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History lessons for use in ICT suites |
ICT in History |
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| ICT
is a valuable tool for effective history lessons. It has a number of
uses in developing students understanding. These include:
1) Transforming activities into 'doing things'. Many students achieve greater understanding of concepts by simply changing the delivery of the lesson. 2) ICT is a great leveler. All students can feel proud of a pristine piece of work. It offers the opportunity of the lowest ability student to produce comparable looking work with the best. I really believe this can not be overstated in terms of importance. 3) Having lessons on computers can assist classroom management. The focus of the next lesson being in the IT suite is a very strong 'carrot' to use. Having made these points I think the following needs to be held in mind. When we use ICT in history we have to be sure it fits a number of criteria. a) Is it giving additional support to my learning outcomes. b) Do students enjoy it and find understanding is enhanced. c) Am I ensuring objectives of the history curriculum and not the ICT curriculum are the key to the lesson. I have developed my own lessons to fit these objectives. Not because off-the-shelf software is inappropriate (although it often is) but it is simply too dear. So why not make your own? It is difficult at first and you find you have to develop skills to a level that is a bit scary at first but once done your resources last for years and the skills gained benefit everyone. it is amazing what a scanner and and 'IF' statement can produce! On the left are a list of some lessons I have produced. Feel free to use them, and contact me to get more. I have over 40 at the moment that I have made. |