e. Planning the Work of Learners

In the case study teacher's experience, planning the work of learners using the resources supplied or the web is quite straightforward. She has access to a room where her class can share computers on a one-between-two basis, she knows how to use a CD and how to transfer data between applications, and she has copied some material from web sites into her own worksheets. She has also by now looked at a range of World Wide Web sites and can show pupils the relations between the information on these different resources.

Your case might be different. Firstly, do you have access to a computer room or learning centre where you can work on Key Skill Communication lessons with a full group of pupils? Secondly, can you run any CD on all of the machines using your school's network? There are other, technical questions, but these are less important than the educational questions. Consider those below before you start planning the series of lessons in detail.

• How long will you take to deal with this area of work from start to finish, including the production of homework if this is relevant?
• How much of this time will you spend using a CD, gaining access to the Internet in a planned and structured way, and using word processor or spreadsheet resources of your own?
• How do you want to order the use of ICT for learning and assessment - do you want it blocked or staggered, and will you need to circulate pupils around it in circumstances where not all pupils can use computers at once?
• How will you plan to ensure that all pupils are spending time using ICT for the best purposes in their learning of Key Skill Communication skills?
• How will you ensure that pupils do not simply 'copy and paste' from the resources they encounter, and that they learn what they should learn about the work in terms of the objectives set?
• How will you ensure that students avoid simply improving the presentation of the work with ICT rather than learning better as a result of using it?

These questions are crucial at this stage, and you might want to discuss them with colleagues and/or your mentor before you create a scheme of work that includes the use of ICT, however rough the scheme is at the beginning. Once you are happy that you have a plan of how to use ICT effectively for the work you want to do on Key Skill Communication, you should go on to consider some lesson plans for actually applying it in the classroom.

Part 2: Teaching with ICT