d. Assessing Learning

As with any form of teaching, when the work is done it is essential that accurate and valid forms of assessment take place. When you are using ICT in teaching, several dangers arise that are not otherwise so obvious. They stem from the easy availability and the ease of manipulation of information and ideas, and it is best to be clear about them in this first case study.

1. You need to be confident that the information received and used by pupils has been arrived at 'deliberately' - that is as a function of their acquisition of subject-based skills rather than by some accident of the World Wide Web.
2. You need to be confident that the work is the student's own, not a copied version of a comrade's work. Also, that new ideas presented to them through the technology have been assimilated in a way that is appropriate.
3. You need to be happy that both you and your students appreciate the differences between presentation and content, and that the student is not merely using the technology to make better-looking work of the same standard as before, but increasing their skills and aptitude for improvement.
4. The key measure of success is the student's understanding of the IT Key Skill objectives, and how these may be used in relation to other subjects. There is a danger that introducing students to too many skills in too short a time might overwhelm them. An equal danger is concentration on the actual skill of doing the task, without looking at the underpinning knowledge and understanding.
5. Individual and shared progress and achievement - often the technology will have been used by pairs and groups, as well as by individuals. Here you need to have a method of ensuring that credit goes to the right pupil of pair/group for the work done or learning achieved.
6. ICT use and opportunities to assess learning. Throughout the time you are using ICT to develop pupils' learning it is crucial to keep an eye on where ICT allows you to intervene with an assessment, or whether the ICT has provided you with an assessment opportunity that you had not foreseen. The expert e-mail exchange is an obvious example of this, but so is observing a pupil make intelligent decisions about the worth of a World Wide Web site or a part of the CD-ROM.

For discussion with your mentor:

• How many of the points made above have you seen in the course of your work developing the case study, and are there any others you expect to come across?

Part 3: Evaluating the Use of ICT in Teaching and Learning