The Ultimate Guide to Using ICT Across the Curriculum

257 Pages·2014·2.86 MB·English

by  Jon Audain

The Ultimate Guide to
Using ICT Across the
Curriculum
Web, widgets, whiteboards
and beyond!
Jon Audain
Bloomsbury Education
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway
London New York
WC1B 3DP NY 10018
UK USA
www.bloomsbury.com
Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published 2014
© Jon Audain 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by
any means – graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
taping or information storage or retrieval systems – without the prior permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: ePDF: 9781441195852
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN
Contents
Acknowledgements iv
Foreword vi
Introduction vii
1 Planning your provision 1
2 Exploring the digital kit 29
3 Mobile devices 72
4 Using ICT in English 113
5 Using ICT in maths 131
6 Using ICT in science 143
7 Using ICT in humanities 152
8 Using ICT in music, art, design and technology,
physical education and modern foreign languages 165
9 Using ICT to support all children 181
10 Protecting the digital child 198
11 The ICT coordinator 217
Index 232
Acknowledgements
A friend and academic colleague, Lisa, recently introduced me to the delights of Mary
Berry and ‘The Great British Bake Off!’ It struck me how baking a cake is a similar process to
writing a book: the preparation, the ingredients, the time, the care, the helpers and the final
testers. In the production of this book, no friends, colleagues or editors were harmed in the
process and the shredded gratitude of a working author continues to live on. So take one
author, two publishers, four editors, endless refreshments, friends, people, conversations,
discussions and agreements and Hey Presto… The Ultimate Guide to Using ICT Across the
Curriculum! Throughout the development of this book there have been many changes and
a whole raft of people who have supported me through all these times, so if you will forgive
me, here are a few thank yous for my band of merry men and women:
To my reading group Jo Rhys-Jones, Classteacher, Ex-Inspector/AST/MFL expert (for
some of the title, her tenaciousness, enthusiasm, straight-talking and endless supply of
sticky notes; you now have a final version!); Anthony Evans, Classteacher, Ex-LEA Advisor
and 2Simple guru; Samantha ‘Spoo’ Philips, Classteacher and DT AST; Fiona Aubrey-Smith,
Head of Primary SSAT (The Schools Network) and Katy Thompson, Deputy Headteacher
for their frank and honest advice and humility at ensuring that the teacher’s voice came
through loud and clear throughout the entire book.
To my amazing ex-AST colleagues Phil Bagge and Emma Goto and current and past
inspectors and advisors Martyn Wilson, Stella Kenny, Sue Savory and Janet Roberts for
providing great feedback and opportunities to talk endlessly about ICT and their experi-
ences. Their encouragement, ability to develop people and the role of ICT in the primary
school really nurtured the ethos from the ICT Lead Teacher days. As David Warlick said, ‘We
need technology in every classroom and in every student and teacher’s hand, because it
is the pen and paper of our time, and it is the lens through which we experience much of
our world’ – an ethos the colleagues above always helped to foster in Hampshire schools.
To all the staff I have taught and worked with for the common experiences that have
built the foundations of this book as well as my University of Winchester-based newbies
(Lisa-Marie Martin, Maria Vinney, Victoria Randall and Jane Jones) for their enthusiasm and
friendship as well as academic colleagues Sharon Witt and Sue Anderson-Faithfull for their
support with the geography and history areas of this book.
Writers always need the talents and patience of their editors. I was lucky enough to have
four over the creation of this book. Firstly, thank you to the editorial team at Continuum
Melanie Wilson and Rosie Pattinson for their constant ‘newbie’ support at the start of this
project. The largest thanks must go to my two exceptional editors – Holly Gardner and Jane
Morgan. Thank you both for your patience, good humour, encouragement, mindmapping,
negotiating, talking, hard-work and belief. The tremendous amount of work you gave is
reflected throughout. There would be no book without the two of you and I truly thank
you!
To my parents and family (Janet, Andrew, Rob and Chrissie) and friends especially Louise
for always being my champion, Omega for the support and great goal-setting as well as
Ewa, Mel, Katrina, Jane, Anne, Tracey, Sid, Nicky, Sarah and Emily G who are now able to
have a drink (for the time being) in peace without book chat. Without of you in different
ways this project would never have succeeded. Also thank you to Dawn Hallybone for her
support on games-based learning, and a big thank you to Professor Stephen Heppell for
writing an excellent foreword for the book.
Finally the hundreds of children I have worked with who will continue to inspire me,
challenge me, develop my practice and push me to aim for excellence all the time.
Two of my all time favourite quotes about technology drive the reasons for this book.
The first Nancy Kassebaum remarks that ‘There can be infinite uses of the computer and of
new age technology, but if teachers themselves are not able to bring it into the classroom
and make it work, then it fails’ – an ethos I always share. Creativity is at the heart of exciting,
interesting teaching and learning, none more so with the use of technology. The teacher
is fundamental as great technology use is driven from the heart, mind and soul of an
engaged practitioner.
The second muted by friends Sarah Younie and Marilyn Leask in their book Teaching with
Technologies: The essential guide. They explain that, ‘Digital technology is not static and is a
constantly developing and rapidly changing field. It will be many decades before practice
in the poorest schools equals that of the best. At issue is the patchiness of technology
provision and practices in schools.’ This book aims to support all teachers in their devel-
opment of using technology so we can level the playing field in the use of technology
in schools and so all children, in the modern world, are provided with the opportunity to
demonstrate ICT excellence.
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Foreword
It seems like just the other day that our primary school children were marvelling at the exotic
cyan and magenta of their BBC B computer monitors. They were captivated. Even in the 80s the
nation could see how important all this would be for education. However, very few anticipated
the extraordinary, seductive, delightful, playful, creative, connected world that technology has
brought into our classrooms and into our lives, in this exciting century of learning.
Back then, of course, things were nice and simple: was there something that was really
hard to teach? Telling the time, or bearings perhaps? Technology could join the team,
take up the baton from tired hands and inject new pace, renewed interest. Primary school
writing had never been so finessed, maths had never been so playful. We challenged
technology to do what we found tricky and it delivered. But today, technology challenges
us right back. It can do just about anything we want, so what would we actually like to do?
Need a global audience for your 8 year olds’ writing? Just blog it. Need to see the exotic
flora and fauna from far away schools? Just Skype them. Need to engage your community
in your school news, and share theirs? There’s Facebook.
Now this sounds as wonderful as it is, but the pace of change lays down some significant
challenges to traditional systems, and to our wonderful golden generation of teachers.
New technologies emerge so rapidly that to wait for a government edict, or for a five year
controlled trial (!), or for a shared insight from a national institution, would be to wait for far
too long. Our children only get one chance at their childhoods, one chance for the joy of
learning to take root firmly enough to last them a lifetime. We can’t afford to wait to be told
what to do, we need to help each other. We need to help each other now.
And that is why this book is just exactly what is needed. It is filled with sensible pragmatic
advice, from the way it helps teachers to self-rate themselves, through its wonderfully
grounded ‘here is a technology, why might you use it, what can you do’ approach, to its
recession-aware reference back to the costs of each technology. The advice is rooted in the
classroom and in the best effective practice found there. The book was necessarily written
quickly; it is full of today’s advice, today’s technology and really helps today’s teachers build
a properly digital school, right away. It embraces phones and Twitter and Skype – it doesn’t
lock and block, it embraces them and puts them to work, today.
It is a measure of the pace of this wired world, and this book, that I’m writing these
words aboard a plane bound for China, beaming it back mid-flight to the publishers. The
TV channels on the plane are full of learning, as entertainment. Folk learning to dance, to
sing, to cook. Learning has never been so cool. This book has never been so needed.
Professor Stephen Heppell, March 2014
Bournemouth University, England and Universidad Camilo José Cela, Madrid, Spain.
Introduction
As the use of technology in schools grows, teachers are having to acquire a variety of new
skills and knowledge to keep up! With software becoming easier for children (and adults)
to use, the challenge is to find opportunities and creative ways of making use of ICT to
enrich, challenge or support the topics you are teaching. With the implementation of the
new Computing curriculum looming (September 2014), there has not been a better time
to get your knowledge of ICT and the best way to use it in the classroom up to scratch!
If technology hasn’t always worked for you or if you’re the one to break the digital
camera (they rarely ever survive after bouncing off the ground!) then this book aims to give
you the confidence to take that first step to integrating technology into your teaching. If on
the other hand you are a confident tweeter and iPad whizz, but you are looking for some
creative ways to integrate all this into your teaching across the curriculum, then there are
activities and ideas for you too. ICT is like spider glue, attaching itself to different subjects
throughout the curriculum; it can and should be integrated whether you are teaching
maths, English or PE, and this book will provide you with the tools to do so!
Take one book, a dash of ideas, hints and useful activities and hey presto, you’re an ICT
pro and will be able to get your class (and possibly even other teachers) excited about the
potential of using technology across the curriculum!
About the author
I was a class teacher who came late to the technology party. There was a time when
technology was not a big part of my teaching. With stronger interests in music and drama,
there were different priorities and interests for me in school. However, more and more
pieces of equipment found their way into my classroom which meant that I had to spend
time learning how to use them and working out how they could be used in my lessons. I
bought myself my first computer, threw away the manual and set about having a go with
this technology ‘stuff’. Many people were far ahead of me in the game and were prepared
to show me, except they all went incredibly fast and often ended up exclaiming ‘It’s easy
don’t you see?’ followed by ‘Move out the way and I’ll do it quicker myself!’
During my teaching career, I was fortunate enough to be appointed as an Advanced
Skills Teacher (AST) in Primary ICT. This was a role I simply adored until the government
sadly ceased its existence. It involved teachers supporting other teachers in a subject they
were passionate about while still doing the day job and remaining in the classroom.
Through this work I met many teachers, headteachers, classroom assistants and, of course,
children. Over that time, I met hundreds of ICT coordinators and teachers who had recently
been made an ICT coordinator. I had worked as a subject coordinator since qualifying,
however, it always struck me how immense the task of an ICT coordinator was when I was
finally made one. It is a feeling still felt by many new to and in the role. The combination of
encouraging teachers to use technology across their practice; working with the leadership
team to make at times huge financial decisions concerning whole-school technology as well
as trying to embed its use across the whole curriculum is a mammoth task for one person.
After many meetings with teachers who asked the same kinds of questions, I decided
that I wanted to be able to leave a tiny part of me to help guide and assist them. So I set
about writing a book with hints, tips, answers to the common questions as well as advice
from my own personal practice as a teacher, head of year, subject leader and finally a
county-based Primary ICT AST. I now work as a university academic, researcher, teacher-
trainer, keynote speaker, consultant/adviser and ICT trainer. All this allows me to constantly
support and engage with teachers as I develop my own personal crusade to see teachers
inspire others in their use of ICT so they continue to push the boundaries of technology,
ICT and learning for all young people.
How to use this book
Use this book as a dip in and out of guide or read it chronologically. There are tips for
planning and preperation as well as step by step activities to use in your lessons. Look
out for the boxes with icons in them throughout the book with include levelled content
depending for different abilities (see the ICT personality test that follows), really creative
activities and mobile device activities and information. There are also online resources that
accompany this book. Visit the website at: www.bloomsbury.com/ict-across-curriculum for
extra resources including ICT advice sheets for a range of people including trainee teachers
and teaching assistants, information for using ICT in the early years, planning documents,
templates for writing a whole school ICT policy, an acceptable use policy, a health and
safety policy, ICT induction policy, clickable links and much more.
Who is the book aimed at?
Many different people will use ICT across the primary school. This book offers advice to
everyone working in a primary school, including teachers at all levels, higher level teaching
assistants, ICT coordinators and senior leaders. The hope is that at whichever level you work
there will be something in each chapter for you to try and adapt into your practice. But
n
o before you get started let’s find out what type of ICT teacher you are.
cti
u As you grab a refreshing cup of tea after that challenging English lesson or PE with the
d
o
ntr apparatus, take a break and fill in the ICT personality test on the next page.
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ICT personality test
1 Which statement best describes your ICT confidence?
a My OHP still works fine so why do I need all this modern stuff?
b Up and down depending on whether it’s working or not.
c Love it! I really enjoy using technology in my teaching.
2 How often do you use some form of technology, excluding your whiteboard, in your
lessons?
a Do whiteboard pens count as technology since I upgraded from chalk?
b Roughly about once a week or on special trips; I try to remember to use the digital
camera to keep my lovely ICT coordinator happy.
c I try to use different types of technology every day… it’s my life… my passion…
and the reason why my bank balance is always so low!
3 What are the meanings of these commonly used ICT words? Twitter, Web 2.0, Voki?
a Twit-who... something to do with birds; Web… spiders; Voki… something from
Star Wars. Am I close?
b They are all modern technology words. Twitter’s something I use but I’m not sure
how it works.
c Twitter is a form of social networking whereby users share information in under
140 characters; Web 2.0 refers to using the web to collaborate, create and then
share with others that creation. Vokis are talking animated avatars that can be
used to provide instructions to children.
4 Do you think technology enhances learning?
a No.
b When it works, yes.
c Definitely.
5 How much time do you spend on using ICT throughout the week?
a No more than I have to.
b I try to use it as often as I can.
c Many, many hours… I just love technology.
6 When new technology hits the market, do you:
a Groan and say, not another piece of technology! Bring me back my OHP!
b Show that you are interested but will wait for others to have a go first (well, I
wouldn’t want to spoil their fun).
In
c Line up, love it, play with it and work out all the different curriculum topics I can tro
use my new gadget for. du
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