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What you should know - Teacher competence

Teacher competence in ICT plays a crucial role in the development of student ICT capability. Studies have indicated that the “extent to which ICT was effectively to support the development of literacy and numeracy depended to a large extent on the teacher’s own personal capabilities in ICT and in literacy and numeracy teaching” (Kennewell et al., 2000, p.105). It is important to note that in such studies it was also revealed that where teacher’s capabilities in ICT were lacking, in most cases there was a haphazard effort in the development of student ICT capability.

Integrating ICT into teaching and learning is not straightforward. The following information will help you build on your own ICT capability in terms of providing you with key knowledge to do with what you need to know about specific ICT tools and resources in addition to the level of progression students are expected to achieve in this year level. All can be implemented in the spirit of structured literacy teaching.

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Exploiting the available technology in the Australian Curriculum

Integrating ICT into teaching and learning is about exploiting the here and now of the available technology in the classroom and not waiting for the next big technological development to come along and solve your ICT problems. The Australian Curriculum encourages Primary teachers in particularly to implement this key strategy into their teaching practices.

The Australian Curriculum emphasizes the use of digital technologies throughout the development of literacy. Students will be able to develop ICT capability alongside literacy by using the following ICT tools and resources:

• Word processors - both online and offline programs such as MS Word, Pages for iPads and Google Docs; • Digital forms of communications such as presentation programs such as MS PowerPoint and MS

PhotoStory; • World Wide Web and Information literacy skills (web searching); • Blogging; • Emails; • Publishing programs such as MS Publisher; • Wikis; • Coding programs like Scratch Junior and; • Web design and development.

For more information on these ICT tools, refer to Teacher Knowledge of Resources.

The Application of ICT Capability

While there are many other ICT tools and resources it is vital to note that the above resources are more suitable for the development of ICT capability. The reason is such that they provide students with a tool for learning. Tool software can be used in many different ways, but the most important part about them is that they provide the students with almost complete control and are intellectually challenging. As a result, the level of decision-making which builds on their higher order skills is high. This has implications on you as a teacher in planning work and organizing ICT activities. Therefore, it is important that you have a clear idea as to the ways in which the skills and techniques are developed.

Teacher Knowledge of ICT Resources and Tools

have an acquaintance with a large number. This won’t hamper their development in ICT capability as it is better for them to work with a small number versatile programs and to progressively develop their skills and confidence in these through carefully structured ICT activities. Being familiar with a program will help you to identify when students may encounter a problem and enable you to plan for strategies to overcome them. Also, it will allow you to identify when students are ready to move onto a new feature or to use the software for a more demanding task (Kennewell et al, 2000).

Being familiar with a program should take you beyond just knowing how to use the program for a variety of tasks. ICT capability for a teacher is the same as it is for a student – it is about developing an understanding and judgement about how to use those ICT techniques appropriately. Therefore, it is important that you reflect on the “processes it helps the user to carry out and the ICT techniques with which particular effects can be achieved” (Kennewell et al., 2000, p. 97). Consider then how you will introduce the program to the students along with what ideas need to be clear before they start.

Word Processing for Primary Literacy

Being proficient in word processing skills is something which students will continually use and build on throughout their school career. Programs such as this can be actively used to encourage students to draft and redraft their written work. Interacting with text is just part of what it can allow students to achieve, but it also has other features like spell and grammar checker which structured carefully can used by teachers to develop a student’s spelling and grammar. Such features can be used to enhance a student’s presentation and because of its editing features it facilitates a stronger engagement with text by students.

What is the expected level of development for Year 2 students? By the end of primary school, students are expected to know the following word processing and skills:

• Changing font, font size, bold, italics, highlight and font colour; • Justifying, changing spacing, indenting; • Setting up bullets and numbers, re-starting numbered lists; • Inserting and modifying a table; • Inserting a blank page and understanding whit this is used (not just hitting Enter multiple time); • Inserting a picture - embedding it tightly with text, understanding how to re-size and re-position it; • Inserting graphics, tables, smart art, symbols; • Inserting hyperlinks, setting how the link page opens; • Understanding how to set up a header, footer and page numbers; • Setting margins, knowing which the standard setting is, changing page orientation, and setting up columns; • Using templates.

Children in Year 2 are expected to edit text using the mouse, delete or backspace keys; to use the shift key; to alter font, font size and colour; to resize graphics.

How will Word Processing impact in the classroom? According to Potter et al. (2007, p. 103), using the word processor in the classroom will impact the classroom by:

• Selecting appropriate opportunities – in which word processing software can facilitate, enhance or extend children’s learning, such as the importance of presentation in communication. In some instances the focus will be on teaching and learning in ICT (how to enlarge text, make newspaper type columns or

add a border to a poster), in others ICT will be used as a resource in the teaching and learning of another curriculum area (writing for a specific audience); • Making explicit links between related knowledge, skills and understanding – word processing is closely associated with literacy and language work at all levels, and as a consequence has a contribution to make across the primary curriculum; • Modelling appropriate use of ICT – for instance, scribing and amending shared writing with the whole class or a group using the interactive whiteboard; • Demonstrating or intervening – for example, inserting an image into a word processing document, cutting and pasting, or deciding how and when to use the spellchecker. Explicit teaching of word processing knowledge, skills and understanding requires demonstration and intervention as with any other curriculum topic.

Children may gain word processing skills by themselves, but without the guidance and direction of their teacher the acquisition of such capability will be haphazard.

How do students develop as digital content creators? How do students develop as technological innovators?

They develop skills in producing text-based digital artefacts that can be shared, uploaded or printed. They apply new skills to creating artefacts that are beyond the task description or in new formats. Core skills will be used throughout schooling and will be built upon as students become more experienced in the software program.

Table 1. Benefits of Word Processing (Howell, 2012, p. 148)

How does WP aid digital fluency?

Teacher Knowledge, Skills and Understanding In order to teach word processing skills effectively in this activity, the following list attempts to identify the level of teacher competence in ICT expected.

• Creating, opening, saving, closing, deleting and printing documents; • Selecting font, font size, colour, style (italic, bold), line spacing and justifications; • Inserting, deleting, selecting, cutting, copying, pasting and undoing; • Utilising help; • Inserting bullet points, tables, clip art, borders, shading and columns; • Altering page orientation (landscape, portrait), background colour, page size and margins; • Altering defaults; • Forcing page breaks; • Utilising tabs and indents; • Utilising spelling and grammar checkers (including how to switch on and off), thesaurus, print preview, highlighter and talking facilities (including how to switch on an off) and find and replace; • Connecting alternative input devices (overlay keyboards, touch screens); • Constructing and utilising on-screen word banks; • Inserting page numbers; • Inserting text, graphics, tables and documents from other applications; • Inserting symbols, headers and footers; • Creating macros and templates; • Utilising dynamic links between documents; • Customising the word processor; © ICTE Solutions Australia 2018

• Merging documents; • Formatting graphics; • Protecting documents.

Conceptual Understanding Conceptual understanding underpins the learning of every ICT technique and this is what makes the ICT techniques learnt through word processing so transferrable across the curriculum. In ICT capability, the “cognitive phase emphasises the importance of conceptual understanding. For example, understanding the difference between an effect and a style is essential to being able to learn the difference between them, and key to being able to use them appropriately” (Potter and Darbyshire, 2010, p. 18).

For example: “When we first show a child how to insert an image into a publication, it is helpful to talk about selecting the object by clicking, and to refer to handles and dragging when sizing or moving the object. If we use the same words in another context – or better still, prompts the child to use the words – the concepts should start to develop.”

According to Potter and Darbyshire (2010) these ICT techniques which we may select in order to create a solution to a problem are a function of the context, the resources available and our strategic knowledge.

Word processing can only be used effectively by students if they understand its documents are a stored file of characters together with formatting tags. These tags control how it appears on the screen and also the printed page. A feature likes this allows it to be transferred quite easily to different sources. It can adjust automatically to start a new line when required and white space can appear on the page when there are no characters.

Publishing Programs (DTP) for Primary Literacy

A great example of a publishing program commonly used in schools today is MS Publisher and like many others, it provides teachers and students with an extremely useful tool for learning in Primary schools. Much of its capabilities fits perfectly into the national curriculum learning outcomes such as enabling students to produce newsletters, flyers and brochures. The presence of templates makes it very easy to use for students and the results are highly professional and polished outputs.

What is the expected level of development for students in Year 2? The skills learnt throughout their use of publishing will build on those which they had acquired in the use word processing. There are many skills associated with publishing, however, according to Howell (2012) students need to learn the following:

• Save documents and learn about the format documents are saved in such as ‘.pub’ which means that only that program can open the file; • Typing skills; • Printing finished products.

Others include: • Selecting a publication type – from template list, then the different formats and variations of each template; • Terminology of publishing. For example, ‘perforation’, ‘template’, and ‘flyer’. • Determining the best layout – strengths and weakness of each design; • Selecting from schemes – no longer a simple task of selecting one font type;

• Selecting a colour scheme; • Understanding page objects – For example, mailing lists, logos sign up forms, order forms and response forms; • How to insert images; • How to change the template.

Key features of publishing programs like MS Publisher are: • Master page – allows features which will appear on every page to be laid out on a single page which is then provided as a ‘background’ on each page created; • Templates – prepared designs of many standard types of publication such as letterheads, three-part brochures, advertising flyers and newsletters; • Rulers and guides – help control precisely where the features of the page are positioned; • Frames – each object, including text, is placed in a specified area of the page called a frame which must be created first; • Manipulation of frames – control over the positions, size and orientation of frames is flexible.

Concepts Involved The key features of publishing programs lend itself to the authenticity of the finished products. They have a professional look which gives it an advantage over word processing programs. Publishing programs provide formats and designs that are structured and encourage students to contribute high quality content.

How do students develop as digital content creators? How do students develop as technological innovators?

Producing digital content such as electronic newsletter – the potential is quite broad.

While the formats and templates provide scaffold for students, the actual content, visual design and finished product have enough scope for innovation. Table 2. Benefits of DTP (Howell, 2012, p.161)

How does DTP aid digital fluency?

Students learn more proficiency in skills that are beyond basic word processing.

Presentation software for Primary Literacy

With the use of a digital projector, multimedia programs such as MS PowerPoint, Textease Presenter or Apple’s Keynote can present literacy ideas and concepts in more engaging ways. These programs are effective in education as they encompass tremendous value in supplementing and supporting oral presentations by showing visually the structuring of ideas. They also aid the student’s identification, development and sequencing of the points to be made.

As a whole-class teaching program, they are ideal for demonstrating the teaching of literacy and ICT capability.

What is the expected level of development for Year 2 students? In addition to word processing techniques, presentation programs involve a number of techniques that include:

• Slide format – each new slide can have a different format; • Master slide – a similar idea to a Master page in desktop publishing; • Views – choose whether to see various version of the slides;

• Insert movies or sounds – this is in addition to text, images; • Add notes – students can create notes to be printed; • Timing – the slide show can be set to play with each slide/object given a specific timing for display; • Transitions and animation – various effects can be applied to both transitions between slides and animations; • Action buttons – an object can be set to trigger another event when clicked, such as jumping to another slide.

Students are expected to know the following ICT techniques:

• Enter text in a text box; • Highlight text, change font, font colour, size and alignment; • Use the Undo button on the Standard toolbar; • Navigate from slide to slide using the scroll bar; • Insert pictures from file; move, and resize; • Insert, move and delete clip art; • Insert clip art from MS Office from Online Clip Art; • Use Print Preview, print a document; • Print handouts two, three or six a page; • Take photos with a digital camera.

In addition to the above skills, students also need to learn how to:

• Save documents both to the hard-drive of a computer and a USB stick; • Keyboard effectively using typing skills.

How do students develop as digital content creators? How do students develop as technological innovators?

Students are creating a digital artefact, the presentation itself. The format and multimedia used in the presentation provide multiple opportunities for innovation. As group and individual presentations become more common and are assessment tasks, students using presentation software for these tasks become more fluent in key skills needed in school.

Table 3. Benefits of Presentation software (Howell, 2012, p.156)

How does presentation software aid digital fluency?

Concepts Involved Children do not have to be sitting at a computer to develop their ICT capability. Concepts and higher order skills can be taught through whole-class questioning. Presentation software like MS PowerPoint have similar concepts to word processing except that there is no continuity of text across the slides and only one section of the presentation can be seen at the one time. Sections are revealed under a person’s control. The ideas of transitions and animation are therefore important in designing a presentation.

Using Emails for Primary Literacy

Besides just the typical word processors that students use in the classroom, the use of emails can further develop student literacy and help students to learn how to communicate effectively. They are mostly short and are composed whilst being connected online. Emails need an address for the recipient and can be replied to.

A subject line is needed for any email to be sent so that the recipient can read what the email is about. Techniques include: • New message; • Send message; • Read message; • Reply/Reply to all/Forward; • Organisation of messages; • Filtering/directing; • Distribution list; • Discussion list; • Conference; • Attachment; • Address book; • Signature; • Find by sender/topic/content.

Concepts involved The main concept is that of a message, comprising of an address and some content. Students do need to understand the idea of a server. A server is a place that stores and holds the message (email) until you are ready to read or delete them. It is also important to remind students of a sense of audience and etiquette when using emails.

WWW and Information Literacy skills

The main processes involved in this are browsing and web searching. The WWW is a massive database where a single word can generate a large number of suggestions. However, by using sophisticated criterion like AND, OR, and NOT you can narrow it down to a better result. The Internet will provide students with a valuable source of information not just through their school career but beyond school life too.

Techniques include: • Hyperlink; • URL; • Search; • Change text size; • Bookmark; • History; • Cookies; • Security options.

Concepts Involved The main concept is hypertext (or hypermedia) which means that some text or images are hyperlinked. This is controlled by a set of codes known as hypertext mark-up language (HTML). A webpage is a single hypertext file and it can be as long as the author wants. When we refer to the term web, we mean a set of linked web pages whereas a website is a web stored a particular computer acting as a server on the WWW. The URL of a web page identifies the server and location at which the web is stored.

Information Literacy skills (web searching) Today, students needs require knowledge and skills to search for information, to analyse, synthesize, evaluate, channel and present it to others (Semenov, 2005). These skills are the individual’s needs and expecta-

The practical skills needed include: (Howell, 2012, p150-151) • Boolean operators and truncation – higher level truncation skills need to be taught that move the students beyond the use of ‘’ and +. Boolean operators such as AND, OR, NOT; Truncation symbols such as *,

“”, #, +, & and the use of synonyms for search engines. Students can turn sentences or questions into keywords and then synonyms; • Knowing how to use URLs – what the difference is between ‘http’ and ‘https’; what ‘www; means and

‘W2’ means; • Searching techniques – how to limit the result via use of ‘site’.

The critical skills include: • Understanding domain names and what they mean; knowing which are the most trustworthy; knowing which are the most useful for information research: ‘.gov’ government agencies; ‘.edu’ educational institutions; ‘.org’ organisations (non-profit); ‘.com’ commercial business; ‘.net’ network organisations; ‘.mil’ military; ‘.int’ international;

• Critical literacy skills include being able to evaluate the quality of websites and the information they present – understanding bias and subjectivity (Howell, 2012, p151).

The skills noted above are indispensable to ICT-supported and non-ICT learning environments.

How do students develop as digital content creators? How do students develop as technological innovators?

Students acquire the ability to locate sources of information, dowload, understand the mechanics of various sites. They develop skills in searching for information, learn short cuts and gain understanding of what they see.

Table 4. Benefits of Web searching (Howell, 2012, p152)

How does Information Literacy skills (web searching) aid digital fluency?

Efficient information searching, knowledge of search engines, truncation, boolean operations, evaluating websites are all skills that aid students’ fluency and make efficient information users.

Blogging in Primary Literacy

The term blog is short for “web” “log” and is supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. When a student enters any text, it is usually displayed in reverse-chronological order. A good quality blog is interactive that allows a visitor to leave comments and even a message via a widget. Blogs are also commentary on a particular subject, but some also serve as a personal diary. They would combine text, images and links to other blogs, web pages and other media related to it topic.

• Wordpress http://wordpress.com/ • Tumblr (mainly a photo blog) http://www.tumblr.com/ • Blogger (a free tool from Google) www.blogger.com

When blogging, several elements need to be considered: • What is posted is public – anyone can read the blog post; • Little things matter – make sure that spelling and grammar are checked; • Blogs offer an interesting new space for writing and literacy development; • Blogs work well with independent and group work; • Blogs have the potential to connect schools globally.

Literacy development in blogging The very fact that students need to write a blog post highlights its potential for literacy learning and development. When you think about it, a blog is simply just an online word processor, except that what you write goes public. In fact, word processors such as MS Word have a feature that allows people to blog from its program when they have registered.

A good way to start is to incorporate 10-20 minutes of blogging into your literacy teaching (Morris, 2013). Use literacy rotations where students can read their own or another student’s blog post and write a quality comment whilst practicing their literacy skills. In the end, their collection of blog posts can be added to their digital portfolio.

Other reasons why blogs are useful Blogs encourage writers and responders to develop thinking, analytical and communication skills. According to Solomon and Schrum (2010) emphasize that they are brief and short, but the visual elements enhances their presence and students become responsive to one another.

Classroom integration As a teacher, it is important to note that blogging can be integrated very easily as they are similar in concept to personal journal writing. Being short and informal they can deal with personal topics and ideas even when they deal with serious topics. Blogging motivates students and this has implications across the whole curriculum.

When students use blogs they write on topics which is either chosen by themselves or assigned by the teacher. They do this with the understanding that a potential audience of classmates, or people anywhere can read it. This enables students to continue to be motivated as the knowledge of a potential audience drives them to write more.

Through the use of blogs in literacy lessons, students can also develop their higher order skills as they generate ideas when they brainstorm and organise their writing to help formalise a central focus on their work.

What are the Techniques learnt The techniques learnt by students in a literacy lesson whilst using a blog can be categorised into three aspects of learning – computer skills, literacy skills and communication skills (McCollin, 2018).

Computer skills include: • Designing for the user; • Visual design;

• Structuring their site; • User experience; • Audio visual techniques. •

How do students develop as digital content creators? How do students develop as technological innovators?

Students are creating digital online journals that are shared publically. The format and content of the blogs are able to be changed, personalised, added to - there is a lot of room for innovation.

How does blogging aid digital fluency?

Students gain familiarlity with a common digital tool. Students gain experience in creating digital content that is shared online.

Table 5. Benefits of Blogging (Howell, 2012, p157)

Literacy skills include: • Writing for an audience; • Writing to entertain; • Writing regularly or to a deadline; • Writing clearly and competently.

Communication skills include: • Engaging with audience; • Communicating appropriately.

Web design in Literacy Lessons

Many of the above ICT tools and resources listed above have close similarities with that of a word processor. Practically, any form of digital tool that allows students to write and create and combine multimedia elements is a great resource for literacy lessons. Creating on the web is similar to that of a creating a multimedia presentation with hyperlinks instead of slide transitions. Students have the choice when completed to publish it on the WWW or onto a web server.

Web creation is valuable for learners for two reasons. Firstly, it is the value of process of producing web pages that is similar to multimedia presentation. However, they have additional features of hierarchical structure and this requires learners to analyse and understand the conceptual structure of the web page. Secondly, it is the ability to publish content on the WWW and reach a greater audience. The fact that they have no control over who sees it means that they need to make decisions about the type of content they intend to publish (Kennewell, 2004).

Certain techniques are used in web design and are in addition to word processing and DTP techniques.

• Hyperlink – any text or graphic object on a page can be clicked on by the reader and the reader is taken to a new specified page; • Frame – enables certain content on a page to remain on the screen in one or more frames; • Table – same as in a word processor; • Form – can be produced for web users to complete in order to send you a response, using familiar types of dialogue box features.

Concepts involved The concepts involved are the same to that of using the WWW.

Recommended web design software: • Dreamweaver; • FrontPage and; • MS Word.

How do students develop as digital content creators? How do students develop as technological innovators?

A website is a sophisticated digital artefact. How it is designed, what is included, colour, structure, contents all can be opportunities for innovation.

Table 6. Benefits of Web design (Howell, 2012, p164)

How does Information Literacy skills (web searching) aid digital fluency?

The production of a website is demonstration of high levels of digital fluency. Students gain familiarlity with html coding, programs and hosting.

Wikis in Literacy Lessons

Another great online ICT tool is a wiki. Here students can use them to write, edit and add elements such as images and video to create collaborative projects. The most well-known wiki in society today is Wikipedia which is constantly updated.

With wikis, students share control of the environment and can monitor one another. They access it with the use of a password so that their content is protected. Use of this tool allows for peer editing which means that the original copy is deleted but the earlier version is saved and this makes it possible to revert to a previous version or reconstruct content (Solomon & Schrum, 2010).

Wikis are useful for ICT activities that include elements of project-based learning, collaboration and authentic work. As students become aware of the audience’s need, they develop and refine their higher order skills. This makes it ideal as the level of decision making is high as they write, edit and revise their own work.

The techniques learnt using wikis are similar to that of a word processor.

Using Coding programs for Literacy learning

Coding programs implemented correctly is a fantastic way to develop literacy alongside of ICT capability in the primary classroom today. Programs such as Scratch Junior are ideal for students to develop literacy skills. When they use coding programs such as this they learn ICT techniques such as:

• Computational thinking; • To use logic; • Problem-solving; • How things works; • Structural thinking; • Algorithmic thinking; • Perseverance and much more.

Students can create stories with characters they create and this builds tremendously on their literacy skills.

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