Subject Knowledge
There are three broad areas of knowledge you need to demonstrate/develop before you finally qualify:
- What might be termed "pure" subject knowledge, the ICT knowledge which informs teaching;
- What might be termed "applied" knowledge, that is how pure subject knowledge is mediated in the classroom to reflect the National Curriculum programmes of study, and to provide meaningful learning experiences;
- Pedagogical knowledge, that is how pupils' ICT knowledge develops and how pupils make progress in their learning during.
The latter two are what you learn about during a teacher training course.
Pure subject knowledge
There is an expectation that you will have some degree level knowledge in the subject area before you begin. However, it is important to realise that everyone will have gaps in their knowledge, due to the wide variety of backgrounds and degrees that trainee ICT teachers have, so you will not be expected to (indeed cannot) know everything It is more important that you show the ability and desire to plug any gaps and keep up-to-date.
By the end of a course, areas you will need to know about include:
- History of ICT/computer development
- Current developments in ICT and the possible future
- Input peripherals - how they work and their uses e.g. mouse, keyboard, scanner, midi, digital camera, touch screen, voice activation
- Output peripherals - how they work and their uses e.g. VDU, printers, speakers
- Real-world uses of applications and other software.
- Data misuse & data protection laws
- Copyright laws and anti-hacking legislation
- Social/ethical impacts of ICT - employment, misuse
- Health & safety issues and legislation
- Types of computer e.g. mainframe, micro, laptop, palmtop et al
- Backing/auxiliary storage devices and media - their uses and how they work e.g. flash pens, portable hard drives
- Internal memory - types and how they work e.g. ROM, RAM, PROM, EPROM Implications of file size on storage and transfer of data
- Data capture - when, where and why different methods are used
- Data validation & verification methods
- Data structures (fields, types, records, tables)
- Simple sorting and searching data
- Complex queries
- Theory of low level programming languages - what do we mean by low level, their use and examples e.g. machine code, assembler
- Theory of high level programming languages - what do we mean by high level, their use and examples e.g. Pascal, c++, Java
- How to design effective web sites
- Control systems - examples and practical use
- Describe how different audiences have different needs e.g. why it is necessary to present the same information in different ways to different groups of people
- System life cycle
Skills you will need to be able to teach include:
- All the features of common 'office' packages, including word-processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentation software and desk top publishing.
- How to format different documents to meet audience needs
- Mailmerging
- Macros
- Some HTML
- How to use multimedia authoring packages e.g. Dreamweaver, Flash
- Effective searching of information sources, including the internet and databases
- Using spreadsheets to model and test hypothesis
- Using computers to control other devices e.g. use of Logo, Flowol
- Manipulating graphics, video and sound
- Effective communication e.g. email, forums, blogs
- How to organise files, documents and folders
- Security e.g. virus checking, backing up
All courses will get you to do an audit on subject knowledge, to help you identify any areas for development and to support you in plugging 'gaps'.
