ICT and common misconceptions - A Practical Guide to Teaching Computing and ICT in the Secondary School - page 119

particular ICT approaches are used, to make informed choices about their own use
of ICT, to be able to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of ICT solutions, to be
able to learn about new ICT in the future, and to be safe. Using cross-curricular and
real-world approaches to content can support this, together with setting open-
ended problems to solve, providing appropriate scaffolded support, and seeking to
become a facilitator of pupil learning.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS?
Misconceptions are mistaken thoughts, ideas or views. Sometimes these are as a
result of an incomplete or incorrect mental picture of a concept; sometimes they are
because the person was taught incorrectly. Writing in 1998, David Longman made
the point that the potential for misconception in ICT is huge, largely because, unlike
in other subjects, there is no 'unifying conception' (Loveless and Longman, 1988).
There was, he said, a lack of well-known research in this area, and this is still the
case today. However, experience in learning and teaching has shown that, as we
look at particular aspects of the subject, there are reoccurring misunderstandings
and misconceptions amongst significant numbers of pupils. Educators refer to
these as 'common misconceptions'. If we can identify and anticipate these, we can
plan to try to reduce or eliminate them ( see Chapter 2 ) . For example, in demonstrations
we can emphasise where misconceptions could occur and help pupils to avoid
them. As you become more experienced as a teacher, you will identify many
common misconceptions yourself, but this chapter seeks to give you a starting
point. Remember though, that by its very nature, the subject changes and new
software and hardware will appear with new associated misconceptions.
Audience and purpose
A key concept that underpins much of ICT (and Computing) is that of meeting the
needs of the end user. In seeking to produce a solution to any problem, the pupils
need to constantly think about what the solution is required to do, and for whom.
Forgetting to do this is a very common occurrence and the teacher regularly needs
to get the pupils to refocus on audience and purpose. Ask them questions about
these regularly, link criteria for self- and peer-assessment to them, and make them
a key part of your formative feedback.
WORD-PROCESSING, PUBLISHING AND PRESENTATION SKILLS,
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: KEY CONCEPTS, COMMON
MISCONCEPTIONS AND HOW TO AVOID THEM
Some of the key concepts that need to be covered are:
• The differences between word-processing and Desk Top Publishing (DTP)
software, and when each should be used. Advanced word processors are able
to do much that would have been the domain of DTP, so the boundaries are
blurred, but do need discussing. Real-world uses of word processing and DTP,
and how they can be used in other subjects.
• Formatting of documents. This needs to be closely linked to audience and
purpose. Pupils need to understand how and why you might use different
fonts, different font sizes, highlighting (embolden, italicise, underline, colour).
• Layout of documents, including margin settings and pagination settings. This
should be linked to a discussion of different types of documents and their