develop and use the skills I was modelling and take control of their own learning? How could I allow access to the learning for the learner? What tools as a teacher could I use?”

I reviewed my practice and saw that both the camera and computer were being effectively applied as a tool for learning at publication stage. I started to wonder, “Could the computer and camera provide the focus; allowing access to the teaching and control of the learning?” I choose a basic application of the tool so as to concentrate on what happened in the presence of the tool rather than the wow factor of new software or ‘the cool stuff’.

My intention in my research was to use the camera in the children’s learning when it was the best tool to employ, to match the tool to the situation rather than manipulate the learning to the tool. As a result one opportunity arose on a class trip. Here the learning intention was based on using similes, metaphors and alliterations. The authentic learning situation of a visit to Matakana Island’s forest, mill and school, opened itself to use of the camera to form intentions to write. My research teams were given the camera and asked to each collect a photo of a simile, metaphor and alliteration to use in their classroom writing. Each team’s conversation was recorded, however due to the wind they were un-transcribable, and therefore could not be analysed. What I can state from my observation of the experience is that they evaluated in their talk the difference between the forms of written expression and reflected on their choices as being suitable for their future written pieces. The whole class later used their similes and metaphors of the experience to narrate the video I made of the milling process. Each member of my research was able to verbalise their ideas in small group work and 5 out of the 6 children added to the final movie. As a result the data I analyse was from the use of the computers by the students in my study.

It’s not solely about the tool. In the report to the Ministry of Education reviewing computer-assisted learning (CAL), it was noted that the computer programs used were effective in the presence of an effective teacher using best practice. Some student achievement was raised using computer-assisted learning programs, however the same amount was also raised by other non-computer innovations such as peer-tutoring and instructional media. Having a larger effect on student achievement were instructional quality and quantity, feedback, class environment and questioning. Amongst the New Zealand schools taking part in the use of CAL the following is said:

Upon reflection of this I developed a research project that could:

Forming Intentions within the writing process involves students in large amounts of discourse and I chose to use talk as my core phenomenon. It is the nature of human beings to talk about experiences, sharing their ideas and examine their community and their place in it. Language is the way to solve problems, come to conclusions, form opinions, choose options, interact and grow. As the language learner develops so does the complexity of the language they are using. As their community expands and their place in it changes, so does their communal language.

Talk comes naturally to children and its a skill they already feel they have mastered. It is a personal expression, can demonstrate higher levels of thinking and allows observable ownership of the writing process. Talk has the potential to make the writing process accessible for all. I sought to track and analyse that talk as an indication of the success or failure of the use of cameras and computers to enhance student talk in the writing process.

I had observed my current students on the computer and when using the camera and they were very focused and talkative. I assessed them as demonstrating critical thinking through testing their ideas, justifying their actions and choices, and evaluating their progress and outcomes. In their own different ways they used creative thinking to design and create their own work within the program and learning framework. Some students even explored beyond the program’s capabilities presented by the teacher. Active problem solving and sometimes heated peer discussions showed their analytical thinking development.

I wondered if the computer and camera could be used to develop their use of higher order thinking skills. Bruer (1993) observed of the writing process and higher order thinking skills that:

I was able to observe in their current talk when using the computer and camera their use of the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy of Remembering, Understanding and Applying (Mayer 2002). I was wondering, “Could talking about their writing use these same thinking skills and also demonstrate Analysing, Evaluating and Creating?”

From all these wonderings emerged a newer part in my learning journey, a NZ Ministry of Education E-learning Fellowship.

The fellowship provided the scaffolding for my new learning in providing me with time, space and resources to think, talk, form opinions, argue points, step back from the ‘coal face’ of classroom teaching, view students in their own personal learning and thinking environment and review myself as a ten year teaching practitioner. On reflection at the end of the year the fellowship allowed me to find the ‘why’ of my teaching by stepping out of the ‘how’.