b. Deciding Whether to Use ICT

There seems to be a wide range of options for dealing with this topic. The teacher could:

• Use discussion only, and not use any ICT (or other technology) at all.
• Use a CD-ROM to gain access to background material - either general material such as can be found on typical encyclopaedias, or more focussed resources in CD subject-specific collections.
• Use the World Wide Web to gather resources.
• Use the World Wide Web for the resources, and download the information in such a way as to make it usable in a spreadsheet.
• Use a spreadsheet and a Word document to manage the information, regardless of how it has been acquired.

Of course, any combination of the options is also possible, but we shall discuss them all, and your work will involve using several of the options alone and together.

Questions for Consideration

• How many of the options above do you feel comfortable about at the moment, and could you suggest any others?
• What are the benefits to using a CD-ROM for background information?
• What are the pitfalls as you see them to using the World Wide Web to gather background or 'live' information?
• Look again at the objectives for this case study - do you think any of them match up with the options listed?

Keep a short record of your responses to these questions for discussion with your mentor.

c. Selecting ICT Resources