c.
Helping Learners Develop their own IT Capabilities
Whenever
the pupils in the case study are using a computer to learn, they
are of course not only developing their Welsh language skills
but also their ICT skills. It is important to distinguish between
one thing and the other, and also for us as Welsh language specialists
to know when a pupil is learning to use ICT as well as learning
to understand the short story.
If
pupils used all possible resources - and maybe one or two extra
that you thought of - the very least they would have developed
is the following range:
- Loading
software - the CD-ROM
- Accessing
the World Wide Web
- Searching
for information - on the CD-ROM or the World Wide Web
- Basic
skills of mouse and keyboard manipulation
- Printing
- if the pupil was allowed to print from the CD-ROM or the World
Wide Web
- Using
e-mail - for contacting the author
- Using
a word processor - if pupils undertook copy and paste activities
It
might be interesting to look back over your own lesson plans to
see where these things happened, and even to look at the IT curriculum
as it applies to pupils at Key Stages three and four to see where,
what they are doing in your subject, is contributing to their
development in the IT arena. All case studies in all subjects
in this series make this same statement, so crucial is the pupil's
awareness of and use of ICT to his or her own learning in other
subjects using it.
It
is worth trying this exercise:
- Identify
what pupils are doing with ICT in the Welsh as a Second Language
tasks you have set them.
- Identify
whether what they are doing is a basic motor skill such as moving
a mouse, a technique where they have to follow steps or a higher
order skill where they have to plan and make decisions.
-
Identify the areas of the IT curriculum at the pupil's key stage
to see whether work you are doing with him or her can be linked
to learning in the IT area.
 d.
Assessing Learning
|
