Part 2:
Teaching With ICT

a. Structuring Lessons

In the case study we are dealing with, the teacher has a fairly regular pattern to his sessions. He tends to start with a teacher-led introduction to the topic, outlining the area for coverage in the session. In an hour-long lesson, he will restrict himself to just one topic. From the introduction, he will set pairs or small groups work to do, using printed worksheets, a database or specific investigations on the World Wide Web. This work is structured, and he monitors progress around the class until he can get them to report back to the whole group on their progress, or summarise their progress in small groups to feedback in the next session.

Again, you might not work in exactly this way, but you probably do have a pattern that you favour as a teacher. Characterise this pattern to yourself now, and consider how the use of ICT as a resource might fit into it.

Over something like a three-week period of focused work using ICT in this area, spending about one and a half/two hours a week on the topic, the teacher in the case study has wanted to introduce the ICT based work from the beginning. First let's recall the main learning objectives the teacher has for his pupils in this area:

• Investigate the global distribution of earthquakes using a pre-prepared database and produce a map to show their location.
• Describe and explain any spatial patterns identified. (Infer the location of plate boundaries from the distribution map).
• Create queries to sort and manipulate data.
• Adapt or add to the database in order to answer geographical questions they have identified.

Below is a summary of how weeks one-three are structured to use ICT to meet some of these objectives Take a look at this summary and then produce your own account, and your own lesson plans, showing how you would use the ICT resources we have been discussing to do the same job on the topics. You might wish to extend or contract the time, and to fit the plans, duration and work around your own experience of working with this type of activity.

Case Study Lesson Structure

Week 1 - Class introduction and targeted questions.

• Class introduction - Whole class discussion of where earthquakes happen?
• Speculate on the areas that are prone to earthquakes and attempt to explain this.
• Discussion based on the differing effects in terms of deaths and damage.
• Small group work (groups of two/three):
  • Each group accesses the database and completes the column titled 'continent' (using a CD-ROM, Atlas, or the web).
  • Each group then plots the continents manually onto a blank world map.
  • Pupils attempt to infer the location of plate boundaries from their maps.
• Class discussion:
  • All pupils get a sense of the global distribution of earthquakes, having identified spatial patterns and attempt to explain these.
  • All pupils are clear on the task for the next lesson.
  • Web site related homework issued.

Week 2 - Use the database to analyse the data.

• Whole class discussion to re-cap work done on database in last lesson.
• Introduce purpose of the lesson aims -create queries to sort the data in order to compare the effects of the different earthquakes - eg. compare magnitude with number of deaths or compare continent with number of deaths.

Week 3 - Interpreting Data on Earthquakes.

• Class introduction:
  • Whole class discussion to re-cap work done on interpreting data.
• Worksheet based tasks:
  • Groups transfer the data from Access to Excel to create a spreadsheet.
  • Pupils create graphs to show their findings.
  • Pupils transfer data from Excel to Word and can use images from the web to provide illustration to their graphs.
  • Pupils use Word to describe and explain their results from their enquires.
• Feed back:
  • Whole class discussion of groups' findings.
  • Pupils e-mail their work to other pupils for peer assessment.
• Other and future sessions might include:
  • Predict the area in the world that will receive the next big one using the database.
  • Differing human responses to hazards using case study examples from the web.
  • E-mail an expert with pre-determined questioned questions.
  • 'Beat the Quake' - pupils prepare an earthquake emergency plan.

b. Managing Learning in the Classroom