c.
Helping Learners Develop their own IT Capabilities
Whilst
the focus of the learning was in mathematics, the students also
developed their IT ability when using an ICT option. It is important
to distinguish between times when the student developed their
IT ability and also where they developed their mathematical skills.
If
pupils used all possible resources - and maybe one or two extra
that you thought of - the very least they would have developed
is the following range:
- Running
software - Microsoft Excel.
- Retrieving
and saving files - Microsoft Excel.
- Spreadsheet
layout and terminology.
- Changing
formats of cells (displaying formulae).
- Basic
skills of keyboard and mouse manipulation.
- Using
Internet addresses.
- Printing.
It
might be interesting to look back over your own lesson plans to
identify where these things happened, and even to look at the
IT Key Skills curriculum to see what they are doing in your subject
that is contributing to their development in the IT arena. All
case studies in all subjects in this series make this same statement,
so crucial is the student's awareness of and use of ICT to his
or her own learning in other subjects using it.
It
is worth trying this exercise:
- Identify
what students are doing with ICT in the Application of Number
tasks you have set them.
- Identify
whether what they are doing is a basic motor skill such as moving
a mouse, a technique where they have to follow steps or a higher
order skill where they have to plan and make decisions.
-
Identify the areas of the IT curriculum at the student's stage
of learning to see whether work you are doing with him or her
can be linked with learning in the IT area.
 d.
Assessing Learning
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