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

a. Evaluating the Lessons

These are some of the issues you may consider when judging the success of the lesson:

• Some pupils lack confidence when attempting new IT techniques. Did pair work help pupils access the data-logging equipment and spreadsheet?
• Did the activity reinforce the different energy values of various foods to pupils?
• Did the activity allow pupils to start to appreciate the range and validity of scientific information relevant to this topic available through ICT?
• Were pupils able to predict on the basis of patterns they saw in the spreadsheets?
• Could pupils speculate about controlling events using combinations of hardware and software, simply from seeing the relations between the data-logging activity and the spreadsheet?

You might decide to make the relationship between experiment and modelling more or less integrated on the basis of the answers to these questions, or to disaggregate data-logging from modelling using spreadsheets altogether. One advantage of disaggregation is that you can determine all of the starting-features of the experiment you are using, or the data you are modelling on, without having to worry about the process of gathering the data. How you view this will depend on the answers you have given to the questions so far.

Question for Consideration

• What (a) legal and (b) ethical issues need to be considered in relation to the use of ICT in this lesson?

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

b. Evaluating the Resources Used