ICT in Primary Education

ICT2: Assessing ICT

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Aims

In this module you will:

• Consider some of the issues related to assessment of children's work in ICT or using ICT applications to enhance their work in other curriculum areas
• Identify some strategies which may assist in your assessment of children capabilities and needs in ICT
• Assess some children's work and identify appropriate interventions and advice which you might offer

References

Section 3.2 of the 'Professional Standards for Teacher Status and Requirements for Initial Teacher Training' document sets out expectations of your capabilities to monitor and assess children's learning. In this module, you will be particularly concerned with Section 3.2.2, which requires that you give 'immediate and constructive feedback to support pupils as they learn' and 'involve pupils in reflecting on, evaluating and improving their own performance'.

Assessment takes place within the framework of the National Curriculum, so you should be familiar with the ICT National Curriculum (online at http://www.nc.uk.net/). The QCA Scheme of Work for ICT (http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes/it/) also contains indications of what children should able to achieve within the context of each of the scheme's topics.

You may also find the QCA's formative assessment resource useful (online at: http://www.qca.org.uk/ca/5-14/afl/). This has a pointers to a number of resources related to developing questioning strategies designed to provide diagnostic information for teachers and to encourage self-assessment on the part of children.

Software Requirements

The examples described here involved children using a range of software specifically:

• MS Paint (part of the MS Office 'Accessories')
• Dazzle a painting program for children
• Word Processors

The principles introduced here are applicable to any software, however.

Assessment

If you are compiling 'profiles' on individual children, then an assessment of ICT capabilities should form part of the descriptions of each one. Once you are responsible for whole-class assessment and record-keeping, you may have to make assessments of all children for whom you are responsible, and evidence of how you have carried this out should be made available.

Monitoring, Assessing and Intervening

What issues arise when monitoring and assessing children's work in ICT? Here are some responses from trainees and teachers. How far do these conform to your expectations or experience?

• They have computers at home, so they already know different ways of doing things.
• I'm more concerned with making sure everyone gets some experience of using the computer than assessing how well they are using it.
• They spend ages fiddling about with fonts and layout, so it's difficult to work out how much real work they are doing.
• They share computers in the ICT suite so individual assessment is almost impossible.
• Some of them are marvellous at graphics and very quick at using CD-Roms, but when it comes to writing they take ages to produce even a few sentences.

Perhaps we could address at least some of these concerns if we could separate process from product.

An Example

This illustration appears in a story written by a Year 4 child
Later on, the same character is portrayed facing away from the viewer
It was only when the teacher asked the child if it had taken a long time that they discovered that they had: Retrieved their original illustration (they were using MS Paint) Used the 'dropper' tool to sample the hair colour (see right) Used the 'paint fill' tool to fill in the face and features Used the 'line' tool to draw more hair And pasted the new image into their work

Try this exercise for yourself!

Identifying Process through Questioning and Reflection

How can we identify 'process'? The quick answer is to involve the children in self-assessment. We can use strategies already established in other curriculum areas:

Start with the emphasis on strategy from the Numeracy Strategy:

• Asking 'how you did ...' not what you produced' questions
• Asking questions about alternative ways to achieve the same results
• Getting children to demonstrate and model successful approaches

Add in the process-centred approach from Design Technology in which children are asked to:

• Encourage children to think about and report on 'design' and sequencing
• Encourage children to define needs and reflect on their practice
• I want to be able to ...
• There must be a quicker/easier way of ...

Encouraging Reflection and Reporting: an example

An ITE Student reports:

"When the children produce a piece of work using the computer, especially if it involves some new trick or technique, I get them to use the 'Print Screen' key to catch a screenshot. Then they paste this into a Word document. They have to explain what they did under the picture. So I get an idea of what they can do - and a 'how to do it guide' for other children (and myself!)"

[The Print Screen key is normally on the top right of the keyboard. Pressing ALT at the same time catches an image only of the currently active window or dialog box.]

Monitoring and Intervening

Here are some examples of children's work using ICT. There are clues in the 'product' which suggest that teacher intervention might have helped develop 'process' skills. In each case:

• What skills and knowledge is the child demonstrating?
• Is there an 'easier' or 'better' way for them to achieve this?
• How might you intervene in each case?
• What feedback might you give?

Year 3 writing with First Word

The background has been set to grey and text colour to white, but text has been aligned using the space bar. The child was very disappointed when the text appeared differently when printed out. Possible Interventions: Introduce justification and centring? Or perhaps ...

Year 5 'free writing' with TextEase

The child worked completely independently having chosen to use the computer during an 'options afternoon'. Possible Interventions: Spellchecker? Syntax checking? Redrafting? Structuring into sentences and paragraphs? Integrating text and illustrations?

Alice was bored listing to her siste and she fell asleep and dremed a rabbit a white rabbit ran pasther I'm late i'm late he said and Alice ran after him and he went to a hole and alice followed him and fell down down down the hole only slowly so she didn't get hurt

Year 5 illustrates New Year's Eve with Dazzle

The stars were drawn using he 'polygon tool' and the skyline was constructed using a 'square' as the shape of the 'paintbrush'. Possible interventions: Use of the 'Undo' tool to remove errors (e.g. the over-large star)? Use of other tools for graphical effects? Some other children used a 'spraygun' tool to make 'firework bursts'. Use 'gradient fills' to give gradual changes in sky colour Model skyline on real locations?

Note that some of these interventions are concerned with developing ICT skills, while others are concerned with developing 'subject knowledge'!

Task 2-1: Intervening and Peer-Tutoring

With a partner, select a task appropriate to the phase and subject you are teaching from the QCA Scheme of work or from another published ICT Scheme. It should involve the use of a 'generic' piece of software such as a painting package or a word processor. Alternatively, try producing your own version of the Millennium Night Fireworks Display with Dazzle or another Painting programme.

One of you should be the 'Participant', the other the 'Observer'.

Participant:

Carry out the task carefully and be prepared to answer questions about your approach. You may be asked to repeat procedures.

Observer:

Watch the participant carrying out the task.
Make a note of the 'tools', shortcuts and procedures used.
When the participant does something in a way you do not expect, or which demonstrates a particular skill or piece of 'prior knowledge', you should intervene and ask for the 'process' to be explained.

Example:

P:	I'm copying the image from the website and sticking it in the word document.
O:	Pasting?
P:	Yep. And there. [Uses keyboard shortcut [CTRL-V] to paste the image].
O:	How did you do that?
P:	These four [points to the Z, X, C, and V keys] are the same as the ones on the menu if you press Control first.
O:	How can you remember?
P:	I just do it without thinking now but I used to think of the X as looking like scissors, to cut, and the V like a brush or a spreader for gluing.

This is good practice for working with children! Try changing roles after a while.

Does it make a difference if one of you is a more experienced ICT user than the other?

Task 2-2: Interviewing Children about their ICT use

(You may find this is an appropriate task to carry out with 'profiled' children on whom you are collecting full records)

Carry out a short focussed interview with a child or group of children. The focus might be a piece of work on computer screen or a printout. Ask the children to 'talk through' the processes they have used to produce and enhance the work. Allow them to demonstrate if they want to and it is practical to do so.

What skills are immediately obvious from the 'product'?

What other skills become apparent through the discussion of 'processes'?

If prompted, are there aspects of the work that the children would like to improve in some way? What skills might they need to achieve this?

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