c. Helping Learners Develop their own IT Capabilities

In every other subject, a differentiation is made, whether students are using a computer to learn or to develop their subject skills: when we are talking about Key Skills IT, in both cases, they are developing their IT/ICT skills.

For example, if students used all possible resources - and maybe one or two extra that you thought of - the very least that they would have developed is the following range:

  • Loading software - the CD-ROM
  • Accessing the World Wide Web
  • Searching for information - on the CD-ROM or the World Wide Web
  • Basic skills of mouse and keyboard manipulation
  • Printing - if the student was allowed to print from the CD-ROM or the World Wide Web
  • Using e-mail - for the expert investigation
  • Using a word processor

It might be interesting to look back over your own lesson plans to see where these things happened, and to look at the IT curriculum as it applies to students at Key Stages three and four. In this way, you can see what they are doing in your subject that is contributing to their development in the IT arena - and vice versa, the IT Key Skills assist the student in the individual subject arenas. All case studies in all subjects in this series make this same statement, so crucial is the pupil's awareness of and use of ICT to his or her own learning in other subjects using it.

It is worth trying this exercise:

  1. Identify what students are doing with ICT.
  2. 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.
  3. Identify the areas of the IT curriculum at the pupil's key stage to see whether work you are doing with him or her can be linked to learning in the IT area.

Remember: in the case of IT Key Skills, accreditation of learning undertaken can be gained either in specific sessions relating to the IT Key Skill itself, OR in relation to IT/ICT work carried out for other subjects.

d. Assessing Learning