QCA KS3 Curriculum review – ICT

proposed-level-description-chanegs-feb-07.doc

ks3-ict-pos-comparison-feb-07.doc

You may have already been informed about the proposed changes to the KS3 curriculum due to come into effect in September 2008 and the consultation period that QCA have put in place to gauge teacher responses.  You may wish to look at the proposed changes to the KS3 ICT programme of study on QCA’s website.  The link at the bottom of the page allows you to tell QCA your views.

 I feel that it is important for as many of us to be involved as possible in order to shape the curriculum to what we believe it should be.  This period of consultation did not happen in 1987/8 during the introduction of the National Curriculum and QCA want to make sure that the changes made are in partnership with schools and teachers.  I have attached two documents that compare wordings of proposed changes to the level descriptions and to the programme of study as you may fnd them useful.

Summary of the Q&A from NAA following Regional Consultant meetings

naa-cnm-qa-2.pdf  Click on the link to see a copy of the questions and answers that came out of the NAA sessions at the last Consultant Network Meetings. 

Assessment for Learning in ICT blog

I came a cross this blog while viewing ICT forums.  It is definitely worth a look.

http://www.learnblog.net/ict/2007/01/10/assessment-for-learning-in-ict/

Will they or won’t they?

I’m keeping quiet on the latest news about the onscreen test and the political wranglings going on.  However, there is some lively debate going on at the TES website that you might want to read http://www.tes.co.uk/section/staffroom/thread.aspx?story_id=2324414&path=/ict/&threadPage=1 . If I have to say anything then I agree with comment no. 14

New online lessons at Teachernet.gov.uk

The number of online lessons for ICT on the Teachernet Practical Support Pack website has increased from 3 to 18.  There is some excellent stuff here that will certainly enhance the teaching of KS3 ICT.

 Other colleagues may also find new lessons too as there has been a similar increase in the number of Music, History, Geography, Science and English online lessons. Please let them know in passing

Xmas starter activity or keep for the New Year

Try Weboggle with your pupils.  You could either have it on the whiteboard and they could shout out words or each of them could log on and try their best.

It’s a good one this and gets those brain cells fired up before you start the lesson. I know that some of you have a couple of days left at this point.

Small number of changes to minimum specification for onscreen test

Below are the latest changes to the minimum specification for running the onscreen test issued this week.  I am not aware of any schools that will not meet these, but I would look very carefully at the server spec.

Dear KS3 ICT test school,

Following the 2006 pilot of the KS3 ICT tests, a small number of changes have been made to the minimum specification required to run the KS3 ICT test software. Please find details below. If you have any questions about the information provided please do not hesitate to contact the technical support team via Support Online accessed from www.naa.org.uk/ks3ictpilot <http://www.ks3ictpilot.com/> or by telephone: 0870 870 1025 and option 2.
Screen Resolution: The minimum workstation specification strongly recommends a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 for the best pupil experience. Please note that from 2008 the KS3 ICT software will not support 800 x 600 screen resolutions.

Windows 98 Workstations: Windows 98 workstations will not be supported during the 2007 pilot. Microsoft has retired public and technical support so this is no longer a suitable platform for running the KS3 ICT test.

Windows XP Service Pack 1: Workstations running Windows XP Service Pack 1 will not be supported during the 2007 pilot. On 10 October 2006 Microsoft stopped providing any incident support options or security updates for this retired service pack. Therefore it is no longer a suitable platform for running the KS3 ICT test.

The upgrade to Windows SP Service Pack 2 is freely available from the Microsoft website to all licensed users of Windows XP. Please talk to your usual network support provider for instructions on how to upgrade your network to this service pack.

Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and earlier: Servers and workstations running Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and earlier will not be supported during the 2007 pilot.  Provision of technical support and security updates for Windows 2000 versions prior to Service Pack 4 ended on 30 June 2005. Therefore it is no longer a suitable platform for running the KS3 ICT test.

The upgrade to Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 is freely available from the Microsoft website to all licensed users of Windows 2000. Please talk to your usual network support provider for instructions on how to upgrade your network to this service pack.

64-bit Windows: Windows Server 2003 x64 edition will not be supported. On 64-bit server hardware, you can choose to run either the 32-bit or 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003.  32-bit Windows is intended for general purpose use and compatibility with existing 32-bit applications. 64-bit Windows is a version of Windows Server 2003 that has specifically been recompiled such that it will only run on 64-bit hardware and uses full 64-bit addressing. The KS3 ICT APS server software is a 32-bit application and, as such, has not been verified as compatible with 64-bit Windows server. Please contact your usual network support provider for advice on running the 32-bit version of Windows Server 2003.

We are actively verifying compatibility with 64-bit versions of Windows 2003 server, with a view to providing further information on this after January 2007.

Windows Vista: Windows Vista workstations will not be supported. The KS3 ICT test software for 2007 is not compatible with Windows Vista and must not be run on Windows Vista workstations.

Internet Explorer 5.5: Internet Explorer 5.5 will not be supported. Provision of technical support and security updates for Internet Explorer 5.5 on the Windows 2000 platform ended on 31^t December 2003. Therefore it is no longer a suitable platform for running the KS3 ICT test.

The upgrade to Internet Explorer 6 is freely available from the Microsoft website to all licensed users of Windows 2000.

Netscape 7.2 and Earlier: Netscape 7.2 and earlier will not be supported. The latest version of the browser (version is available only for the Windows XP platform. Earlier versions are no longer supported and no further security updates will be issued. Therefore it is no longer a suitable platform for workstations running the KS3 ICT test. In place of Netscape, Mozilla Firefox 1.5+ will now be supported on all workstation and server platforms.

Internet Explorer 7: Internet Explorer 7 will be supported. Please note that Microsoft distributed several different pre-release, beta, and release candidate versions of Internet Explorer 7. These pre-release versions all have compatibility and security issues which have been fixed in the final release version of Internet Explorer 7. Consequently, the KS3 ICT test must not be run on workstations that still have pre-release, beta, or release candidate version of Internet Explorer 7 installed.

If you require any further information or assistance then please do not hesitate to contact us.

With regards,

KS3 ICT Tests Customer Services Team
Tel. 0870 8701025
Fax. 01235 854391
ks3tests@rm.com
www.naa.org.uk/ks3ictpilot

Video help files for Flowol2

I found this video help site  for several applications including Flowol2.  The video help files are quite useful, especially for walking pupils through some of the more tricky concepts like variables.

Does anyone know of any other sites such as this that we could share?

NEW preparation for testing materials for 2007

The Secondary Strategy has produced some extra “Preparation for testing 2007″ materials for ICT departments to use in the Spring Term.  There are 6 lessons worth of materials for Y9 that each build up the skills needed to work with the test interface as well as giving students tasks to do that mimic the way in which the test works. There are also lesson plans, MS PowerPoint slides and worksheets.

 There are also 5 lessons that can be used in the same way with Y8 pupils.  I think that the idea is to use these with Y8 pupils later in the year to prepare them early for the 2008 test.  The tasks are less demanding, but equally well designed.

All Subject Leaders for ICT have been invited to the training at Noel Baker, Thursday 14th December at 1.30 p.m. so you should be able to get the files from them as they will be distributed during the afternoon.

Rise of the participation culture

A well presented look at the ways in which Web 2.0 is being developed.

 http://www.wsjb.com/RPC/V1/Home.html

How are we in education going to be making the most of what for a lot of our pupils is everyday technology? Are we forever going to be playing catch up with these technological innovations or are we going to be inspired by them and be creative in their use in the 21st century classroom?