Accepting Choices: To ICT or Not to ICT - Engagement!

Over a period of several weeks 16 male students in a middle school were required to complete a project to measure their level of engagement using Information Communication Technology (ICT). During the lessons students were observed by the classroom teacher, two pre-service teachers and an ICT education lecturer, who assisted, photographed, videoed and interviewed students. Students were also requested to complete survey questions on three occasions throughout the project. The project required student to use anything they desired, technology or otherwise, to research and present their findings in order persuade the observers to choose their group's project. The tasks of the onlookers were to observe whether students were engaged, or otherwise, in the production and presentation of their project. The degree of engagement when using ICT is dependant on a student's ability to choose how and when to implement ICT. Engagement is the combination of feelings (emotional), observable actions or performance (behavioural) and perceptions and beliefs (cognitive). Many observations were made about the students' choice of whether to use ICT or not and this paper addresses the results of their engagement in the task.