Talk:OER4Schools/Effective use of ICT

ICT practice: Planning an activity using groupwork and ICT

Educator note

Ensure that you have plenty of time for this task to be planned!

You should allow at least half an hour to 45 min.

[[todoinfo::This task needs adapting to include image search and open office -- we should draw on the image sequencing activities from further down the programme, and move this here. [Done, JB]| ]]

This activity requires one of the following files

• File:Monarch Life Cycle.odp for OpenOffice Impress or
• File:Monarch Life Cycle.ppt for MS PowerPoint.
• Alternatively, you can view the pictures here: life cycle of a butterfly and use your own software for arranging them.

Pair work (10 min) to download the files. Start by downloading the presentation files above (or the pictures individually), and have a look at them. With a grade buddy, use presentation software to arrange and present them in the right sequence. If you have difficulty arranging the slides, read the background note below.

Background reading

Arranging slides in OpenOffice Impress

When you open a presentation, you see the first slide displayed in a larger window in the middle of the screen. To the left, you see small pictures of all of the slides in the presentation, like a "film strip". To rearrange the slides, you can simply click on a slide with the mouse, and (while holding down the mouse button), drag it to a different position.

Same-task group work (30 min): Plan an activity with ICT in year groups. Plan an activity together in year groups (i.e. all grade 4 teachers plan a lesson for grade 4 together; grade 5 teachers together for grade 5; etc).

• Discuss with your colleagues (from the same grade) which topics you have coming up next week, and whether some of these topics would work particularly well with groupwork and ICT.
• Choose a topic which you are teaching, and for which this type of activity is useful. Find some appropriate images, and plan your own presentation for your students to re-order. You can find pictures that are open resources (Creative Commons licensed) at http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/.
• Make active use of the computers to identify useful images together and download them. Read the following background text if you need help with downloading Flickr images.

Background reading

Downloading images from Flickr

1. click on the photo from the Flickr search results that you want to use (the screen will refresh and a larger version of the image will be shown)
2. select the "Actions" tab directly above the image (a drop down menu will appear)
3. click on "view all sizes' from the drop down menu (the screen will refresh)
4. select the "download a large version of this file" option

Your chosen image will now be downloaded to your computer for use in OpenOffice Impress - introduction to slideshows with OpenOffice

Think about the following when planning your activity (keep a note in your activity template):

• What instructions will you give to your students to enable them to carry out this ICT activity effectively?
• How will you ensure everyone participates and everyone learns? How will you stretch all learners?
• What will you say to the groups to ensure this?
• Consider how the computers will be swapped between groups, and between pupiles within a group, to ensure that there is effective access for everybody.

This week for homework you will try:

• an image-based task in the classroom (as prepared above) and
• typing practice in the classroom which students would do individually, recording their scores, perhaps for a league table (as outlined below)

[[todoinfo::Reference to typing practice needs expanding. Edit OER4Schools/Typing practice with students and include relevant bits here.| ]]

Typing practice in the classroom.

You only have a limited number of computers. When you start typing practice, you can do this in pairs, so that both students understand how the typing tutor program works. However, once students get this, it makes sense to do it as an individual activity. However, students only needs to practice for 10 minutes. Say if you have 12 netbooks, then take a group of 12 students to do typing practice, while your remaining students (perhaps 20-30 or so) do other tasks (also in group work). After a while, you rotate: Some of the students who were doing other tasks now use the typing tutor, while the students previously doing the typing tutor now join in with other group tasks. We will introduce carousel^(a)-style group work properly in session 3.2.

See OER4Schools/Typing practice with students