c.
Selecting ICT Resources
The
teacher in the case study is completely at home with the skills
behind most of the options we have looked at above. She has used
the videos, she already has some word processed materials, she
has seen some useful sites on the World Wide Web, and she knows
how to use a CD-ROM. She has not used a presentation program,
although she has seen them used by speakers in staff development
courses.
You
are probably in a similar position, so we shall look at the options
in the context of your school and your experience. Think about
the following points as they apply to you:
Using
board work and text books only, and not using any ICT (or other
technology) at all.
Textbooks may provide useful definitions, explanations, diagrams,
pictures, perhaps some examples, and questions. You may have a
variety of texts in small numbers, to be used as resources in
the classroom, or a class textbook which is taken home by pupils.
Oral and board work can be used to help amplify and customise
the text book explanations for the particular class concerned.
You may also need to bring the text up-to-date.
Using
a word processor package to create worksheets on the text, placing
some images into the worksheets.
Here the question is one of how much the pupils will learn, retain
and organise if the teacher spends her time on creating learning
and testing resources using a word processor, and how much they
would have done so anyway. It is said that a picture can be worth
a thousand words, or at least that a picture can give an extra
stimulus to the understanding of ideas which students will not
have experienced directly. It also seems likely that the time
spent on creating high quality resources of the sort the teacher
wants is likely to be returned in the adaptability and re-usability
of the resources.
Using
a presentation program to display key point to pupils and/or to
record and manipulate ideas contributed by pupils.
This option would replace the use of an OHP and, to some extent,
a whiteboard, but would require suitable display facilities -
at least a large monitor or TV screen - to ensure that all pupils
could see. The benefits would be in pupils seeing a new IT tool
in use, in the easier management of slides for the teacher (compared
with OHP) and in the greater presentation quality (compared with
whiteboard). There would be some loss of flexibility compared
with a whiteboard, but the whiteboard can still be used as a supplement
if appropriate.
Using
some video, perhaps concerned with a real business or social administration
system.
This isn't strictly an ICT option, but it would be if it were
done in conjunction with the word-processed worksheets or some
work on the World Wide Web. The best thing about it is that looking
at video can provide some idea of the processes and issues involved
in a real context.
Using
learning resources on CD-ROM.
There are now some CD-ROM's available containing multimedia study
material for IT and Computing subjects. There are problems, though,
concerned with managing the CD-ROM and giving students access
to it.
Using
the World Wide Web for research, especially on the Data Protection
Register.
The following web addresses provide relevant material:
Data Protection
Act
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1984/1984035.htm
Data Protection
Register
http://www.open.gov.uk/dpr
http://www.open.gov.uk/dpr/intro.htm
http://www.open.gov.uk/dpr/guide.htm
Hacking
Prevention/Detection
http://www3.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/zdtv/0227/290050.html
http://rent-a-hacker.com
Hacker's
Manifesto/Advice on Hacking
http://members.xoom.com/sickphucks/hacking.htm
Viruses
http://ksi.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/courses/547-96/cochrane/
present/index.html
http://www.physics.udel.edu/wwwusers/watson/
student_projects/scen167/wizards/
http://www.adnetadvertising.com/virus/sld02.html
When
you come to use the World Wide Web to deal with data protection
and security, you should try to restrict yourself (and the pupils)
to particular sites. Wandering off into hyperspace can be a waste
of time without the right focus and the right discipline. Searching
for "data protection" mostly generates sites for commercial companies
and products, but could be instructive for advanced or mature
students. Searching for "hacking", however, provides a large number
of links, which promise dangerous material and should not be suggested
to any students. Most of the links are non-functional, presumably
because web site providers consider this material unsuitable and
remove it as soon as they find it. The one listed above was active
at the time of preparing this material, and contains the pro-hacking
"mentors' manifesto" together with some very old "how-to" advice
which may be useful for you to refer to for background information.
Searching for virus information is more fruitful, and I have listed
three sites. Two of them are ready-made slide presentations, which
are worth considering, though one looks too difficult for GCSE.
Using
a presentation program for pupils to present their work.
If you use a presentation program yourself to display points for
pupils, the next stage is to teach the pupils to use this program
and set them the task of presenting their conclusions from research,
or answers to specific questions, using the program.
Now
that you've looked at these ideas about the options available,
you need to make your own choices. The teacher in the case study
has decided to use the presentation program together with some
video for her work with the whole class and for pupils' writing
up of conclusions, together with the Internet for pupils' research.
You need to plan to do something of this sort. On the next page,
make a copy and fill out the summary to help you get focus on
what you will do. I've put in some suggestions - you can use these
as you like. Think of some uses of your own, and make a short
note on what you will have to do to make it work, what you expect
the benefit to be to your pupils, and what difficulties you expect
to encounter when you do it in the classroom.
Resources
Selected for Work on Data Protection and Security
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