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

a. Evaluating the Lessons

The particular issues arising from this scenario were:

• Pupils were very good at generating ideas.
• They didn't find the prompt sheet very useful, and it would have been better if the teacher's oral briefing had been backed up visually using a PowerPoint presentation.
• Discussion took longer than expected, and the first lesson ran over two periods.
• A lot of time was spent in making sure that every group had created exactly the same structure so that the data could be merged effectively.
• The teacher also felt that her insistence on the whole class using the same structure took away some opportunities to learn by making mistakes, and the class should have a further project of this type in future where groups make more independent decisions.

In general, the following points should be helpful in structuring the evaluation of lessons involving ICT:

• Were pupils motivated by the work?
• What have they learned?
• What is it that contributed to this learning - the activity, the resources, your whole class explanations and interventions, your individual help, prompting and questioning?
• Were any particular groups of learners disadvantaged by the type of work?
• Were there any difficulties in managing pupils' learning or behaviour?
• Were you able to monitor pupils' progress while they were working?
• Were you able to assess their learning from the results of their work?
• What influence did ICT have on the lesson?
• Could the contribution of ICT have been improved further?

b. Evaluating the Resources Used