Evaluation of Student Facing Web-Based Services: WickED (CORE Education)

Learning for providers, teachers and schools 

Impact on schools and teacher practices

The aim of WickED is to provide resource support for students and teachers that is fun and engaging. The impact of WickED on schools and teachers is uncertain. Most use, appears from server stats, to occur during school hours, but the extent of embedded use of WickED in schools was difficult to judge and does not seem to be as widespread as the server stat usage appears to show.

Finding teachers to interview who were using the site proved to be as difficult a quest as finding students. Teachers who finally agreed to be interviewed were impressed by the potential of WickED. They considered there was a lot of material available, it appeared to be worthwhile and trustworthy and they could see that students enjoyed the colours, noises and interactives available on the site.

Several teachers indicated they had tried or were trying to fit WickED resources into their existing practice and were finding it difficult. Fitting the themes in particular, into teachers planning provided them with challenges. Teachers indicated it would be useful if a programme of themes for the year could be published in advance so that teachers were aware, ahead of time, what was coming up and plan for better inclusion.

Some teachers had found the workshops run by TKI staff memorable but others had generally not used the site since being introduced to it. Many teachers were still not sure, even after the training sessions, how it could be used with students. Those teachers who were aware of the site tended to recommend access to the site for rewards for students or as busy work for early finishers and to see the site more as an ‘educational resource site for kids’. Very little evidence indeed came to light about ways teachers themselves were using the site in their classroom themes or inquiries.

Positioning as a learning environment by teachers and schools

As with most resource sites, examples could be found where teachers used the WickED resources effectively and also where they were used in a more superficial manner. More superficial uses of WickED were in evidence where teachers tended to use the resources as rewards or for time fillers for early finishers. Where they did use WickED resources within more effective teaching and learning situations these tended to be activities that were incorporated into other themes or inquiries, for example one teacher used the Whare nui interactive activity as part of a unit of work on early Canterbury.(See Table 5) or for directed in school or homework activities. One teacher said s/he use WickED language interactives as an independent group activity in the language programme.

WickED as a resource appears to have potential and this was recognised by many teachers who were aware that their students enjoyed the fun and engaging aspects of the site. That site resources had been found by someone else and were quality assured, meant the site could be trusted and this was important to teachers. (SeeTable 5). The timesaving element of resource location was also important to teachers who suggested the need for more of this. Teachers indicated they would like to see bigger databases of related links for topics provided.

Teachers also expressed a desire to have the site align more closely with school directions in planning curriculum activities with classes. Just why certain themes were selected was not always apparent to either researchers or some of the teachers who were interviewed. To become more useful for teachers, consideration needs to given to a strategy whereby teachers are much more involved in the development of the site particularly in terms of resource selection, curriculum connections and forward planning.

For schools undertaking inquiry the site seemed to have limited value. The site does not seem to fit well with the changing pedagogical approaches that teachers of the targeted age group are gradually developing nationally. Teachers developing inquiry approaches in particular were finding location of particular materials to meet specific learning needs, somewhat difficult on WickED and indicated a range of other preferred services. While some teachers had embedded resources into their work (see Table 4 for several examples) these examples were few and far between and in many cases teachers interviewed tended to see WickED as primarily a place THEY used to find resources and activities to support the current theme or topic being taught and then passed these onto their students.

Learning for front line service providers and the partnering organisations

WickED may best be categorised as a web based digital learning object repository (although more recent developments of the site have introduced some levels of collaborative activity referred to as ‘community’ features by the developers). The primary focus is on providing younger students of primary and intermediate school age with online educational activities that are engaging and fun. It is hard to identify exactly what is unique about WickED in its current form when it is compared to overseas sites that are similar in nature, for example ‘PopCap Games’ website. In fact many students and teachers felt that it was often quicker to use Google and hence more exactly target the collections of spelling and maths practice games and other specific interactives they may looking for.

As stated earlier, the student age group targeted by WickED are largely emergent as both independent learners and as independent users of the internet and online learning yet from the literature it is evident many in this group already have clear ideas about what they wish to find and what they want to do. High levels of interaction, bright colours and noises all act as key attractants. Students also come to the WickED site with expectations gleaned from non-educational sites about what they should be able to do, and how to personalise their place in cyberspace. Interviewed students were able to list sites such as ‘Bebo’ that raised or altered their expectations of online experiences.

Much more could also be made of the known benefits of the internet for learning with WickED – the targeted development of a learning community where students are encouraged to interact with each other, provide feedback or comment on work they have uploaded to the site, and some sort of personalisation of the site for students also needs to be considered.

Better positioning the games and interactives available on the site, in the educational process, may be quite an important strategy for future development. It may also be necessary to attempt to overcome teacher suspicion of the value of entertainment types games in the serious educative process. Prensky’s (2005) view that teachers, being largely of the generation who view games as trivial pursuits, may need some help to see that there is indeed educative value in socially-based games that are of a more complex nature than the student-to-computer interactives currently available on WickED and are so hard for teachers to find a purposeful place for in the classroom. WickED, could be an ideal place to introduce more involved and complex multiple user and class to class online games that have a strongly educative underpinning for a New Zealand audience.

It is clear from the evidence gathered by both the CORE and Neilsen NetRatings research teams, that WickED has a certain appeal for students particularly at the upper age group end of the targeted 7 – 12 year old age group. In fact Nielsen NetRatings (2006, p.7) found that the main interest group included 10 – 13 year olds but extended out to include some 9 year olds as well as a few 14 and 15 year olds. Active targeting of the 10 – 14 year age group may be an option worth consideration for future development of the WickED site. The middle school age band is being increasingly seen as a reasonably cohesive group with similar learning needs.

The interactives and fun nature of the site provides a major attractant for the age group but the greater percentage of students in both research reports were identified as being first time users or itinerant users of the site. The site needs to offer more social connections for students to encourage a core group of them to return and to establish a supportive community. Some ways in which this could be achieved could be considered.

Although WickED has over time, morphed into a broader and more inclusive learning environment for the age group than was original conceived. The Nielson Netratings report (Dec 2006) found that the WickED site still had an appeal for students in lower decile schools and for Maori and Pasifika students. Students in lower-decile economic groups and students from Maori and Pasifika cultures are important groups that need to be kept within any framework for future development.

Also important is the need to raise awareness of students’ and teachers’ knowledge-of and knowledge-about WickED digital resources that support and enhance learning for both the classroom and for home use. Workshops and training sessions have produced varying outcomes with some teachers grateful for the opportunity to see how resources can be utilised and others who remain confused or uncertain about how such resources can be used. It is unclear from the evidence gathered whether these variable outcomes are due to the quality of the training or whether they are due to a variety of other pedagogical or technical reasons.

Workshops and training sessions for students have successfully kick-started some to make more use of the site but others have not returned. The development of ‘hooks’ that will successfully involve students more deeply in the environment should be considered.

Providing for both teachers and students increases the complexity of the environment and complicates delivery. Singularity of purpose may be an important success factor for online environments. Continuing to provide services and online resources for teachers especially when they have other resources such as TKI available would be worth a review.