c.
Selecting ICT Resources
The
teacher in the case study is completely at home with the skills
behind most of the options we have looked at above, and has used
a variety of Web and CD-ROM based materials to teach the subject
area. He has used newspapers and videos, he already has some word-processed
materials, he has seen some good sites on the World Wide Web,
and he knows how to use a CD-ROM.
You
may not be in the same position as he is, so we shall look at
the options in the context of your school and your experience.
Think about the following points as they apply to you:
Use
teacher-led discussion on the topic only, and not use any ICT
(or other technology) at all.
I have a bit of a problem with this (I would say that, wouldn't
I?) in as much as my own experience of working with discussion
alone is that it can be hugely enjoyable, but that learners often
have little general or even current affairs knowledge on which
to build comparative and analytical skills. Especially in terms
of the objectives set for this case study, there is such a wealth
of material available from the World Wide Web and CD-ROM that
I really would want to get the most out of the curriculum, the
technology and the pupils by combining some of the options.
Use
a word processor package to create information and work sheets
for the topic.
Here the question is one of how much the pupils will develop their
skills if the teacher spends his time on creating stimulus material
using a word processor, and how much they would have done so anyway.
My own view is that the use of well organised stimulus material
will help learners focus on the topic in hand, as well as giving
them examples of how information can be found and managed. It
also seems likely that the time spent on creating high quality
resources of the sort the teacher wants is likely to be returned
in the adaptability and re-usability of the resources.
Use
some video or print material showing aspects of the topic.
This isn't strictly an ICT option, but it would be if it were
done in conjunction with the word processed worksheets or some
work on the World Wide Web looking at the topics. The best thing
about it is that looking at video or print material provides a
range of stimuli to the learner, and a range of opportunities
for the learner to think about the issues associated with comparison
of Religions.
Use
a CD-ROM to have students gather information on the topic to form
the basis of discussion and individual work.
Almost any CD-ROM encyclopędia will give you background information
on a range of World Religions, though many are still written from
essentially a North American point of view. You probably know
about Encarta and Britannica, and other products such as Hutchinson
and Compton provide inexpensive if inconsistent sources of data.
The point here is that you are not looking for thorough, exhaustive
and expert treatment of the topic, but for well presented materials
that will enable your pupils to develop their own sense of the
relations between Religions and the societies they occupy.
Use
the World Wide Web to gather information - particularly factual
information covered in the objectives.
In this case study, you might want to find sources themselves,
and the following search engines can provide a useful starting
point:
Use
the World Wide Web to gather resources.
The following web addresses provide interesting sources of information,
and appear in all the case studies for RE:
General
Resources for RE Teachers
http://re-xs.ucsm.ac.uk/schools/cupboard/ict/
maureenreport.html
A report on use of ICT in teaching.
http://hopkins.ndirect.co.uk/revision
General GCSE revision.
http://re-xs.ucsm.ac.uk/schools
General information about the place of ICT in RE teaching.
www.studyweb.com
Links across the Secondary curriculum.
Religion
and Morality
www.religioustolerance.org/glossary.htm
A glossary of religious terms.
www.hopkins.ndirect.co.uk/revision/chper1.html
Morality in the GCSE syllabus.
World Religions
and Worship
www.hopkins.ndirect.co.uk/revision/ch1/html
Christian texts.
www.religioustolerance.org/var_rel.htm
Summaries of World Religions, and many links to other sites.
www.hopkins.ndirect.co.uk/revision/ch2.html
Information about worship.
http://members.tripod.com/adaniel/religions.htm
Religion in India.
www.brent.gov.uk/brent/other.religion.htm
Summaries of World Religions.
www.cant.ac.uk/secpgce/Rel_Edu/Renet/PROF_RE/PLACESPP.htm
Information about places of worship.
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/religion/islam/
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/religion/hindus/index.htm
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/religion/christianity/
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/religion/buddhism/
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/religion/judaism/
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/religion/sikhism/
The BBC World Service religion section.
When
you come to use the World Wide Web to deal with this area of work,
you should try to restrict yourself (and the pupils) to these
sites. Wandering off into hyperspace can be a waste of time without
the right focus and the right discipline.
Use
information gathered from the World Wide Web and CD-ROM to generate
worksheets that specifically instruct pupils on the relations
between Religious beliefs and social life by getting them to model
these relationships using cut and paste activity.
If you have ever looked at the standard CD-ROM products available,
you will have seen the entries they include on the World's Religions.
This option proposes that you do something specific with these
entries, and the result can be found in the document called 'World
Religions - Religious Belief and Social Life Worksheet' which
can be downloaded below.
How
do I download files from the Web?
What
has been done in this case study, is that the teacher has produced
the worksheet by copying and pasting some entries from the encyclopędias
into Word, and then adding some tables at the end that pupils
can fill in themselves either on paper or - better still - using
Word on a PC. The idea is that pupils will use the cut and paste
facilities of Word to show how certain Religions favour and eschew
certain behaviours, and that they will then model the relationship
between the Religion and aspects of living in modern Western society
by filling in the boxes. This is the kind of operation we will
all be used to from more traditional methods using paper, but
using Word enables the pupil to move the information around quickly
and then speculate on it in a modelled and patterned manner.
So
two stages of cut and paste and modelling activity are taking
place here. In the first the teacher cuts and pastes from an encyclopędia
to Word, thus modelling the pupils' learning in a more structured
way than simply issuing oral instructions. In the second the pupil
models relations between Religious observance and social life
by speculating on the effects of observance using Word.
If
you don't know how to do the cut and paste part of this work,
you will find it very straightforward in almost any encyclopędia
- see the document above 'Copying and Pasting from Encarta' for
an explanation of how this operation worked for this case study.
If
you are concerned about the legalities of cutting and pasting,
simply ensure that you use small sections and always credit them
and you can expect to be safe under current copyright and intellectual
ownership laws. Always check with your school's CLA contact and/or
your mentor before undertaking this kind of activity.
When
you've looked at my ideas about the options available, you need
to make your own choices. The teacher in the case study has decided
to use all options mentioned, and to work on the worksheet featured
above over most of the six-eight weeks spent on the topic. You
need to plan to do something of this sort. On the next page, make
a copy and fill out the summary to help you get focus on what
you will do. I've put in some suggestions - you can use these
as you like. Think of some uses of your own, and make a short
note on what you will have to do to make it work, what you expect
the benefit to be to your pupils, and what difficulties you expect
to encounter when you do it in the classroom.
 Resources
Selected for Work on World Religions
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