The four strands of study for ICT

The National Curriculum programmes of study for ICT in Key Stages 3 and 4 group the knowledge, skills and understanding that pupils need to acquire into key processes (strands).

These strands, which characterise what people normally do when they work with ICT, are:

• Finding information
• Developing ideas
• Communicating information
• Evaluating.

What is important about Finding information?

The ability to find likely sources of relevant information empowers a pupil who is working independently. But finding the sources is just the start. The wealth of material now available on CD-ROM and the internet can be daunting. There is little mediation – people have access to information through computers in homes, shopping centres, libraries and internet cafés, and through digital television and mobile phones.

Developing ideas

At the start of Key Stage 3, check and develop pupils' knowledge and understanding of the following.

• The use of ICT can increase the efficiency of information processing. Tools to check spelling, create a table, produce master pages or templates, or to cut and paste, for example, enable tasks that would otherwise be laborious to be carried out quickly and accurately.
• It may be possible to break down a model or representation of a system into smaller procedures, each with its own input, processing and output. This makes the model or system easier to review.
• Systems and environments can be easier to understand if they are represented graphically through flow charts and tables. These flow charts and tables can be translated into well-structured sets of instructions for computer software.

Communicating information

Pupils should understand that:

• it is important to be selective and sensitive in what we present to a particular audience or community
• critical reflection on how others present fact and opinions or materials to publicise or entertain helps the development of pupils' own work for a particular audience.

At the beginning of Year 7, you first need to find out pupils' experience with communicating information at home and at school. Offer a variety of activities that quickly identify pupils' levels of knowledge, skills and understanding. If necessary, follow these activities with some intensive teaching to help pupils who need to catch up, without holding up others.

Evaluating in Key Stage 3

The provisional nature of work and continual improvement are key aspects of ICT and should be established early on. Every opportunity to evaluate approaches and outcomes should be taken and the pupils encouraged to save and talk about intermediate versions of their work, so that they and others can review their progress.

At the start of Key Stage 3, check and develop pupils' knowledge and understanding of the following.

• ICT helps pupils improve their work.
• The quality of ICT products of all kinds varies, and evaluation helps to identify what needs to be done to improve a piece of work.
• Sometimes ICT is not the appropriate tool for a specific task.
• The internet is open to all to contribute, and information provided by others is not necessarily accurate or helpful to a particular task.

 

By:-www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk