Pupil authors and teacher innovators

This article explores three aspects regarding the supporting of teaching and learning through ICT. First, the use and value of storyboarding as a preferable technique prior to the creation of a pupil-authored CD-ROM by children aged 9 and 14. Second, responses to the innovation by practising teachers. Third, lessons learned from trying to incorporate the CD-ROM within UK teacher training. The article ends with suggestions regarding future ICT training approaches. The content of the CD-ROM was centred on environmental education and the use of local wildlife sites in the UK. In summary, the paper suggests that there are considerable learning gains to be had from enabling children to create their own multimedia sequences but that institutional constraints make these difficult to achieve. School-based teacher education in the UK currently restricts the opportunity for experimentation and innovation, which, in turn, impacts on the full potential of teaching and learning through ICT.