c. Helping Learners Develop their own IT Capabilities

Whenever the pupils in the case study are using a computer to learn, they are of course not only developing their Design and Technology skills but also their ICT skills. It is important to distinguish between one thing and the other, and also for us as Design and Technology specialists to know when a pupil is learning to use ICT as well as learning to understand Design and Technology.

If pupils use a range of resources dedicated to Design and Technology and mentioned here - and maybe one or two extra that you thought of - the very least they would develop is the following range:

• Loading software - any bespoke packages
• Accessing the World Wide Web for simulations or information about hardware and software products
• Searching for information - on the World Wide Web
• Basic skills of mouse and keyboard manipulation
• Printing - if the pupil is allowed to print from the packages in your area
• Using a word processor, DTP or presentation package - if pupils undertook to present their findings in this way
• Assembling, monitoring, assessing and re-adapting hardware configurations - for sensing technology, digital imaging work or process control work.

It might be interesting to look back over your own lesson plans to see where these things happened, and even to look at the IT curriculum as it applies to pupils at Key Stages three and four to see what they are doing in your subject that is contributing to their development in the IT arena. All case studies in all subjects in this series make this same statement, so crucial is the pupil's awareness of and use of ICT to his or her own learning in other subjects using it.

It is worth trying this exercise:

1. Identify what pupils are doing with ICT in the Design and Technology tasks you have set them.
2. Identify whether what they are doing is a basic motor skill such as moving a mouse, a technique where they have to follow steps or a higher order skill where they have to plan and make decisions.
3. Identify the areas of the IT curriculum at the pupil's key stage to see whether work you are doing with him or her can be linked to learning in the IT area.

d. Assessing Learning