e. Planning the Work of Learners

In the case study teacher's experience, planning the work of learners on the World Wide Web is quite straightforward. She has access to a room where her class can share computers on a one-between-two basis, she knows the sites quite well, and she has copied some material from it into her own worksheets.

Your case might be different. Do you have access to a computer room or learning centre where you can work on German lessons with a full group of pupils? There are other, technical questions, but these are less important than the educational questions. Consider those below before you start planning the series of lessons in detail.

  • How long will you take to deal with the topic from start to finish?
  • How much of this time will you spend gaining access to the Internet in a planned and structured way, and using word-processed resources of your own?
  • How do you want to order the use of ICT for learning and assessment - do you want it blocked or staggered, and will you need to circulate pupils around it in circumstances where not all pupils can use computers at once?
  • How will you plan to ensure that all pupils are spending time using ICT for the best purposes?

These questions are crucial at this stage, and you might want to discuss them with colleagues and/or your mentor before you create a scheme of work that includes the use of ICT, however rough the scheme is at the beginning. Once you are happy that you have a plan of how to use ICT effectively, you should go on to consider some lesson plans for actually applying it in the classroom.

Part 2: Teaching with ICT