Developing your capability to teach Computing - A Practical Guide to Teaching Computing and ICT in the Secondary School - page 9

audit regularly, and update it with details of what you have been teaching, and
what you have learned since the last time it was reviewed. As you progress you
may find your growing expertise and confidence in some topics supporting
your understanding and skills in other related topics (for example, improved
programming may enhance your ability to develop a more sophisticated
approach control technology).
Task 1.2
Open source software
Download a piece of open source software that you may be expected to teach in
school with which you are currently unfamiliar. Some free programming related
software examples you might want to try include:
• Scratch from http://scratch.mit.edu/
• Gamemaker from http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/ (Note: only the
'Lite' version is free)
• ALICE from http://www.alice.org/
• MSWLogo from http://mswlogo.en.softonic.com/
• Kodu from http://fuse.microsoft.com/page/kodu
• Consider how you feel as you use the software for the first time. What are
the essential things you need to know, and what can be ignored until later?
As you increase in proficiency, think about how you might explain to pupils how
to use the software.
Is it similar to other software they already know how to use? You might find it
useful to link this activity with the next one.
RECOGNISING YOUR CURRENT COMPUTING KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND
UNDERSTANDING, AND IDENTIFYING AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT
As a subject, Computing covers a broad range of knowledge and skills. Content can
range from artistic topics such as multimedia and video editing through to logical
and mathematical topics such as computer architecture and programming. In
between these extremes the impact of Computing on society, its use in organisations,
the requirements of copyright and data protection legislation and workplace
practices sit alongside topics such as judging the reliability and validity of data,
and understanding how networks function.
The notion of continually developing your expertise will be familiar if you have
recently completed courses of study in Computing/ICT, or through employment
are required to keep up with new ideas, but learning to teach involves more than
merely filling gaps in your subject knowledge, skills and understanding. There is a
fundamental difference now in how you should approach your study of new topics,
or revision of familiar ones. You are learning primarily for the purposes of teaching
Computing. You may find that your existing subject knowledge, skills and
understanding, and your preconceptions of how to teach them, are at odds with
the reality of the contemporary classroom. Much of what you bring is based on
your own prior experiences, which may have shaped you viewpoint. Do not panic.
All teachers in training go through similar experiences, but find they are eventually
able to reconcile the differences … or they decide teaching is not for them.