IPICT Course Outline

Let's find something on the web

Information search and selection

E-mail is the preferred form of communication for many people collaborating across firms, regions and countries. The advertising agent, for instance, mails a draft copy to the customer; the consultant sends a report electronically to the project group; the secretary mails the minutes of a meeting to the board of directors, and every day thousands of people send their orders to the world’s largest bookshop on the Internet.

Because it is possible to send the same e-mail to several people at the same time, and because one can attach files of any type to an e-mail message, it is a form of communication that is well suited for people who collaborate on common projects.

E-mail, SMS and other new technologies have changed not just the way we collaborate, but also the way we communicate and behave. New technologies allow us to create new kinds of communities. You may have heard about MySpace and Blogger. Here people may present themselves, their views or interests. Other people may read or comment on their presentations.

Most teachers have probably experienced how students behave when they can lay their hands on a computer: the very first thing they do is to open an Internet browser, and soon the students browse music files, SMS sounds or something else on the Web.

In class, you will, very often, have to persuade the student to start the relevant software for the tasks of the lesson. Once they have started the application, a spreadsheet or a word processor, they will typically switch back and forth between the Internet browser, which is always running in the background, and the 'classroom application'. Every time the student gets bored or does not know what to write, he switches to the browser. Often music applications from the net 'accompany the work'. To many students the use of the Internet is simply a part of everyday life just like the cell phone or radio and TV.

The Internet is playing an ever more important role in society. There are almost no areas of life that are not affected in some way by the Internet. For this reason we need to make the Web not only a tool but also a subject of study in school. This module deals with some of the aspects to be considered when using the web in class.

The module introduces central concepts and tools that will help you to find your way around on the Internet, to find precisely the information that you need, to assess and evaluate it and to process it to fit your particular purpose. In addition to this the module offers inspiration on how to integrate the Internet in teaching and learning and how to make the Internet available for children with special needs.

Type a Text

Word processing and the writing process

Writing is an important skill to master. Although new technologies have changed and will continue to change the way we communicate, the importance of writing and written communication continues to grow. Information technology has increased the amount of written communication.

At the same time many work processes in our society have changed from individual processes to processes where we work together, share information in writing, give each other written feedback, prepare reports, specifications etc. as the basis for our work. This development has also influenced teaching methods in our schools. The focus on process writing in modern pedagogy is an indication of the increased importance of writing in society in general. While learning to write, our students also learn how to handle the change in working methods.

This module focuses on text and writing, on the integration of images and sound in a text document, on synthetic speech and on the use of spell checkers and other text tools.

Where are you now?

Communication and collaboration on the Internet

E-mail is the preferred form of communication for many people collaborating across firms, regions and countries. The advertising agent, for instance, mails a draft copy to the customer; the consultant sends a report electronically to the project group; the secretary mails the minutes of a meeting to the board of directors, and every day thousands of people send their orders to the world’s largest bookshop on the Internet.

Because it is possible to send the same e-mail to several people at the same time, and because one can attach files of any type to an e-mail message, it is a form of communication that is well suited for people who collaborate on common projects.

E-mail, SMS and other new technologies have changed not just the way we collaborate, but also the way we communicate and behave. New technologies allow us to create new kinds of communities. You may have heard about MySpace and Blogger. Here people may present themselves, their views or interests. Other people may read or comment on their presentations.

The module deals with communication and collaboration in general. Many new modes of communication have arisen - and most of them are heavily used by the students outside an educational context. The module explores how these tools can be utilised in teaching and learning

It does its own calculations

Spreadsheets

It would probably be an exaggeration to say that spreadsheets are the mathematics teaching parallel to the word processing application. The areas to which it can be applied are, after all, far more restricted. But even though it must be supplemented with other mathematically oriented applications, for example, applications for models and simulation and statistical calculations, the spreadsheet is still the most general program for teaching arithmetic and mathematics.

Used properly in mathematics teaching, the spreadsheet has the potential to be one of the tools that can make it possible to use the investigative and experimental approach to mathematics throughout the entire school curriculum. With a spreadsheet you can have students develop simple budgets or dynamic and highly complex models. In addition, a spreadsheet can be used in most situations where you need to do calculations, to handle data material gathered by the students, and for the presentation of results in the form of diagrams.

In this module you will also see examples of how to work with spreadsheets in various situations.

Information on the screen

Presentation tools

A presentation tool may be described as a program presenting information on the screen. The user can control the presentation of information by means of the mouse or the computer that shows the presentation “page by page”. The presentation program offers schools a new opportunity of working with mediation of information pedagogically. The programs can be used in education for many different purposes. A computer presentation can replace or supplement a traditional exhibition or poster at the presentation of a team task, just as this type of program is an obvious choice in connection with the project task.

It is also possible to work with texts of fiction and thus let the students create interactive, dynamic screen stories. Through working with a screen presentation teachers and students get to know the qualities or characteristics of a good screen presentation; colours, layout, illustrations and animations must be adjusted to both the content and the expectations of the user.

In columns?

Layout and desk top publishing

The effectiveness of a message depends very much on the way it looks when presented. This applies not only to notices, folders, brochures, etc. A number of rules and guidelines exist on how to produce efficient layout. Ultimately, the ability of the sender to understand and implement the expectations of the receiver – in accordance with accepted rules regarding good layout – is crucial to the way the product is received by the target group.

The module adopts three points of view on layout and education:

• How does a teacher plan a process where students learn the professional skills on layout that are relevant at a given age? It is not only a question of providing students with some professional skills but also a question of analysing, assessing and producing products for certain purposes on the basis of their stage of development at the time.

Get it out on the net

Websites and communication on the Internet

The Internet is a huge interconnected structure consisting of a large number of individual documents known as web pages. The web pages are scattered on computers throughout the world. They are connected by means of links, and clicking a link with the mouse will call up a new web page on the screen.

Most companies, but also an increasing number of private persons, are present on the Internet with their own websites. Many schools also have websites with information about the school and perhaps something about the work done in the various classes. Some classes present themselves on the web to get in touch with other classes – maybe as part of a specific project.

In this module, you will work with the construction of web pages for the Internet. The module also gives examples of how the creation of web pages by teachers and students can be used in a pedagogical context.

•  The students can, for example, produce an Internet newspaper in collaboration with a school somewhere else.
• They can make a presentation of themselves as preparation for an exchange with a class in a different country
• An environmental project becomes more interesting if the students can get information from other places in the country and also make their own observations available to classes in different places working on the same topic. 

Finally, websites can be a suitable communication tool between the school and the home. For example, the teacher can publish descriptions of the current work in the classroom on the Internet. 

School Innovation

Development in schools with ICT

Society is changing rapidly. People meet with new and increasingly complicated demands, and not the least teachers and students must be prepared for a change of basic values and traditions. The structure of society, working life and people's spare time are becoming network orientated.

Formerly, structures could be described as hierarchical or linear; but now no order is offered. In the network society the individual must define his own identity, and in relation to this he must be able to act and relate to the community. This puts the school as an organization under pressure from politicians, users (students and parents) and opinion-makers. The school must develop into a modern competence environment.

The objective of the school is to provide an opportunity for the students to develop the qualifications needed to become independent and active citizens in the network society. It requires new thinking on the structure of the school, the organization of education and content, and the roles of the teachers and students. The content and concept of the subjects are developed in the light of information technology. To mediate a societal culture where high-speed information exchange, knowledge sharing, network and collaboration are characteristic elements, the overall strategy of the school must be to build on these elements. If management, teachers and students work from such a strategy, they will be able to develop the qualifications required in today's network society.