What is special about ICT? One thing is that children generally like it and they have a great deal of experience of using ICT outside of school. Perhaps for this reason we are key to efforts at re engaging pupils in school and addressing under achievement. ICT itself is ever changing subject, what we teach and the tools we use are vastly different to 10 years ago. There are many more machines in schools; the software is more ‘powerful’ (for example most schools use Dreamweaver as standard rather than Word conversion); the qualifications on offer have changed and changed again. Teaching methods have changed too. In the past it was very much leave them alone at the machines but today there is far more teacher input – most lessons follow the three or four part format.

However some things have stayed the same. ICT is a misunderstood subject. Other people make assumptions that ICT is easy because pupils are in some way wired up to be good at it; management teams often undervalue the subject and squeeze it into a small number of lessons a week. ICT teachers lack access to the same kind of research base as other subjects. ICT is seen as important by Ofsted but it is pointed out that assessment practice is weak and progression has never been clear. In some schools ICT specialist teachers are leading the way with new technologies such as Wikis and leading the development of learning platforms but in others frankly this is not happening. ICT teachers struggle to keep pace with pupils – teachers often try to force them into learning things that they are not so interested in – though some of the blame here lies with uninspiring qualifications specifications. Some of the problem is that we don’t have a clear idea of what the subject is. ICT teachers have different backgrounds some are more business or office orientated, some more interested in computing and others more interested in media including film. ICT capability is important but what does this actually mean? ICT teachers do not have a coherent subject association to fight their corner, teachers don’t make it clear how important the subject is and there is too little standing back and taking pride in what has been achieved.

For you think about:

What interests you in the teaching of ICT as a subject?

What experiences have you got in teaching ICT?

What is the 'shape' of an ICT lesson – does this look the same for all ICT topics?

What interests pupils about new technology?

Does a good lesson in ICT look the same as a good lesson in other subjects?

For you to read further:

Get access to documents about national strategies; National curriculum and ICT framework at the National Strategies web site http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/secondary/ict

Read the most recent view of Ofsted look at Ofsted (2009) The importance of ICT, Ofsted, London click here

For a more 'wordy' view and reference to academic literature go to the ICT tutors site (note future access to this site is easier if you register but you can ‘skip’ registration if you go to the bottom of the front page) http://www.ict-tutors.co.uk/index.php?sec=6&tp=1&layout=1&ts=2

For you to view

A spreadsheet lesson presented on Teachers TV, in case of difficulty go to Teachers TV at original reference http://www.teachers.tv/video/3418. This lesson models an example of good interactive teaching and also shows some of the tensions in the nature of the subject.