SBT1: Post 3 - Use of ICT

I only saw three taught ICT lessons in my first placement, but these all took place in the 'IT suite'. The class were usually told what their task was, given a demonstration and an example of the end product and questionned as to techniques they could use. One lesson on databases began with a physical demonstration that was effective: Children wearing a red jumper stood up, then children wearing black shoes, then children wearing a red jumper AND black shoes, and children wearing a red jumper OR black shoes. This illustrated the search terms AND and OR in a way that was easy to access and the class got the impression that a search using OR could yeild more results.

There were some practical issues, such as the sharing of computers: As mentioned, there are 16 computers for 31 children and I was interested by the difference in what was achieved when a child had a computer to themself in comparison with the children sharing. On the other hand, the class was placed in ICT pairs so less confident children could, theoretically gain support from their partner. The partners did not seem to be particualarly set up so that a more able child was with a less able. The pairs were kept the same each week and so prevented time lost in children choosing their own partners. I think that, in an ideal world, I would spend two lessons on a similar subject and have the first lesson with mixed pairs and the second session in matched-ability pairs so that children confident in ICT could be challenged and take part in more open-ended activities.

One ICT lesson, planned for the week after the placement ended, was due to take place in the classroom, measuring the items in the classroom and producing a plan to use the following week in a CAD program on the computer. I do not believe that this is the best use of an ICT session, especially when there is only one per week. Instead, this measuring could be done in a maths lesson. Alternatively, depending on adult support, the lessons could be staggered so that half of the class could be measuring while the other half have a computer each.

I saw laptops being used in Numeracy work on graphs: This proved effective, especially as the previous lesson on co-ordinates was mostly spent drawing out graphs, which detracted from the learning objective. A digital camera was taken to a history field trip, I recorded some of the class's stories onto the laptop and used resources from the internet and media files in my lessons and we took a 'secret camera' film of ourselves eating chocolate in the staffroom to kick start a learning event. The major benefits I found of using ICT within lessons was in pupil motivation and in the link it provides to real life situations.