c.
Helping Learners Develop their own IT Capabilities
In
every other subject, a differentiation is made between whether
students are using a computer to learn, or to develop their subject
skills: in this subject area, they are developing their IT/ICT
skills in both cases.
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. 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:
- Identify
what students are doing with ICT.
- 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 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
|
