Foundation to Year 2 upwards

See example below.

Date Name of Student ICT context (computer in class/ network room etc) Was the child working in the network room or on one computer? What was it?

Software/web Using the software standalone or on the Internet?

Type (tutorial CD, office tool etc) If the student was using software, write the type here.

Working with partner? Who? Was the student working along, with a peer, with the teacher, parent or other adult?

Length of time For how long? Confidence with Rate the student’s confidence with the hardware, mouse, hardware listed and/or with printers or keyboard other devices. Very, fairly, not very, needing support, etc.

Software navigation (use of menus) As above but for navigation within the particular software.

File management (saving, opening, renaming work etc) As above but for working with files, reopening them, knowing where to find them etc.

Curriculum context. Using the computer to support work in English, Maths, Science etc.

Student’s view of their ICT

Give best fit level if appropriate

What next? How was the student operating within the curriculum context? Did the computer support the subject? Were there particular difficulties? Did the use of ICT help to improve the outcome?

Ask the student about their view of themselves as a user of ICT. Were there significant things about this piece of work that pleased them? Using the ICT Capability Learning Continuum level descriptions, if appropriate, make a best fit judgement of the student. What activities with ICT would move the student forward?

Foundation to Year 2 upwards

As the foundational years build on the learning experiences of children in the Early Years it is important that a similar method of record keeping is maintained.

Individual profiling sheets are also ideal for this stage of learning, however, this can be coupled with a whole-class snapshot (see example) which is really a matrix of the very basic skills which the children have along with their knowledge and understanding of ICT.

This type of record will be able to give you a quick overview to help you map out some future planning.

To keep effective records it is important that they show the complete coverage of ICT used and the progression that you had planned for it (Ager, 2003). It needs to be a quick way for you to recall which group has done which activity. The first record I would suggest for this would be having an ‘aide memoire’. As a teacher myself, I know that time is never on our side and so having one of these will help you keep track. Adequate information needs to be kept in them to help not just your planning but also if you have any pre-service teachers or supply teachers who might be taking your class in the future. Most importantly, and I will quote Ager (2003, p. 71) that there “needs to be an appropriate balance between the time to fill in the information and the detail of information recorded.” For example, if you make it too quick to fill out it may hold too little information and be worthless. On the other hand, a sophisticated recording system may be fantastic in theory with potentially great information, but teachers don’t have a lot of time on their hands and so you may not have of that time to fill it out completely rendering the entire system useless too.

Keeping records needs to be a manageable task not just for you but the whole school system. You may recall the activity planning sheet I discussed earlier with you. You can follow on from this by having a checklist indicating which students have carried out various activities. Your record must be informative and contain the main techniques you want the students to learn and develop. Once again, I will emphasise the assistance of the coding system to record the progress. If you need help in completing these systems enlist the assistance of an adult helper or teaching assistant.

Continuing on with your teacher records from the planning sheet you can design a sheet to record anything significant concerning a particular student’s progress. This should not take up too much time as