ICT Articles

I have been writing my thoughts on the readings on paper due to computer-sharing issues and so I can refer to them easily. My blogs about these will concentrate on the main issues, as I see them, arising from the articles.

School Inspector's Report 2004/5
One of the main points from Ofsted here is that ICT provision has improved. As technology is advancing so rapidly, I would hope that the provision in schools would follow. Ofsted details funding, curriculum support and teacher confidence as contributing factors. The gap between the best and worst ICT provision is, however, growing.

I found the mentionof assessment an interesting issue to bring to light: We need to understand what expectations we have for children and their use of ICT. These often seem to be underestimated.

The report also warns about overuse of interactive white boards (IWBs) and reminds us that, as with every other subject, the focus should be on learning. There is a balance to be found between learning ABOUT ICT and learning THROUGH ICT: In my experience, so far I have seen much more of the former than the latter, which would seem to point to children knowing how to use a computer but not what to use it for.