[Year 12 IPM] Re: OT Kahootz, 7-10 IT and Has VELS got it WRONG?

[Robert Timmer-Arends]

Hello Roland

I am not sure what you are refering to when you write:
>>I lament to date the lame use of this slideshow software to organise so
called 'research projects' by my non-IT colleagues.<<

but I do agree that many (most? all?) teachers allow PowerPoint (or
equivalent) to be badly used by students as a presentation tool for
projects. More importantly though, by doing this they miss what I think is
one of the powerful learning opportunities that something like PowerPoint
offers: the need to summarise and to capture and express succinctly key
ideas.

There has been a lot of discussion lately about VELS and the place of IT
education in it. To me there are two separate issues:
1. who teaches the skills?
2. what do students do with IT (ICT?) in non-IT classes.

As far as I can tell all the anecdotal evidence suggests that the answer to
the first question is "an IT teacher, or at least someone who knows IT and
gives a damn about efficient and effective use of the 'tool set' that IT
provides.

For education more broadly, however, it is the second question that is the
more important. I don't think it's good enough for anyone to insist that
students use computers 'across the curriculm' if there is no educational
benefit in it - using IT in English, Maths, Geography ... for the sake of it
is not good enough! We have to ask: how can a particular peice of software
add value to my teaching? or what is it that this software does that will
allow me to enhance the learning of my students; for example, what does the
humble word processor allow us to do? Well, mainly to edit text very easily
(and then present it beautifully - but I'll ignore this aspect).  So how can
this be used to enhance learning? In English (and other areas where report
writing takes place) students could improve their writing skills by producng
drafts for which they then get feedback and then edit to get a better
document - the computer makes this process easier; no laborious rewriting
required. Eventually (hopefully) the student will learn to draft, critique
and edit their own work. Instead, it seems to me that the word processor is
used purely as a presentation tool.

Similarly PowerPoint and the rules of good presentation should be used to
make students work toward a series of summary points about whatever it is
they are writing - being able to summarise something means that it has been
digested and understood. Producing slabs of text on a screen is not just a
poor use of PowerPoint but also suggests that very little learning of the
subject matter has taken place (and it really annoys me when teachers show
off this kind of thing as some superior example of student work just becuase
it was produced for use on a computer rather than printed on paper! - this
to me is where the real ignorance of IT use by non-IT teacher somes into it:
they are to easily impressed by the 'gee whizz' instead of looking at the
content ).

So, when it comes to CAC I believe IT skills among the teaching profession
are not so much the issue, but, knowing how best to make use of any given
piece of software in the teaching of a particular subject is (although there
may be a chicken and egg effect here!)

Regards
Robert T-A