S.O.W.

Schemes of Work

In spite of computer to student ratios of between 4:1 and 2:1 students rarely use computers in class more than 12% of the time.  If the school does lessons of discrete ICT – that is ICT as a subject – that will account for 4% of the time so a lot of that capital investment is not working that well.

The Schemes of Work: Approach 1

Where students are in a classroom without individual access to a computer but with a data projector this is the most common method of using a VLE. It is teacher lead and teacher centered. The VLE is a document store with the SOW and resources that are opened and used in class. The Teacher/Author has created this resource for other members of his/her department and it represents a real saving of time and resources. The assumption is that the students will work from the board and enter their work into a exercise book for marking later.

The Schemes of Work: Approach 2

The structure of the course is very similar to the first but with a vital addition – the students can access the work later from home and familiarise their selves with work that will come up in the next lesson.  To make this work the resources need to be created in a way that is understandable by the students as well as usable in the class. It is worth looking at the access logs if you are able to examine them. It is tempting to suspect that only the most well motivated students will be online, but that is not the case. Experience has shown that the slightly weaker students that may be on the C-D-E borderline are as least well represented as are the ‘too cool for school’ types who would never show effort in class