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Trudy's Page

ICT is increasingly used in education and in the business and leisure industries. This means children have access to ICT in many different aspects of their lives. It is essential, therefore, that we give them a wide variety of opportunities to explore how the technology can support them in their learning. For example, while pupils are using a desk top publishing package to create a school newspaper they are also developing their ability to communicate more effectively. This provides both a context and a meaning for the ICT activity. Taking the IT out of context and teaching IT skills separately, not only decontextualises ICT but also places additional burdens on curriculum time. The use of ICT therefore should be a meaningful part of an activity where it is used to consolidate or extend pupils' learning. Some examples of how ICT can be used to support pupils learning are: word processors to write up and present their work; using a spreadsheet to enter their data collected as part of an investigation, creating charts, and interpreting the results); using a database to enter data collected as part of an investigation, interrogating the database by searching and sorting, in order to answer questions to help solve problems which form part of the investigation; using hypermedia to write up, lay out and present their work for publication on the Internet; using the Internet and CD-ROMs to help with research during an investigation.