ICT and common misconceptions - A Practical Guide to Teaching Computing and ICT in the Secondary School - page 118

Curriculum Agency guidelines for an ICT scheme of work stated that 'Information
and Communications Technologies (ICT) are the computing and communications
facilities and features that variously support teaching, learning and a range of
activities in education' (Becta, 2007), whilst Information Technology (IT), they said,
'comprises the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to employ information
and communications technologies appropriately, securely and fruitfully in
learning, employment and everyday life' (Becta, 2007). In practice, whilst the
content of subject from 2000 reflected IT, as described above, a decision to change
the name to emphasise revisions, meant the subject and the facilities became
known collectively, in schools in England, as 'ICT'. In the Programmes of Study
(PoS) for Computing, ICT and IT are mentioned, though not clearly defined. ICT, IT,
Computer Science and Digital Literacy are seen as complementary and interlinked
parts of Computing.
Task 7.1
Deinitions
Research definitions of IT, ICT and Digital Literacy. Looking at the Computing
PoS, which definitions do you think could best be applied to the new English
curriculum?
In the rest of this chapter, ICT is viewed as the use of existing hardware and
software, to solve problems and support learning and teaching, in Computing and
across the curriculum.
Why does ICT matter?
ICT gives pupils a range of knowledge, skills and understanding they need for life.
Many activities, ranging from ordering a pizza to managing a bank account, to
booking a holiday, require digital literacy. ICT can enhance the learning experience
for pupils in schools, further education and higher education. The ICT sector is a
major area of employment, and reports difficulties in recruiting people with the
skills they want. According to E-Skills UK, the Sector Skills Council for Business
and Information Technology in the UK, 1 in 20 UK workers is employed in the IT
or Telecoms workforce, and there are 144,000 IT/Telecom workplaces (E-Skills UK,
2014). Many jobs in other sectors rely on digital literacy. ICT, therefore, is an
important part of the Computing curriculum.
Approaches to teaching ICT
In teaching ICT, as with all aspects of Computing, it is important to give pupils
contexts that are relevant to them and linked, as far as possible, to real-world uses.
A range of ideas for real-world contexts are given throughout Part 2 of this topic.
You should encourage creative approaches and encourage pupils to employ
Computational Thinking ( see Chapter 5 ). Ofsted (Ofsted, 2011) identified that poor
teaching in ICT was too teacher-led and focused too much on skills, to the detriment
of knowledge and understanding. To prepare pupils to be digitally literate and
meet the needs of employers and society, we want pupils to be confident, competent,
autonomous users of ICT in a wide range of contexts, with the ability to transfer
this to other contexts within and beyond school. We need them to understand why