Primary ICT for Teaching Assistants

John Galloway

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9781843124467
• eBook ISBN: 9781135394950
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

With the focus on enhancing the ICT competence of the pupils whom you support, this book:

• shows how you can support students within the ICT programme of study - even if you're not a confident ICT user yourself
• tackles tricky issues such as assessment and progression
• suggests activities for developing skills, familiarity and understanding
• provides ideas and advice for effective use of ICT in other subjects
• shows how ICT can be a really effective tool for inclusion.

This can be used as a companion to 'ICT for Teaching Assistants'

CHAPTER 1
What do we mean by ‘ICT’?

The phrase ICT is unique to education. Other than in schools and colleges people simply talk about IT, information technology. It is in learning that there has been an additional emphasis added, that of the capacity of these machines to both provide information and communicate it. Even then, people in education may still distinguish between IT and ICT, the former being the tools and skills for the job, the latter being what you do with them. So computers, cables, the internet, wireless connections, handheld devices, digital cameras and even mobile phones can be one thing, while word-processing, emailing, videoconferencing and searching on the internet will be the other. Some people also talk of IT as being the skills for using the tools, while ICT is then the use that those skills are put to. Rather like the relationship between using a saw properly and creating a bird table. While these might sometimes be useful distinctions, for the purposes of this book the whole range of equipment and activities will be taken to be part of the one thing: Information and Communication Technology – ICT.

ICT is a very far-reaching and all encompassing term. If we think of the hardware alone that is used in schools it might include:

• computers – desktop, laptop, and handheld, as well as those that just perform one function such as word-processing or data-logging;
• playback and recording – including video machines, video cameras, tape-recorders, digital cameras, DVD and CD players and recorders;
• communications equipment – phones, mobile phones, faxes;
• monitoring – webcams, CCTV, electronic registration;
• everyday equipment – toaster, toys, washing machine, radio, walkie-talkie, microwave, cooker, dishwasher.

Important elements in all of these are: that they are electronic; that we can have some degree of control over their use; that we can choose how they are used; we decide what they are used for; and that they contain micro-processors, some means of processing information.

With such a wide range of resources it is not surprising that ICT can encompass a very wide range of activities, some within the reach of the curriculum subject, some in other areas of the timetable, and beyond. This could include:

• playing at heating a ready meal in the replica microwave in the home-corner of the nursery class, one that hums as its turntable spins and goes ‘ping’ when the food is ready;
• adding a caption to a digital photo from the class trip to go on display;
• recording a voice-over for a PowerPoint presentation about the principles of hydraulics;
• uploading a poem to the school website;
• emailing the council about the local environment, and attaching photos of the problems, the graffiti, rubbish and broken-down cars;
• calculating the cost of refurbishing the playground on a spreadsheet;
• driving a remote-control car around a circuit;
• programming a car to complete a circuit without your help;
• creating a robot that automatically changes direction when it hits an obstacle;
• videoing the class assembly;
• creating an animation of how the knee-joint works;
• following the travels of a cuddly toy as it jets around the world in a jiffy bag;
• watching a waterhole in Africa, live, as the sun sets;
• video-conferencing with an Egyptologist and asking, ‘What does a tomb smell like?’

Many of these activities we might not think of as ICT because these tools are now so embedded in what we do in the classroom that we don’t notice the role of the technology anymore. We still, however, need to teach pupils how to specifically use this technology before they can apply it to every aspect of the curriculum. This is why ICT remains a separate subject on the timetable. There are some schools where the skills are taught at the same time as applying them, where asking questions of census information in history is used to teach the skills of filtering, sorting and creating queries in databases. However, the majority of schools seem to have decided that the best model for them is to teach the skills discretely, usually in an ICT suite, before asking pupils to use them in other subjects.

What pupils do in ICT lessons

The kind of activities pupils might do in ICT lessons includes:

• creating and revising text;
• creating and revising graphics;
• combining text and graphics;
• collecting and analysing data;
• performing calculations;
• modelling situations and answering ‘what if’ questions;
• controlling real and virtual machines;
• combining text, graphics, sound and video;
• creating presentations to communicate ideas;
• finding information;
• communicating electronically.

As you can see, the skills learnt here can all be found in the activities mentioned previously. ICT is the tools, the skills, and their application.

Why we teach ICT is explained in the National Curriculum.

Information and communication technology (ICT) prepares pupils to participate in a rapidly changing world in which work and other activities are increasingly transformed by access to varied and developing technology. Pupils use ICT tools to find, explore, analyse, exchange and present information responsibly, creatively and with discrimination. They learn how to employ ICT to enable rapid access to ideas and experiences from a wide range of people, communities and cultures. Increased capability in the use of ICT promotes initiative and independent learning, with pupils being able to make informed judgements about when and where to use ICT to best effect, and to consider its implications for home and work both now and in the future.

National Curriculum for England (2000)

What this recognises is that there is almost no aspect of our lives unaffected by new technologies. They affect not only how we work but also how we shop, communicate and entertain ourselves. We are now able to do things with computers that previously took years of training and hours of work: making music; editing films; creating complex artworks. Many tasks previously only done by experts can now be performed by all of us, although perhaps not to the same standard.

That’s the what and the why. The how is also important. When using ICT we need to be conscious of our role in modelling the correct way to proceed. This ranges from simple things such as using two hands on the keyboard to more considered ones such as observing proper protocols on the internet (not giving out personal information, for instance).

We also need to equip pupils with the correct vocabulary. The language of a subject is what we use to hang the concepts on that we learn within it. At first this might only mean distinguishing between the ‘Delete’ key and the ‘Backspace’ key. As pupils go up the school they will learn about ‘Search terms’ when using the internet, ‘procedures’ when programming floor turtles, ‘objects’ when desktop publishing, and that modelling can be done with spreadsheets as well as on catwalks. Just as with any other subject a good dictionary of ICT terms is a valuable support for pupils – and staff. Pupils should know, for instance, the difference between ‘data’ and ‘information.’ The first is facts and figures, the second is those facts and figures given a context and conveying some meaning.

Just as pupils need to learn handwriting to be successful achievers throughout their education and in their lives beyond, they need to become able to use ICT effectively. Like the pencil, the computer (and all associated ICT) is capable of creating an enormous range of work, from subtle drawings to emotionally charged poems or dots on the page of an opera aria. Unlike the pencil, however, this technology may take a lifetime to learn properly, to understand what it does.

CHAPTER 2
What do we teach in ICT?

As we have discussed, ICT is both a subject in its own right and a set of tools for learning in all other subjects. Like literacy and numeracy it provides essential skills that enable learning right across the curriculum. After these skills have been learnt in ICT lessons, they are put into practice in every other area of the timetable, as well as outside of formal lessons, and indeed outside of school.

Like the other subjects in the National Curriculum, ICT breaks down into several strands under two common headings, ‘Knowledge, Skills and Understanding’, and ‘Breadth of Study’. The first of these is what children should learn, the second is the experiences they should have while learning the knowledge, skills and understanding.

There are four aspects to the ICT curriculum:

• Finding things out
• Developing ideas and making things happen
• Exchanging and sharing information
• Reviewing, modifying and evaluating work as it progresses.

These aspects are consistent across the four Key Stages and are developed as appropriate for the age and understanding of the pupils. While it is up to schools how they deliver the aspects, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has provided an exemplar scheme of work. This provides several themes and lesson plans for each year of primary schooling that, if followed, will cover all the required aspects of ICT. It is not compulsory for schools to follow these, but whatever is taught should be at least as good as the QCA standard, if not better.

This scheme of work is available from the DfES standards website:

www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2.

During the years of primary schooling, pupils develop skills by building on the ones they have learnt previously. For example, in Year 1 they might use a bank of words to create sentences, whereas in Year 6 they might be combining words, images, sounds and animations in a multimedia presentation.

Their achievement is measured against the National Curriculum attainment targets. (These suggest that pupils in Year 2 should have reached level 2, and pupils in Year 6 should have reached level 4.) There are, of course, those who achieve higher than such attainment targets and those who do not reach the expected level. There are also those whose attainment is measured against the P scales (so called because they are ‘pre’ National Curriculum levels).

The rest of this book will look at how you can help pupils achieve in ICT, and also in other subjects when using ICT. It will also consider how you will know what level they have got to, and how we can harness the power of this technology to support the inclusion of all pupils in the curriculum.

CHAPTER 3
Helping children find things out

‘Finding things out’ in the National Curriculum is just that, researching and dealing with information in various forms. There is an expectation that during Key Stages 1 and 2 pupils will:

• ‘gather information from a variety of sources’;
• ‘talk about what information they need and how they can find and use it’;
• ‘enter and store information in a variety of forms’;
• ‘prepare information for development using ICT, including selecting suitable sources, finding information, classifying it and checking it for accuracy’;
• ‘retrieve information that has been stored’;
• ‘interpret information, to check it is relevant and reasonable and to think about what might happen if there were any errors or omissions’.

The information referred to is not just that found through electronic, technological means, but any information from many and various sources, as well as the skills necessary to find it. And it’s not just the finding of it but also the evaluation of it, for validity, accuracy and reliability. There is also re-formatting it, to use it for different purposes. Knowing that what you’ve found really is what you want to know, and then thinking about how to present it for other people to understand.

There are a number of aspects to this strand of the ICT National Curriculum.

One is the use of sources that are not electronic, realising just how we know what we do from everyday sources. Another is the use of electronic sources such as CD-ROMs and websites and how we use these efficiently. And a third is more formal collection and interrogation of data through records and databases of different types. Finally there is the question of what we do with the information once we have found it, how we interpret it and reproduce it for other people and purposes. All this is underpinned by key vocabulary that builds throughout the scheme of work and critical skills such as evaluating the usefulness and validity of what ever we have found.

We get information from many different sources, some of them fairly obvious and some of them less so. This is why the earl...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: What Do We Mean By ‘ICT’?
• Chapter 2: What Do We Teach In ICT?
• Chapter 3: Helping Children Find Things Out
• Chapter 4: Helping Pupils Develop Ideas and Make Things Happen
• Chapter 5: Helping Children Exchange and Share Information
• Chapter 6: Helping Children Review, Modify and Evaluate Work As It Progresses
• Chapter 7: What Is a ‘Breadth of Study’?
• Chapter 8: Assessing ICT: How Do We Know What Pupils Have Learnt?
• Chapter 9: ICT and Literacy
• Chapter 10: ICT In Mathematics
• Chapter 11: ICT Across the Curriculum
• Chapter 12: ICT and Inclusion
• Appendix
• Resources and Software
• Glossary