Understanding and Teaching the ICT National Curriculum

Franc Potter

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2005
• ISBN:
  9781136744877
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

There is still great uncertainty in the teaching profession regarding the effective delivery of ICT. This introductory book provides both trainee and practising teachers with a clear understanding of the ICT National Curriculum and how to teach it.Combining extensive practical advice with a critical discussion of the key theoretical issues, the boo

Chapter

1	The Nature and Purpose of the ICT National Curriculum

Objectives

To understand what the ICT National Curriculum is all about – its fundamental nature and purpose

To understand the essence of each aspect of the ICT National Curriculum and to understand how the Programmes of Study relate to the uses of ICT in the wider world

To be able to relate the Programmes of Study to your own experiences of ICT

Consider two scenarios, both relating to Year 6 children:

Scenario 1: Some children are using a computer to take part in an interactive maths activity in which they have to type in the correct answer to a multiplication question. If their answer is correct they move on to the next problem; if it is incorrect they are given another go.

Scenario 2: Some children are trying to find out, using a spreadsheet, how to construct a sheep pen, with the maximum area, from a fixed amount of fencing and a brick wall, and to create a graph to demonstrate their solution.

While both are relevant to the mathematics National Curriculum, only the second is relevant to the ICT National Curriculum. In the first case, the ICT capability required of the pupils is negligible (all they have to know is how to use the keyboard to type in their answer); in the second, they have to know how to use a spreadsheet to solve a real problem, including entering formulae and creating a graph.

The first scenario shows how ICT can be used to enhance the learning and teaching of another subject (in this case mathematics), making negligible demands on the children’s ICT capability. This use of ICT to help another subject has been referred to as ‘ICT across the curriculum’; ‘The use of ICT in subject teaching’, and is now referred to as ‘e-learning’.

The second scenario is concerned with using ICT for a real purpose, but demands a certain degree of ICT capability, that of being able to use some of the functions of a spreadsheet. The ICT National Curriculum is concerned with ICT as a subject in its own right. It is also concerned with ICT capability, rather than just ICT skills, and so is always concerned with using ICT for a real purpose. It will therefore usually relate to another National Curriculum subject other than ICT.

ICT as a Subject In Its Own Right

The Programmes of Study of the ICT National Curriculum are composed of four ‘aspects’:

1. Finding things out
2. Developing ideas and making things happen
3. Exchanging and sharing information
4. Reviewing and modifying work as it progresses

and, in addition to the four aspects, the fifth Programme of Study is entitled ‘Breadth of study’.

These Programmes of Study are statutory orders, that is what schools are legally required to teach. For Key Stage 2 they are defined as follows in the statutory orders (the differences between Key Stages 1 and 2 will be discussed in the chapter concerned with progression):

The Programmes of Study

Finding things out (the first aspect)

1. Pupils should be taught:

(a) to talk about what information they need and how they can find and use it [for example searching the internet or a CD-ROM; using printed material; asking people]

(b) how to prepare information for development using ICT, including selecting suitable sources, finding information, classifying it and checking it for accuracy [for example finding information from books or newspapers; creating a class database; classifying by characteristics and purposes; checking the spelling of names is consistent]

(c) to interpret information, to check it is relevant and reasonable and to think about what might happen if there were any errors or omissions.

Developing ideas and making things happen (the second aspect)

2. Pupils should be taught:

(a) how to develop and refine ideas by bringing together, organising and reorganising text, tables, images and sound as appropriate [for example desktop publishing; multimedia presentations]

(b) how to create, test, improve and refine sequences of instructions to make things happen and to monitor events and respond to them [for example monitoring changes in temperature; detecting light levels and turning on a light]

(c) to use simulations and explore models in order to answer ‘What if …?’ questions, to investigate and evaluate the effect of changing values and to identify patterns and relationships [for example simulation software; spreadsheet models].

Exchanging and sharing information (the third aspect)

3. Pupils should be taught:

(a) how to share and exchange information in a variety of forms, including e-mail [for example displays; posters; animations; musical compositions]

(b) to be sensitive to the needs of the audience and to think carefully about the content and quality when communicating information [for example work for presentation to other pupils; writing for parents; publishing on the internet].

Reviewing, modifying and evaluating work as it progresses (the fourth aspect)

4. Pupils should be taught to:

(a) review what they and others have done to help them develop their ideas

(b) describe and talk about the effectiveness of their work with ICT, comparing it with other methods and considering the effect it has on others [for example the impact made by a desktop-published newsletter or poster]

(c) talk about how they could improve future work.

Breadth of study (the fifth and final Programme of Study)

5. During the key stage, pupils should be taught the Knowledge, skills and understanding through:

(a) working with a range of information to consider its characteristics and purposes [for example collecting factual data from the internet and a class survey to compare the findings]

(b) working with others to explore a variety of information sources and ICT tools [for example searching the internet for information about a different part of the world; designing textile patterns using graphics software; using ICT tools to capture and change sounds]

(c) investigating and comparing the uses of ICT inside and outside school.

The Essence of the Programmes of Study

This section sets out to explain what the ICT National Curriculum is really about, its fundamental nature and purpose and the essence of the aspects. This includes examining what is different about ICT from other ways of doing the same activity.

To explain this we shall consider them in a slightly different order. First, we shall consider Making things happen (part of the second aspect), then Exchanging and sharing information, next Finding things out, and finally, Developing ideas (the other part of the second aspect). We shall then consider Reviewing and modifying work as it progresses and Breadth of study, and how these relate to the concept of ICT Capability.

First and foremost, it is necessary to bear in mind that the ICT National Curriculum is meant to relate to the uses of ICT in the wider world (we shall return to this later in the section on Breadth of study). Consequently, we need, even when considering the teaching of ICT at Key Stage 1, always to have one eye on where the ICT National Curriculum is leading.

Making Things Happen: Using ICT to Control Devices

The essence of this aspect is control – using ICT to control devices. In the wider world, control goes hand-in-hand with sensing – with automated computer control the computer performs different tasks depending upon what it senses.

Key Words

control

instructions

programs

repeats

procedures

sensing

input

output

control boxes

flow diagrams

programmable toys

When you walk into your favourite supermarket the likelihood is that the doors will open automatically. This is ICT ‘making things happen’ – a sensor is activated by your approach, and this, in turn, causes a device to be activated, which controls the opening of the door.

An intruder alarm works in the same way – it can be activated by an infra-red sensor, a pressure pad under the carpet, a magnetically operated switch that is tripped when you open the front door, etc.

The turning on and off of street lights is controlled by ICT – at dawn, light sensors detect the presence of light and switch the street lights off; at dusk, they detect the absence of light and switch them on.

Not all ICT-c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1. The nature and purpose of the ICT National Curriculum
• 2. The nature of ICT capability
• 3. Progression in Exchanging and sharing information
• 4. Progression in Finding things out
• 5. Progression in Making things happen
• 6. Progression in Developing ideas
• 7. Medium-term planning and the QCA Scheme of Work
• 8. What, when, how and why: teaching ICT
• 9. Exchanging and sharing information: an alternative scheme of work
• 10. Assessing ICT capability
• References
• Index