How Can a Specific ICT Package Be Used to Support Learning and Teaching - Case Study Example

How can a specific ICT package be used to support learning and teaching? The ICT package under study here is ‘English Grammar Essentials II’, manufactured by Core Learning, an international provider of educational software, based in the USA and Canada. This product is intended for use both on interactive whiteboards in classrooms, and, where this facility is not available, on individual PCs. The product can be downloaded electronically, or supplied on CD-Rom discs. When uploaded onto the teacher’s master computer, the product will appear on an interactive whiteboard. This is probably a more effective method for the teaching of such material than is setting students to work on it using separate PCs. With the tasks and activities displayed for the whole class to see, the teacher can remain in control of moving on from one step to the next, and so is better able to ensure that all students remain on task, and also that all students understand each step thoroughly before moving on to the text. Subject Area This package is intended to educate pupils of primary and elementary school age in the rules of the English language. The focus is on the correct use of grammar, and on instructing students on how to communicate in a clear and correct style of written English. Intended Users This package is aimed at children in the earlier years of primary school, and is designed to supplement classroom activities intended to give them a comprehensive understanding of the basics of English grammar. The course in this package can be accessed in a number of ways. It can be accessed online, by individual students using computers in school or at home, or it can be uploaded onto a school’s intranet network, and can then be accessed by teachers in any classroom across that school. Ideally, the course is presented on interactive whiteboards, so that a teacher can work through its lessons with the entire class simultaneously, and ensure that they are all progressing at the same level. Core Learning, the manufacturer of this product, is an accredited software partner of Promethean Interactive Whiteboards, one of the world’s leading distributers of interactive whiteboard. Learning Outcomes The learning outcome of each session in the package is made clear at the very beginning. For example, the presentation supplied for Lesson 1 is prefaced by a title page, on which is clearly written, ‘Making a Complete Sentence’. By emphasising the aim of the lesson in this way, the product gives a clear focus to the lesson, and allows students to judge, by the end of the session, whether they have accomplished what they set out to do, or whether they require more work in order to gain a firm grasp of the material covered. At the end of each section, a lesson overview appears again on the screen. For example, after the first section, this consists of ‘Sentences’, ‘Complete Sentences’, and ‘Incomplete Sentences’ (See Fig. 1 below). The teacher is able to run through this summary with the students, and if they deem more work necessary on any of these elements, there are helpful links on the top right of the page, to pages designed to consolidate the material. Fig.1. Lesson Overview Page Source: Core Learning – Unit 1: Lesson 1: Making a Complete Sentence [Internet], Promethean Planet. Available from: [Accessed 25 July 2010]. Just before this page, towards the end of a lesson, the teacher/student is also given the opportunity to choose whether to review the content covered, save their progress, or exit the programme (see Fig. 2 below). At this juncture, if the teacher judges that the class would benefit from running over the material once more, they can select the ‘review’ tab, and ensure that all of their students have mastered that content. It is clear that the anticipated learning outcomes are clearly displayed several times in the course of a lesson, which should help the students to remain on task, and also provides both pupils and teacher with a clear sense of where they have made progress, and where further progress is still desirable. Fig.2. Lesson Conclusion Page. Source: Core Learning – Unit 1: Lesson 1: Making a Complete Sentence [Internet], Promethean Planet. Available from: [Accessed 25 July 2010]. Fig.3. Learning Objectives Page Source: Language Arts Companion: English Grammar II Essentials [Internet], Core Learning. Available from: [Accessed 25 July 2010]. In addition to this, the teacher is able, at any point in the lesson, to navigate back to the page which lists the learning outcomes (See Fig. 3 above). This is done by clicking on the ‘Topics’ tab, which remains on the toolbar for the entire section. This provides yet another means of keeping the class focused on the objectives in hand, and assessing progress at various stages. In the later units in this package, where the material is more complex and academically demanding, the list of learning outcomes is also more comprehensive. Even if the material being covered is more rigorous and challenging, regular reference to this page should allow students to assess what they have done and what they still need to do. A teacher might want to produce copies of the learning outcome pages and distribute them to all students at the beginning of the lesson, or to instruct students to copy them down into their exercise books before they commence the activities on subsequent pages. Learning Activities The main part of each section consists of a series of activities. These include exercises based on filling in the gaps, rearranging items into their correct order, and questions which require a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer. As the students move through the section, the type of activity regularly changes. This range and variety should function to engage and retain the student’s attention throughout. Monotonous and similar activities in an exercise book might not have the same efficacy. These varied activities are accompanied by suitable graphics and stories. These graphics serve to embellish the information and make it more interesting and engaging, while not being so prominent as to distract from the task at hand. Each activity is limited to one page of the unit, and so is quite small. The manageable nature of each of these activities should allow the pace of the lesson to be sustained, while also ensuring that students are able to absorb material easily in small chunks, rather than in large sections which would be more difficult to imbibe as a whole. As well as the lessons, the package contains a quiz on each topic covered, where the students, or the teacher in consultation with the class, can enter their answers, and they will be automatically marked and graded by the software. These quizzes could be used at the end of a lesson, to check whether the students have understood what they have learnt, or as a review exercise at the beginning of the next class. At the end of each lesson, there is also a link to a printable worksheet. The teacher could supply these worksheets to their pupils as a review exercise to be completed in class, or as a homework exercise. Either way, they provide a valuable means by which the teacher can evaluate individual progress. Given the collective nature of most of the work in the package, if it is taught using an interactive whiteboard, this element of individual work is especially important. As an additional feature, this package comes with audio instruction. This would be particularly useful if students were working through the lessons individually or in small groups on a PC, and were confused about the information provided, or the instructions for an activity. Structure/Presentation This product provides a comprehensive framework for building up familiarity with and knowledge of the basics of the English language. The product consists of seven course units, which are Sentence Development, Capitalization, Punctuation, More Punctuation, Parts of Speech, More Parts of Speech, and Word Parts and Counterparts. The structure of the product is detailed below: Fig.4. English Grammar II Essential – List of Topics English Grammar II Essential - List of Topics Unit 1: Sentence Development Lesson 1: Making a Complete Sentence Lesson 2: Subject and Predicate Lesson 3: Ending Sentence Punctuation Lesson 4: Use of Capitals Lesson 5: Paragraph Development Unit 2: Capitalization Lesson 1: Proper Nouns Lesson 2: Titles of People, Initials, and Abbreviations Lesson 3: Titles of Works and Letters Lesson 4: Outline Topics and Poems Lesson 5: Proper Adjectives Lesson 6: Direct Quotes Unit 3: Punctuation Lesson 1: Titles, Initials, and Abbreviations Lesson 2: Direct and Indirect Quotations Lesson 3: Addresses, Dates, Letters and Time Lesson 4: Commas with a Series of Words Unit 4: More Punctuation Lesson 1: Commas in Interjections and Conversations Lesson 2: Commas to Join Sentences or Phrases with Appositives Lesson 3: Apostrophes in Possessives and Contractions Lesson 4: Punctuation in Titles Unit 5: Parts of Speech Lesson 1: Types of Nouns Lesson 2: Types of Pronouns Lesson 3: Types of Verbs Lesson 4: Common Verb Tenses Lesson 5: More Verb Tenses Lesson 6: Subject and Verb Agreement Unit 6: More Parts of Speech Lesson 1: Types of Adjectives Lesson 2: Types of Adverbs Lesson 3: Prepositions Lesson 4: Conjunctions and Interjections Unit 7: Word Parts and Counterparts Lesson 1: Contractions or Compound Words Lesson 2: Prefixes and Suffixes Lesson 3: Synonyms and Antonyms Lesson 4: Homophones, Homographs and Homonym Appendix A: Glossary Source: Master Essential English Grammar and Creative Writing Skills [Internet], Core Learning. Available from: [Accessed 25 July 2010]. This structure provides a clear framework, and allows the students to develop their confidence with English grammar through a series of clear and simple steps. The structure is logical, beginning with less technical material and ending with more technical material, and beginning with less challenging activities and ending with more challenging activities. This allows the teacher to ensure that the students have a full understanding of each step, before they move on to the next stage, and more complex lesson content. As to the structure of each section, after the title page, the students work through a series of simple activities, before reaching a lesson overview page, which repeats the initial objectives, and contains links to a further activity, a vocabulary guide, and a quiz, as well as practice sheets which can be printed by the teacher and distributed to the class as homework or as a review exercise. Throughout this package, there are helpful and prominent toolbars, which allow the teacher or student to skip back and forward at will. The toolbars also contain useful links, such as to a dictionary and a glossary, in case any confusion arises. The latter functions would be particularly helpful if individual students were working through the package at home or on PCs at school. In terms of presentation, there are several ways in which this package aids teaching and learning. The motif of a cartoon creature (see Figs. 1,2 &3) recurs throughout the lessons, guiding the students through the unit in a light-hearted way, and thus offering both continuity and variety to the course. All instructions are written in a large, clear font, for easy visibility, while key words, phrases and terms are emboldened and brightly coloured for additional emphasis. The page is not plain, but couched in a colourful, decorated green border. This brightens up the page and makes it more interesting, without being so imposing as to distract attention from the activities. Where activities require more lengthy explanation and instructions, this is delivered in small and clearly-worded paragraphs, so that they quantity of information does not overwhelm students. Furthermore, examples are consistently given, and are represented in a variety of ways. As well as being displayed in plain text, they are also arranged in accessible tables and flow charts. The image below (Fig.5) displays many of the features described above, including emboldened and coloured key terms, a decorative border, the use of graphics, and the compartmentalisation of information for ease of comprehension. Fig.5. Nouns Page 3 Source: Language Arts Companion: English Grammar II Essentials [Internet], Core Learning. Available from: [Accessed 25 July 2010]. It is clear that this package - English Grammar Essentials II – is effectively tailored to engage the attention of students, and greatly improves a teacher’s ability to instruct pupils in some of the essentials of written English, and to regularly test and evaluate their understanding. Bibliography Core Learning – Unit 1: Lesson 1: Making a Complete Sentence [Internet], Promethean Planet. Available from: [Accessed 25 July 2010]. Master Essential English Grammar and Creative Writing Skills! [Internet], Core Learning. Available from: [Accessed 25 July 2010]. This Company [Internet], Core Learning. Available from: [Accessed 25 July 2010]. Accredited Software Partners [Internet], Promethean Planet. Available from: [Accessed 25 July 2010]. Read More