Part 2:
Teaching With ICT

a. Structuring Lessons

In the case study we are dealing with, the teacher has a fairly regular pattern to his sessions. He tends to start with a teacher-led introduction to the session, outlining the area for coverage in the session. In an hour-long lesson, he might restrict himself to just one single issue within Energy or to one example. From the introduction, he will set pairs or small groups work to do, using either printed worksheets, a section of a CD or specific investigations on the World Wide Web. This work is structured, and he monitors progress around the class until he can get them to report back to the whole group on their progress, or summarise their progress in small groups to feed back in the next session.

Again, you might not work in exactly this way, but you probably do have a pattern that you favour as a teacher. Characterise this pattern to yourself now, and consider how the use of ICT as a resource might fit into it.

The teacher wants to use ICT over a two-week introductory period spending two hours a week with it. First let's recall the main learning objectives the teacher has for his pupils in this area:

• Describe the variety of energy resources, including coal, oil, gas, biomass, food, wind, waves and batterie.
• Give examples of the application and function of the sources of energy in human societies
• Describe how electricity is generated using a variety of energy resources.
• Discuss issues surrounding the use of renewable resources.

Below is a summary of how the two separate weeks are structured to use ICT to meet some of these objectives. You will see that they are proposed as two distinct stand-alone sets of work. This is because the teacher needs to be flexible in when he can gain access to the ICT, and needs to be able to move the sessions around in consultation with other users of ICT in his school.

Take a look at the summary and then produce your own account, and your own lesson plans, showing how you would use the ICT resources we have been discussing to do the same job on this area of work. You might wish to extend or contract the time, and to fit the plans, duration and work around your own experience of working with this or a similar area of work.

Case Study Lesson Structure
Two Weeks of ICT Use - Introduction to Energy

Week 1 - Use a CD Encyclopædia to describe the variety of energy resources, including coal, oil, gas, biomass, food, wind, waves and batteries - 2 hours.

• Class introduction and targeted questions - outline definition of energy.
• Small group work (groups of three):
  • Bring back three examples of coal use, with indications of geographical sources and consumers of coal.
  • Bring back account of uses of various forms of oil, with an explanation of the purposes of refinement.
  • Bring back outline of process of piping oil from off-shore to domestic users.
  • Bring back outline of at least two examples of biomass and food resources.
  • Focus on wind and waves - bring back two examples of each in use
  • Focus on batteries - bring back explanation of at least one types of battery in use.
• Class discussion of points raised by group work - whole-class summary of variety of energy resources.

Week 2 - Use the Internet to explore examples of renewable resources - 2 hours.

• Class introduction - whole class discussion on renewability, as a feature of some resource types.
• Worksheet based tasks on examples of renewable resources using web-sites:
  • Define and distinguish between renewable and sustainable resources.
  • List three examples of each.
  • Identify examples from the WWW of renewable resources in practice
  • State benefits and costs to society of renewable energy management.
  • Identify some scientific (ie. phenomenal) distinctions between renewable and non-renewable forms of energy.
• Small groups feed back with responses to the worksheets - whole class discussion of the projects and their medium-long term sustainability.

b. Managing Learning in the Classroom