Making hard topics easier to teach with ICT
This NATE/Becta project explores how creative use of ICT in the classroom can enable more effective learning. A group of teachers from a wide variety of schools across England and Wales took part in a practical programme that produced eighteen case studies. These report in fascinating detail how ICT can transform teaching and learning, without hiding the pitfalls and problems encountered on the way. Feel free to use and adapt the materials here in your own teaching; see below for guidance on copyright.
You can read the report and case studies individually, or download the complete report.
See it on TV: You can also watch watch three of the topics in action in the Teachers TV programme Hard To Teach - Secondary English Using ICT.
- Overview, key outcomes and case study summaries
- Using a visualiser to shine a light on poetry: Phil Grosset
- Interpreting texts through interactive storyboarding: Gregory Anderson
- Engaging with poetry: Caroline Mortlock
- Poetry for EAL and SEN students: Tom Charles
- Enlivening the study of poetry with Year 8: Lisa Tippings
- Blogging, but not for England: a Year 10 venture: Martin Brennan
- Blogs and the National Curriculum: Mark Ellis
- Teaching ballads: Chris Mackinder
- Building learning power with wikis: Anna Richardson
- The GlobalDover wikiproject: Amanda Monk Peak
- Wikiteers, wiki-wars and the AQA Anthology: Carol Weale
- Active revision strategies for C/D borderline students: Sam Custance
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Analysing the language of poetry through podcasts: Kate Murphy
- Using Audacity: practical guidance document
- Download Audacity free from Sourceforge
- Using podcasting to improve close analysis of language in poetry: Carrie McMillan
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'Explain yuself wha yu mean when yu say podcast': GCSE poetry podcasts: Phillip Lloyd
- Audacity and podcasting: presentation including how to use Audacity
- Two short podcasts by students: 'Half Caste' and 'Search for my Tongue'
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Teaching the literary heritage: Angus Weir
- Two videos produced by Year 9 students, summer 2008
- Green screen video tutorials: practical guidance on how the movies were made from the Ninestiles eLearning team
- Collaborative work on Shakespeare: Steven Howell
- Using SMART Notebook 10 for refining and presenting information: Sam Custance
The complete report:
- Making hard topics in English easier with ICT: final report and all 18 case studies: 156 pages (9.3 Mb)
These documents are in PDF format - click on each one to open it, or right click and select 'save target as' or 'save link as' to save the document on your computer.
Links
- Hard To Teach - Secondary English Using ICT: Teachers TV visits three of the case study schools
- Secondary National Strategy: Improving teaching and learning in English through ICT - a project to develop ways of incorporating ICT into English teaching, with case studies.