The Art of Progression

Welcome back to Term 4 and already almost a week down.

As requested, and promised, here is the presentation and ICT progressions themselves from ULearn 2012 in Auckland last week.



Apologies that some fonts didn't translate to internet as well as when presenting so I've replaced them with some more boring fonts. Stupid boring fonts. There really just isn't an excuse for them.

As for the video links, do follow them. In particular, I think ALL intermediate aged girls (and boys!) should be shown the Dove Evolution advert from the presentation. Unfortunately the version I used had the embedding option turned off but go here to check it out for yourself.

Video links:
Did You Know?
Dove Evolution - No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.
Can I be your friend? - What Facebook looks like in real life.

Here are the progressions themselves;
TBCS ICT Progressions 2012


These are a living document which we are ever updating. If you use these as a base for your own progressions, I encourage you modify and adapt them to your situation. Converse with the teachers in your school, and feeder schools, and with your community, to work out what you want your kids to know and learn about. Progressions have to work for you and your situation or they become another bit of paper gathering dust in the corner.

In terms of assessing. I spoke about these not being a tick list but a check point. I keep in mind where my kids should be at in the sequential rubric and assess anecdotally. If I notice a gap, I record and respond. With the Solo Taxonomy, I choose one or two areas which fit with my unit of teaching and focus on those. I would assess those areas but again, mostly, this would be assessed anecdotally.

I try to get an even coverage but it has to address the needs of my kids and the context in which they are learning these skills. I don't teach ICT as a subject, though I may teach an ICT focused lesson within the context of my unit.

For example, today in reading we learnt about research and the importance of checking your facts in multiple locations.

I used www.allaboutexplorers.com, a fabulous spoof website about real explorers, to show kids that they can't just believe everything they read. My focus was reading comprehension - finding information, making connections, thinking critically, and questioning - and alongside that, we were learning about "Research (reliability and accuracy)"

The key thing is to make it useful, functional and manageable for you... and above all, make ICT fun for the kids!


Hope you find all this useful. :)