What if you ignored all the advice and guidance – at least for now?
I am a member of Computing At School, and every day someone uploads a new scheme of work for the new programme of study. IT’s fantastic to have so much good stuff to choose from. It’s also a bit overwhelming if you’re not sure where to start in the first place. Good advice and guidance, and guidance (for primary schools) has been published by CAS and Naace working together. It’s good stuff but – and this is crucial I think – it is not yet your good stuff. It is what someone else has come up with, which may or may not be right for you and your school.
Plan A, by Marc Falardeau http://www.flickr.com/photos/49889874@N05/
So, what if you just downloaded all that, but parked it to one side for now, and just worked out what you want to do in terms of approaching the new programme of study? If you have colleagues you can work with, then work it out with them. Think about what will work in your school, and for your students. Work out what will be the best approach for you and your colleagues.
Once you’ve done that, then have a look at the advice and guidance. By doing the thinking first, you will be in a much better position to evaluate how useful it is for your particular set of circumstances. Otherwise all you have done, in my opinion, is outsourced the thinking!
cross-posted on www.ictineducation.org
Terry Freedman is an independent educational ICT consultant with over 35 years of experience in education. He publishes the ICT in Education website and the newsletter “Computers in Classrooms."
