Part 2:
Teaching With ICT

a. Structuring Lessons

In the case study we are dealing with, the teacher has a fairly regular pattern to his sessions. He tends to start with a teacher-led introduction to the session, outlining the area to be covered. In an hour-long lesson, he might restrict himself to just one specific aspect, for example using tabs, page alignment, or copying and pasting information. From the introduction, he will set each individual student tasks, using printed worksheets, a section of a CD-ROM or specific investigations on the World Wide Web. This work is structured, and he monitors progress around the class. Individual progress can be evaluated to feedback in the next session.

Again, you might not work in exactly this way, but you probably do have a pattern that you favour as a teacher. Characterise this pattern to yourself now, and consider how the use of ICT as a resource might fit into it.

Over something like a ten-week period, spending three weeks on development of database structural skills, the teacher in this case study has wanted to introduce the ICT based work at about the fourth week, to obtain source material for production of future databases. First, recall the main learning objectives:

• Plan and use different sources to search for and select information
• Explore, develop and exchange information and derive new information
• Present information.

Below is a summary of the sessions are structured to use ICT to meet these objectives. Please note: as databases are an aspect of advanced IT Key Skills (Level 3), this usually would not be covered until the second year on an IT Key Skills course. As a result, many of the actual IT skills used are considered to have already been developed (except in the case of students transferring onto a course form another institution). Hence, databases might be taught in the first four weeks.

Take a look at this summary and then produce your own account, and your own lesson plans, showing how you would use the ICT resources we have been discussing to do the same job on another aspect of IT, for example using spreadsheets. You might wish to extend or contract the time, and to fit the plans, duration and work around your own experience of working with this or a similar text.

Case Study Lesson Structure

Week 1 - Reintroduce students to databases.

• Class introduction to topic for following weeks.
• Introduction to information search and retrieval concepts - using a worksheet to describe some aspects of CD-ROM, Internet and Databases.
• Starting Microsoft Access.

Week 2 - Database Design.

• Class introduction/explanation of skills to be evaluated.
• Launch Database.
• Save database using a unique name.
• Set up sample database - 6 fields, 10 records on class details.
• Save changes and printout.
• Continuous observation and feedback to the group.

Week 3 - Building and Using the Database.

• Loading previously saved database.

Until this point, worksheets have been provided. In order to meet the criteria for using automated routines, as well as using ICT to Model Relationships and Control Events, students will be directed to use the help facility contained within Microsoft Access, or online World Wide Web searches to assist in finding the required techniques to use. For a student who has already successfully completed the tasks on the worksheet, the following tasks should be well within their capability. Of course, The assessor observes to avoid cases of difficulty.

• Inserting AutoNumber field.
• Format fields - altering nature and size.
• Creation of simple query to access information - worksheet provided.
• Creation of simple Form to aid data entry.

Week 7 - Consolidation of Database.

• Addition of 10 extra records - perhaps names gained form the World Wide Web via Form. Save and printout of work.
• Creation of a Report for printing final layout.
• Alteration of order of fields. Second printout.
• Feedback to whole group - queries on advantages and disadvantages of using databases.
• Completion and feedback of assessment process to students.
• Class summary/conclusion.
• Summarise events of the previous four weeks.

The database component could be expanded in many ways. For example, using information downloaded from the Internet or from CD-ROM (eg. Europe in the Round) to produce a brand new database directly relevant to the student's study areas. In order to meet IT Key Skills criteria directly at level 3, it would also be necessary to set up automated facilities inside the database itself, for example 'lookup' tables, or a 'switchboard'.

b. Managing Learning in the Classroom