Justification+of+ICT+Tools



In the assignment we chose to use five different ICT tools to be integrated into the sequence of lessons. These were; the internet, kidspiration, paint, photo story and word. We chose these because they were relevant and familiar to the students as well as expanding their knowledge of the use of these tools.  The first of our lesson sequence is a research/brainstorming activity. For this we chose to use the internet as a forum for children to find information and then to suit the age group we decided to use kidspiration as a mode to present these ideas. Kidspiration allows children to brainstorm their ideas in an interesting format. Kidspiration is a fantastic resource where it provides an attractive visual work area for children. It encourages students to develop well built thinking skills as well as improving their reading and writing capabilities. It is a program that can be used across the curriculum and is simple enough for younger students to use independently.

The second lesson in our sequence was to find and select appropriate images to create a photo story complete with narration. Photo story allows students to create a story through pictures. This gives the student the ability to personalise their story and be as creative as they can. This program extends the child’s speaking skills as they come up with a narrative for their story. This program also strengthens the child’s research and capabilities as they find pictures to present.

The third of our lessons was to use paint as a tool to express the student’s ideas visually. The task involves planning a suitable enclosure for a specified animal using the information brainstormed on kidspiration. This program is easily accessible to children and encourages them to be creative. For this purpose, it was used to plan their diorama which meant that mathematics was brought into it through drawing it to scale and creating a key for the diagram.

The fourth of our lessons is to build a diorama. From this the student needs to write a summary of their animal and the reasoning behind their diorama and type this up on word. It then gets printed and placed on their diorama for their oral presentation. Diorama’s allow student to visually present their project and encourages a deeper level of thinking as they consider the materials they will use.