Part Two:
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 CD-ROM 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 three 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:

• Explain what is meant by Industrialisation, providing some examples from Welsh History.
• Describe Migration and Emigration, and explain briefly how the process of industrialisation influences patterns of population growth and movement.
• Provide a chronological account of the main aspects of industrialisation in key periods within the area 1760-1914.
• Outline two or more changes in:
  • Social
  • Economic
  • Technological aspects of life in the period

Below is a summary of how weeks 1-3 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
Wales and Industrial Britain 1760-1914

Week 1 - Three Hours - Industrialisation, Emigration and Migration. Three one-hour sessions each focusing on the key term for definition and description - same pattern for each session:

• Class introduction - Whole class discussion of the term.
• Use CD-ROM and the web to establish a written definition of the term and an example of its application to History - pairs or small groups working on each term in relation to a geographical area (Europe, Great Britain, Wales).
• Pairs/small groups feed back their definitions and applications to the whole class.

Whole class emerges from the three sessions with a general account of the effects of industrialisation on migration and emigration: Examples for Europe, Great Britain, Wales.

Week 2 - Two Hours - the Chronology of Industrialisation. A single continuous lesson/session:

• Class introduction - teacher provides outline chronology on word processed handout for the whole period.
• Pair/small group work for targeted periods within the area 1760-1914 - pairs/groups use timelines from CD-ROM and the web to establish key events and patterns as they apply specifically to Wales, and where possible to the movement and growth of population in Wales.
• Where possible, pupils present population data on a simple spreadsheet.
• At the end of the two hours - whole-class summary of findings by the teacher.

Week 3 - Three Hours - Gathering and Interpreting Data on Social Trends. A single continuous lesson/session:

• Class introduction - Distinguish between Social, Economic and Technical.
• Pairs/small groups given tasks on changes in the period identified - find and structure information on two or more changes within the areas social/economic/technical.
• Examples include:
  • Longevity/mortality rates at start and end of period (Social)
  • Data on health and illness linked to region/area (Social)
  • Family structures/housing at key points in period (Social)
  • Nature of work - focus on work area(s) across period - agriculture, fisheries, manufacture, mining etc. (Economic/Technical)
  • Population movement from rural to urban areas (Social)
  • Income levels and sources of income across period (Economic)
  • Data on consumption of goods and services linked to social class (Economic)
  • Development of machinery and mechanisation of processes (Technical)
• Where possible, pupils create simple databases to organise qualitative information, or simple spreadsheets to organise numerical data.
• At end of three hours - data on social trends is summarised into bullet-point lists for use and development over the rest of the work on the area.

b. Managing Learning in the Classroom