Well, this is unexpected. I have been scheduling my (so far few) blogs for the end of Thursday. However, I find myself with an email exchange worth sharing. It came on the back of our Head of ICT asking for a wireless webcam. This led onto more kit. Then it led onto the topic of Integrating ICT across the curriculum. You see, we're also part of a group tasked with outlining a strategy to get - and keep - St Christopher's School at the forefront of ICT in the classroom.
Here's the email. It's mostly as I sent it....
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(Mmmm, your casual comment has caused me to spend longer on this than I anticipated!)
For me, to "integrate ICT across the curriculum " means more than English or History booking an ICT suite to 'type up a project'. (Or even ICT getting students to 'make a leaflet'). These suggest discrete modules.
Simple examples of hardware, tool and services across subjects that could be exploited differently include:
- IWBs (admittedly mostly a front of class 'teacher toy')
- Visualisers (ditto)
- Scanners
- Digital cameras
- Dictaphones
- Data loggers
- Productivity software
- Blogs
- Online collaboration services
- Online voting, surveys
- SMS, MMS
- Personal mobile devices (which capture much of the above)
Analogous examples would be to tell a student when to use a pen, an eraser, a ruler, compass, set square, at set points in the lesson, etc. And if a student doesn't have a compass, he should ask to borrow one ... at the right time for him. They are tools in a pencil case and, yes, sometimes (often) intervention is needed to fine tune some of the skills required.
Using my own definitions, you probably already integrate ICT into ICT.
An example might be:
- ICT Outcome
- Create a computer game to develop hand-eye coordination in younger students
- Necessarily, some discrete 'teaching' takes place as students learn the concepts of sequence|selection|repetition (with some good old fashioned teaching!)
- [The ICT equivalent of learning about Climate change in Geography, maybe]
- ICT Integration/Embedding
- If this computer game forms part of a wider project, you get the Life Cycle in play
- Teacher and student interviews, brainstorming, data collection, analysis, drafting, building, troubleshooting, publicising, training, supporting ... all leaning towards using other ICT tools to support and crystalise the primary learning outcome: Programming (the Game)
- For me, deeper integration might give students some degree of freedom in how the project detail is pulled together ... e.g. do they have to use Word? Can they use OneNote, Google Apps? Can some areas of the project be collaborative? Can some choose to do it all collaboratively? Does publicising only mean creating a leaflet or are blogs or podcasts as suitable? Could one student be using a wired PC, another using his Android or combinations?
I think what we all want, in varying degrees, is to have access to technology but not change too much how we work (e.g. I have the occasional conversation with staff who, when using Citrix at home, comment that they can't copy a file from their desktop to the 'school desktop' ... my response is why is that a problem when you can create the file in the first place in school, from home. If it's a legacy work file, deal with it the 'old way'. Some staff will still 'email work home' or take it home 'on a stick').
[...]
PS: I don't see any great impact on the senior school discrete ICT Curriculum at St Chris. For a start, you're making it more of a Computing-type subject (nice!), but as I suggested above, you're embedding conventional ICT to support it (and, no doubt, teaching it at the right times). [...]
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So, there you have it. The integration of ICT in one easy blog!
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