Review: the Future of ICT in the Primary Schools
ICT is an integral aspect of the primary curriculum and should be built into other areas of the curriculum to both support and extend learning.
We need to encourage all children from all backgrounds to become proficient users of ICT and also provide them with the skills necessary to use and manipulate key software that will provide them with better opportunities for the future.
Schools can offer ICT during lesson times but should also think about setting up extra-curricular clubs where children can access these facilities and improve their computational skills.
Classes for parents are also a fantastic idea as they can support their children at home once they are aware of ICT expectations in the classroom. Providing this type of service as a school can also strengthen the school community and the wider school community as parents feel more confident to support their children through their learning experiences. This boosts confidence in both parent and child and can have an overall positive effect on learning and progression.
The Guardian compiled a list of Do and Don't when it comes to ICT in the primary classroom:
Do:
• Plan to use the computers as an integral part of the classwork, and not an added activity that bears no relation to the rest of the curriculum.
• Use computers in a meaningful way to enhance the subject and not distract from it.
• Devise activities that require pupils to share a computer, because computers are excellent for encouraging collaborative learning and also for higher order skills, such as modelling.
• Devise generic activities that can be applied to a variety of computer situations, such as copy and paste.
• Plan your lessons so that the computer-based work and the non-computer-based work are similar in terms of intended learning outcomes.
• Adopt the model of showing the pupils as a class how to do something on the computer, and then getting them to practise it in that lesson and to repeat that practice in subsequent lessons.
• Reinforce your teaching through wall displays of the terms used.
Don't:
Don't...
• Start an ICT lesson without ensuring that you are familiar with the equipment and, crucially, that it works at that moment.
• Start an ICT lesson without ensuring that you have some non-computer work handy in case something goes wrong with the computers or power.
• Underestimate what your pupils are capable of doing and understanding on the computer.
• Confine your approach to closed, low-level questions, especially during key stage 2 and beyond.
• Focus on dealing with the software at the expense of the real learning task.
• Leave it to the last minute to begin the end of the lesson, especially if the pupils have to print out their work.
• Allow pupils to sit facing the computer screen when you want them to listen to your instructions.
• Leave it until the end of the lesson to give out the homework.
• Give out homework that can be done only on a computer.
These tips provide some fantastic advice on how to begin thinking about what 'effective' ICT use should look like in the classroom.
How do you think you're doing so far?
We need to encourage all children from all backgrounds to become proficient users of ICT and also provide them with the skills necessary to use and manipulate key software that will provide them with better opportunities for the future.
Schools can offer ICT during lesson times but should also think about setting up extra-curricular clubs where children can access these facilities and improve their computational skills.
Classes for parents are also a fantastic idea as they can support their children at home once they are aware of ICT expectations in the classroom. Providing this type of service as a school can also strengthen the school community and the wider school community as parents feel more confident to support their children through their learning experiences. This boosts confidence in both parent and child and can have an overall positive effect on learning and progression.
The Guardian compiled a list of Do and Don't when it comes to ICT in the primary classroom:
Do:
• Plan to use the computers as an integral part of the classwork, and not an added activity that bears no relation to the rest of the curriculum.
• Use computers in a meaningful way to enhance the subject and not distract from it.
• Devise activities that require pupils to share a computer, because computers are excellent for encouraging collaborative learning and also for higher order skills, such as modelling.
• Devise generic activities that can be applied to a variety of computer situations, such as copy and paste.
• Plan your lessons so that the computer-based work and the non-computer-based work are similar in terms of intended learning outcomes.
• Adopt the model of showing the pupils as a class how to do something on the computer, and then getting them to practise it in that lesson and to repeat that practice in subsequent lessons.
• Reinforce your teaching through wall displays of the terms used.
Don't:
Don't...
• Start an ICT lesson without ensuring that you are familiar with the equipment and, crucially, that it works at that moment.
• Start an ICT lesson without ensuring that you have some non-computer work handy in case something goes wrong with the computers or power.
• Underestimate what your pupils are capable of doing and understanding on the computer.
• Confine your approach to closed, low-level questions, especially during key stage 2 and beyond.
• Focus on dealing with the software at the expense of the real learning task.
• Leave it to the last minute to begin the end of the lesson, especially if the pupils have to print out their work.
• Allow pupils to sit facing the computer screen when you want them to listen to your instructions.
• Leave it until the end of the lesson to give out the homework.
• Give out homework that can be done only on a computer.
These tips provide some fantastic advice on how to begin thinking about what 'effective' ICT use should look like in the classroom.
How do you think you're doing so far?