The Teaching of the ICT National Curriculum

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The Teaching of the ICT National Curriculum

“With scientific method, we took things apart to see how they work.

Now with computers we can put things back together to see how they

work, by modelling complex, interrelated processes, even life itself.

This is a new age of discovery, and ICT is the gateway”

ICT stands for Information and Communication Technology. In our

rapidly changing world the subject of ICT allows children to prepare

and participate in exploring, analysing, exchanging and presenting

information creatively. Through this children learn to have initiative

and independent learning.

ICT is able to support teaching, learning and a range of activities in

education. Such ICT-related activities include, for example, the use

of: Broadcast material or CD-ROM as sources of information in history;

Micro-computers with appropriate keyboards and other devices to teach

literacy and writing; Keyboards, effects and sequencers in music

teaching; Devices to facilitate communication for pupils with special

needs; Electronic toys to develop spatial awareness and psycho-motor

control; Email to support collaborative writing and sharing of

resources; Video-conferencing to support the teaching of modern

foreign languages; Internet-based research to support geographical

enquiry; Integrated learning systems (ILS) to teach basic Numeracy;

and communications technology to exchange administrative and

assessment data.

The present is a time of such accelerated change of ICT in schools.

Spending on computer equipment increased exponentially. Since 2002

more than 1.6 billion has been committed to ICT in education.

However, change on such a huge scale is not without difficulties and

much still depends on how the growth in funding for ICT in schools is

managed at the local level, either by the local education authority

(LEA) or by the management within the school.

Within the national curriculum there are strict guidelines for

knowledge, skills and understanding. In the section entitled Finding

Things Out 1a in particular states that children should be taught ‘to

talk about what information they need and how they can find and use

it’ not only is this specific to ICT but it can be used as cross

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