From the past, Year 9 ICT

I have been asked to show a document from 2004 that looks at Year 9 ICT and how it is used in the school. Now all references to the school and the person that wrote this have been removed to protect the guilty.

But it does raise some questions, this is in it entirety and has not had grammar and spelling errors fixed.

Year 9 ICT Program

It is now well overdue for this program to be revised.

While the Year 9 ICT program has some merits it is tying up large amounts of resources that could be better used elsewhere.

If we look at the history of this program it was originally typing. Over the years it has expanded till now it include, Word processing, spreadsheets, databases, publisher and power point.

To continue with this program will prevent more educational sound use of equipment even for the ICT department.

It has long been known that students learn better within context.

An example of teaching within context is the maths department using spreadsheets to reinforce mathematical skills. The spreadsheet is used as a tool and skills that are needed are taught as and when needed. Usually a couple of minutes each period. The main focus is the mathematics. The same applies to accounting etc. There is no need for pre-knowledge as it is acquire when and where needed.

Do we have a room of microwaves and spend a year teaching all the functions available or alternatively simply show the student the skills needed during a cooking class when required.

There is often an argument about teaching students the basic skills. This has been shown to be of no real significance. For example the art department produce the most impressive computer generated art work within the school. The students are not given lessons on using photoshop but rather on art. They are taught skills only as and when needed.

All of the present Y9 ICT program could and should be covered within subject areas. This is especially true as more and more subject are using ICT within their teaching programs.

When computer where relatively new and new programs where available there was some sense in providing basic computing skills. This is no longer the case as most students have used computers since primary school and nearly all students have computers at home and are well conversed with the equipment and are quick to pickup new skills.

I feel strongly about the Y9 program to the point that if it is to continue in its existing form that a room of microwaves be purchased to show the stupidity of it all. I know it is hard for the ICT department to let go but one must remember they only picked up the subject because they had the equipment and were quick to offer the skills. It is no long relevant and crosses over other departments.

The only area they is not covered in other curriculum areas is the key boarding skills. This is an area that is not been well covered by the existing program and needs to be addressed in a creative way.

All teachers should be keyboard teachers as in all teachers are literacy teachers. We all should be reminding our students to use the keyboard correctly along with posture etc. as this is an important health issue.

Suggest solutions

1. That the existing Year 9 ICT program be dropped from the top two bands and an extra period be allocated to Social Studies who will cover the keyboarding skills. The Social Studies department staff are regular uses of ICT in the class room and with many teachers already experienced in the Y9 program they could easily teach the keyboarding skills needed. (Some staff will need training.) The keyboarding skills are best taught in a block so the classes could have 3-5 lesson per week for 2-3 weeks. Room access: They would need block access at the beginning of the year. M11 would be ideal as in the first few weeks of school the curriculum use of the labs is at is least. The maths teachers would ensure all Year 9 classes have access to a lab 2-3 times a term. Checks would be made to ensure that the other curriculum areas were using computers in their teaching.

This model has three advantages; with Social Studies already heavy uses the extra period will further develop this benefiting both areas. The typing skills are better taught as a block over a short period of time with regular follow up which Social Studies would have the flexibility to do. It actual helps to free up the labs. Note: it is assumed that the setting of 6-8 computers in Social Studies rooms will continue.

2. ?

The response from myself was a three page epic.

In response to the document that was handed out on 10 June 2004.

What is…

Digital literacy is the ability to appreciate the potential of ICT to support innovation in industrial, business and creative processes. Learners need to gain the confidence, skills, and discrimination to adopt ICT in appropriate ways. Digital literacy is seen as a ‘life skill’ in the same way as literacy and numeracy.

Information literacy is the ability to locate, evaluate, manipulate, manage, and communicate information from different sources. As learners become increasingly information-literate, they develop skills in discrimination, interpretation, and critical analysis. ICT offers opportunities for higher-order thinking and creativity in processing, constructing, and conveying knowledge.

In the Digital Horizons Learning through ICT, It states that Learners have systematic opportunities to develop digital and information literacy, and enjoy using ICT creatively, constructively and critically in extending their horizons and growing as lifelong learners.

Lifelong learners

Vision

All learners will use ICT confidently and creatively to the skills and knowledge they need to achieve personal to be full participants in the global community.

The expansion of ICT is driving significant changes in many aspects of endeavour throughout the world. Information sources are proliferating. Creativity and critical thinking are emerging as society’s most valuable assets. The challenge is to create a learning culture that keeps pace with these changes and equips people with the knowledge, skills, ideas and values they need to become lifelong learners able to:

• use information effectively;

• adapt to changing workplace and social environments; and

• keep abreast of technological advances.

(Digital Horizons-Learning through ICT, A Strategy for schools 2002-2004, revised edition December 2003)

In Year 9 the current ICT programme teaches students the technological knowledge and understanding, the capability and the awareness, and the relationship between technology and society as stated in the technology curriculum.

The current year 9 ICT programme supply the tools and understanding for when the students need to use the tools in their subjects, this means they can get down to the work at hand instead of teachers wasting valuable classroom time on teaching the basic skills.

One of the problems with the document received on the 10 June 2004 is that the Year 9 ICT programme be dropped for the top 2 bands, now this is discriminating against the third band. These students would probably benefit more from the suggested Year 9 Programme than the top two bands. Since the need is greatest for these students, as Digital literacy is seen as a ‘life skill’ in the same way as literacy and numeracy.

Does the writer understand what the effect on the Social Studies department is with the introduction of this programme into their course have on the current teacher loads.

Also within the document suggests that the Social Studies course be extended by an extra period, the current year 9 ICT course has two periods assigned to it, and even then the current course only manages to just cover the skills required for their schooling as only half the year 9 students carry on with this subject into year 10.

If the course was to be modified then at Year 10 it would be required that the course go to five periods per week to cover the information required for NCEA Level 1 Information Management, as we only just have the time at Year 11 to prepare them for the Assessments.

At many primary schools there are a number of other operating systems used as well as different manufacturers of computers, including Apple Macintosh, IBM PC, and Acron, included in this is that some schools do not have the hardware to run the latest versions of the operating system and office programmes that we use at PHS, This course gives students an introduction to the programmes available at high school and the functions that they are likely to use. It gives the students the same knowledge and does not discriminate by band,

Having been at a developing ICT school in Christchurch I was able to see what was being taught and used this information as part of a project to gain my Bachelors Degree in IT, I have an idea of what is being provided at Primary and Intermediate Schools.

At primary schools those that used computers most were the smart students who either had a computer at home or a major interest in them, even then the only interest in the computer was mainly for games. Other students were either forced to use the computers and had trouble understanding what to do. Even when they were on them, they were forced off and the more able students used the computers. The school had the insight to purchase 30 second hand computers and incorporate them in one spare classroom where 30 students could come in and get some use on them, there were a number of problems with this, Some teachers had no formal ICT training and no understanding of what they were trying to do, that is where my expertise came into action. Even them some classes would not be in the suite for 2-3 weeks. Other schools only had 2-3 computers in the classroom, so some students miss out using them.

There is this, teachers don’t want to teach the applications, they just want the students to use them. This would not be the case if the Year 9 ICT programme moved from ICT to the Social Studies Department and the Maths department.

Our department is teaching the students skills for future work whether it is for a job or for future tertiary educations.

We have been trained to teach ICT to Year 7 to 10 students and from year 11 to 13. Have the teachers who wish to incorporate ICT into their programme been trained?

Why do we need social studies at year 9? Can we not incorporate it into English? Since the writer of the document seems to think that we can incorporate ICT into Social Studies.

Since the writer suggests that the skills are not being taught at the correct level and that the skills are being taught at primary school, should the course be replaced with a technology based course looking at the computer studies side and removing the course at year 12 and 13.

Do we need social studies at year 9? Interpreting graphs is carried out in Maths. Research and collating information is done in both Science and English, does there need to be the year 9 social studies course.

If this was to change, English would be a better environment for the students to take ICT in; there is more of a focus on context than Social Studies.

It has been shown that ICT is better in delivering the essential learning areas in Language and Languages (91%), than Social Studies (76%) in the report by ERO report Implementation of Information Communication Technology, 2001.

Social Studies gather the information from a range of sources (social studies curriculum), If ICT becomes the main focus in Social Studies the students could lose the gathering of information from printed media;

Whereas the aim in the Technology curriculum is to enable students to achieve technological literacy through the development of

- technological knowledge and understanding

- technological capability

- understanding and awareness of the relationship between technology and society

Even other New Zealand documents from CETA and NZIST have pointed to the fact that a Year 9 ICT course is essential to students and I do not believe that the students would get a beneficial course if it was moved throughout the other curriculum areas.