b.
Managing Learning in the Classroom
We
have touched on the question of the practicalities of using ICT
in the classroom, and the technical question of whether everything
you need to have working on a computer will be. The next question
is how to manage the people, the space and the equipment/resources
in a way that maximises learning.
Whether
you are using ICT or not, but perhaps more when you are, your
first question here is how to arrange pupils. In the case study
the teacher prefers to keep certain pupils apart, because there
is so much individual and independent learning going on. She likes
to mix abilities, subject specific, IT and literacy levels of
ability. The teacher encourages the more literate students to
extend their pieces of work whilst allowing others with more specific
difficulties to produce articles commensurate with their ability.
This
is one for discussion with your mentor - how will you sit pupils
if you have a space where all pupils are using ICT, and how will
you arrange them when resources are more limited so that only
some can use ICT? The next question is how to deal with the peaks
and troughs of intervention, and how to ensure that reasonably
equal progress is being made across the whole class. The mixing
of abilities helps with this in our case study, but you will need
to decide what is best for you; another one for discussion with
colleagues and your mentor.
Finally,
you have to face the question of what happens when one, some or
all of your ICT facilities give up the ghost. Here you must imagine
the worst happening and ensure that you are prepared for it, and
you must do this without making so much work for yourself that
the efficiency saving of using ICT is lost.
In
summary, you have four issues to consider in managing learning:
- The
mixing of abilities when you set pair or group work.
- The
arrangement of people in the room, including yourself.
- Keeping
on top of intervention, and ensuring that all pupils get equal
attention.
- Managing
a room full of pupils waiting to use ICT to learn when the power
fails.
As you are going through the process of planning and using ICT
in this and the other case studies, your mentor will advise you
on these matters.
 c.
Helping Learners Develop their own IT Capabilities
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