ICT in Primary Education

ICT1: Agencies, Networks and Resources

Aims

In this module you will:

References

Section 2.5 of the 'Professional Standards for Teacher Status and Requirements for Initial Teacher Training' document states that you should " know how to use ICT effectively, both to teach their subject and to support their wider professional role."

An increasing number of educational resources and sources of information are being made available online. In some cases, the most up-to-date and definitive versions of documents are available via websites. A case in point is QCA Scheme of Work site (http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes/). In addition, many 'Subject Associations', LEA's, Parents' Groups and groups concerned with Inclusive Education maintain substantial 'online presences'.

The ICT Skills test is designed in part to assess whether you are a competent and confident user of network technologies. The 2001-2002 practice tests, for example, require trainees to respond to email, attaching documents to messages where appropriate and to search for online resources and record their addresses.

Software Requirements

You will need access to the Internet and a web browser such as:

Assessment

Requirements for the assessment of coursework will be clarified by your course tutors and may differ between courses.

In general, however, Task 1-2 (Classifying Educational Networking Tools) should inform your choice and subsequent use of networking tools. In particular, you should be able to justify the use of specific approaches in classroom activities, and should do so in your topic and lesson plans. What would inform your decision to use email rather than 'instant messaging' in a classroom setting, for example?

The list you have compiled in Tasks 1-1 and 1-3 will provide a useful addition to any collection of subject-specific resources which you are asked to compile during your course.

The Landmarks of Educational Cyberspace

The first port of call for teachers is supposed to be the National Grid for Learning. The 'schools' bit used to be separated off and known as the 'Virtual Teacher Centre', but recent reorganisation has blurred the boundaries to some extent

You should have a browse around the NGFL as a whole (http://www.ngfl.gov.uk) because there are useful resources including links to libraries and museums. The Virtual Teacher Centre at http://vtc.ngfl.gov.uk aims to provide systematic curriculum support for teachers and trainees.

Other places to head for and have a nose around include:

Finally, don't forget that the TTA itself has a website at http://www.canteach.gov.uk/ where you will find details of QTS requirements and information about (and examples of) the online skills tests. They also produce a set of useful booklets of exemplifications of how ICT can be used in each of the curriculum areas, which you can download from http://www.canteach.gov.uk/community/ict/exemplification/index.htm.

Task 1-1: Add the above to your 'favourites'

If you are working on a computer at home or on the University network, you can build up a list of 'favourites' (called 'bookmarks' in Netscape Navigator). This saves you searching for sites again. It is possible to set up folders (just as on your hard disk or a floppy) containing favourites of different kinds.

Select Favourites and then click 'Add to Favourites'. The name that is stored will the one in the title bar at the top of the page although you are given the option of changing this if you want to.

Setting Favourites in MS Internet Explorer
Figure 1: Setting Favourites in MS Internet Explorer

Here, I'm saving the address of the World Wide Web Consortium into my favourites. Note the built-in 'Google' Search Bar. You can download one of these from http://www.google.com. It saves you having to visit the website every time you want to run a search.

Task 1-2: Classifying Educational Networking Tools

The Internet is not a giant photocopier ... or rather, not just a giant photocopier.

Jonathon Steuer (1998) classifies network tools on two axes:

"Communication tools are generally private (one-to-one interactions) or public (interactions among multiple people); synchronous (messages are exchanged in real time) or asynchronous (messages accumulate, so you need not be online simultaneously to interact)."
The full article is online at: http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/1998/01/steuer/.

If 'private' networking is 'one-to-one' (or perhaps 'one-to-few'), then we can divide the 'public' up into 'one-to-many', 'many-to-many', and 'many-to-one' systems.

Synchronous Asynchronous
One-to-One
One-to-Many
Many-to-One
Many-to-Many

How would you categorise each of the following?

Which of these might you use in your work as a teacher? And which might be used to enhance your classroom as a learning environment?

If you wish to take this further, you may find Etienne Wenger's review of 'community-oriented technologies' interesting. This extends his well-known work on 'Communities of Practice' and is available as 'shareware' at http://www.ewenger.com/tech/index.htm.

Task 1-3: Identifying Subject Support and Resources

Within your specialist subject area or areas, you should be able to identify a number of reputable authorities, sources of information and places where teachers swap ideas problems and solutions.

If you haven't already done so, download a copy of the TTA Exemplification of ICT in Subject Areas from http://www.canteach.gov.uk/community/ict/exemplification/index.htm.

Also run a search on resources at the BECTA Software database at http://besd.becta.org.uk.

The place to start looking is probably the 'subject' areas of the NGfL or though careful 'Googling': see if you can identify any (or all) of the following - if they appear useful, you can add these to your 'favourites' along with those you added in Task 1-1.