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