ICT teaching sessions

What do you need to think about when drawing up a programme of teaching sessions for the use of ICT in subject teaching?

First of all, time is often at a premium given the pressure on ICT rooms in most institutions. There are many ICT applications which might be used in school history (see ICT Audit B in resource 10.3.1) and the breadth and complexity of technical issues which could be addressed are considerable. There are also ‘housekeeping issues’, such as saving to web-space, setting up e-mail forwarding, file management and so on. In addition trainees need to be inducted into balance between addressing technical issues (such as for instance, teaching trainees to use HTML so that they can rectify glitches in web pages) and thinking about history issues (for example how one might use the internet and PowerPoint to some worthwhile purpose in terms of advancing pupils’ historical knowledge and understanding). You will generally have to make hard choices about which applications to focus on in the taught sessions, even if you devote several sessions to ICT.

It is also important to try and engender a positive attitude and climate in ICT sessions. Trainees are more likely to develop their ICT capabilities outside the taught sessions if the sessions are enjoyable, intriguing and leaving them wanting to explore issues further on their own initiative.

There is also the question of how best to draw on the ICT expertise and experience which the trainees bring with them to the sessions, how to provide for individual needs and how to differentiate for what is usually a mixed ability group.

Most trainees have good access to ICT outside the taught sessions, either at school, at home or at the university. Part of the art of devising the programme for the taught sessions is that you are providing them with starting points which they can take further in their own time. This is especially true if your institution has a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment – for example Blackboard, or WebCT – commercial systems which make it easy to make course materials available on the internet, and for trainees to communicate with the course tutor and each other via the internet). VLEs make it easy to sub-contract tasks and share ideas and resources. They can also be helpful to give trainees pre-session reading tasks (see resource 10.5.1), so that they come to the sessions with some relevant knowledge of the area of history and ICT to be covered.

One key decision that you generally have to make in terms of structuring your ICT sessions is whether you can arrange ICT sessions around generic ICT applications or how they relate to history (for example, sessions on CD-ROMs, data-handling, history web sites) or around historical concepts/skills– ‘using ICT to develop pupils’ ability to classify and organise information’, ‘using ICT to develop pupils’ understanding of causation’ etc. There is no ‘right or wrong’ here; it depends what you feel most comfortable with.

Here are some examples of the foci for ICT:

• Exploring and evaluating some of the widely used history web sites. These can be sub-contracted to various groups of trainees so that they can share their findings.
• Identifying resources from a history web site that are to be used as part of a lesson, thinking through exactly how they will be used, and then reporting back on the ways in which they influenced pupils’ learning after the lesson.
• Exploring the use of digital cameras in undertaking a history ‘trail’ or field visit.
• After reading about the use of word processing activities in Teaching History articles, constructing a pupil activity which is aimed at one of the five areas of knowledge, skills and understanding (formerly Key Elements) of the National Curriculum for history.
• Using either a desktop publishing application or (if you have access to one) the file share facility of a VLE, to construct a newspaper front page or newsroom simulation for pupils.
• Teaching the trainees to use a data handling package, to interrogate a dataset, construct their own dataset from historical sources and devise a data handling exercise for pupils
• Explore and evaluate a range of history CD-ROMs, picking out specific elements of the materials which will be used to teach a lesson and identifying the precise ways in which the activity will develop pupils’ historical knowledge and understanding.
• Use the scanner and the internet to put together a collection of images on a particular historical theme and develop a pupil activity for using the collection.
• Get them to choose a newspaper article about history from a newspaper’s digital archives and tell the story of the article with the support of images relating to the story. Put together some collections which pupils might use in giving classroom presentations.
• Use a combination of PowerPoint and the internet to problematise a historical issue and put together a presentation which could be the basis of a question, answer and discussion lesson. This could be about interpretations, significance or a particular controversial issue.
• Using group e-mail, VLE or whatever e-conferencing facilities you have, get the trainees to contribute to a historical debate about a particular issue (see resource 10.5.1 for examples).
• Get the trainees to make a web page and devise a pupil exercise which involves making a web page to address a particular element of historical knowledge, skills or understanding.
• Experiment with the use of the data projector and/or electronic whiteboard. Get all trainees or small groups of trainees to give a 5 - minute presentation using these resources.

This list is clearly not a comprehensive one and focuses predominantly on applications which are towards the ‘low-tech’ end of ICT, rather than areas such as video-conferencing and digital video editing. This is not to suggest that these are not propitious areas for ICT use in history but to recognise that not all subject tutors will start the course with a working knowledge of more complex ICT applications.

For two examples of ‘subject tutor notes’ on taught ICT sessions see resource 10.4.1.

It can also be helpful to point out to trainees that ICT is a high-profile facet of history teaching at the moment and there is some research evidence to suggest that it is a commonly asked question at interview (see resource 10.4.2).

Activity 10.4.1 Working in groups