ABSTRACT
Modern science often involves the study of hard-to-access places such as outer space, the ocean floor, the structure of biological molecules or even the inner workings of the human brain. To reach these kinds of locations, specialist equipment to extract, sample and measure what exists there requires technological innovation. Working at the frontiers of science usually requires not only the ability to reason scientifically at a high level, but also the technical ability to use customised tools (technology) to gather unique pieces of evidence (be it a piece of moon rock, a sweep of the ocean bed, electrophoresis of a strand of DNA or an MRI scan of the brain). Mechanical (or increasingly digital sensing) technology can be harnessed to seize evidence and information technology can be utilised to interpret what is found. All around the world scientists now contribute to various global ‘data banks’ of information, such as the Human Genome project. Communications technologies, such as email, voice messaging, video conferencing and the web that we all know so well and use regularly in the twenty-first century, were developed initially for scientific purposes several decades ago. So scientists use technology to gather, analyse and communicate data to develop and disseminate scientific knowledge (e.g. about bodies within the solar system, how ocean ecology works, how DNA structures are maintained and how the brain works). In primary science, technology can be used for these various aspects of working scientifically, though perhaps in smaller-scale ways. The more common ways that children use digital technology in primary classrooms include using an interactive whiteboard to present scientific concepts visually or to allow them to move objects and labels around the board to explain or categorise. Children often use websites to research or revise aspects of science, or present their findings from scientific enquiry using text, photos, charts and video in a multimedia package such as PowerPoint, Keynote or Prezi. Slightly less common is the use of datalogging equipment to measure and monitor physical quantities such as light, sound or temperature during scientific enquiry, or carrying out ‘virtual experiments’ using simulation software. It is easy to assume that merely by using digital technologies we are making the experience of learning science more creative for children, since they appear to be highly motivated by it, and it is often presented in attractive, slick packages. But is this really the case? Is a child answering a multiple-choice quiz in a web-based revision package really
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exhibiting creativity? Is there even the danger that by ‘sanitising’ science and removing some of the practical difficulties of real scientific enquiry, e-learning might be limiting children’s creative opportunities? We might argue that by using a wide range of resources in our teaching – including those such as digital applications (‘apps’) which present science in a colourful, attractive and interactive way – we are teaching creatively. However, to teach for creativity (see Chapter 2), we need to examine the ‘affordances’ of the technology (Gaver 1991) more critically to see where children are being offered choices to solve problems in different ways, or where they are being prompted to engage in possibility thinking. Loveless and Wegerif (2004) argue that there are distinctive features of digital technology that can support children’s creativity, which they identify as follows:
O provisionality (the ability to make changes easily); O interactivity (the feedback given to the user); O capacity (ability to hold vast amounts of information); O range (ability to source information from great distances); O speed (processing large amounts of information in a very short time); O accuracy (particularly in measurement); O quality (for example of visual images); O automation (ability to bypass mundane tasks); O multimodality (communication in text, charts, images, sound, video); O neutrality (presenting data without comment for the user to interpret); O ‘social credibility’ (‘coolness’, facility to produce ‘professional’ outcomes).
