Micros in the Classroom (5 Parts)

Synopsis

1: A school with a strong tradition of engineering and electronics has been using micros for about three years. Students make early contact with graphics and word processing which they use for letters, essays, leaflets, etc. The aim is to teach basic, useful concepts rather than keep to an external examination syllabus. The essential lesson for schools considering the purchase of micros is to make sure that they know what they want them for, how they are going to use them and how they are going to acquire and adapt the related software.
2: Children at a village school are learning to program using software written by their teacher. He feels that writing programs has influenced his own style and method of teaching. At another school a teacher uses a versatile program, ‘Seek’, to help improve verbal and visual skills in sorting and classifying procedures. A group of teachers meet to exchange ideas for using the new technology in the classroom. They discuss whether computers could ever replace them, how teaching is affected by the micro, whether it is possible to compare a lesson in which one is used with another in which it is not and what level of ability is best suited to working with micros.
3: A class of 10-11 year-olds work on a project to trace the history, growth and local geography of their village using the program ‘Saxon Settlement’. A class of 16-17 year-olds use computer simulation to support a project on transportation and the environment. The program ‘Route’ enables the students to calculate the environmental impact and cost of alternative motorway routes to alleviate traffic congestion on a busy main road.
4: ‘Clevediet’, a program designed to enable users to calculate and compare the nutritional value of diets, highlights the benefits of collaboration between teachers and programmers. A teacher who has no computer expertise can specify the features required of an educational program and hand it over to a colleague with programming skills. Another example shows how the computer supports and enhances problem-solving approaches to history teaching. A group of secondary students use a program ‘Microquery’ to interrogate computer-held files of information. Students explore the raw data for themselves, proposing and testing hypothesis and undertaking work that has the quality of original research.
5: A programmable toy vehicle ‘Bigtrak’ helps develop mathematical skills in children of various ages. The essential problem is to work out how the program instructions relate to the movement of the vehicle. A more sophisticated toy ‘Turtle’ facilitates the same problem-solving approach but also introduces its users to programming. Because of its ‘Logo’ software the ‘Turtle’ can be programmed to draw shapes. The instructions for a particular shape form sub-routines which can be called upon by the student and combined to form complex patterns. The user teaches the computer how to draw a particular shape.

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Medium

Video; Videocassette. Standard formats. col. 5 x 25 min.

Year of production

1983

Availability

OUT OF DISTRIBUTION

Uses

Teacher training courses.*

Subjects

Education; Information technology

Keywords

computer applications; microcomputers; primary education; secondary education; teaching aids

Sections

Title

Secondary (ages 11-16)

Synopsis

1: A school with a strong tradition of engineering and electronics has been using micros for about three years. Students make early contact with graphics and word processing which they use for letters, essays, leaflets, etc. The aim is to teach basic, use

Title

Primary (ages 5-11)

Synopsis

2: Children at a village school are learning to program using software written by their teacher. He feels that writing programs has influenced his own style and method of teaching. At another school a teacher uses a versatile program, 'Seek', to help impr

Title

Friend in the corner, A

Synopsis

3: A class of 10-11 year-olds work on a project to trace the history, growth and local geography of their village using the program 'Saxon Settlement'. A class of 16-17 year-olds use computer simulation to support a project on transportation and the envir

Title

Let’s fiddle with the facts

Synopsis

4: 'Clevediet', a program designed to enable users to calculate and compare the nutritional value of diets, highlights the benefits of collaboration between teachers and programmers. A teacher who has no computer expertise can specify the features require

Title

Games, gadgets or gimmicks?

Synopsis

5: A programmable toy vehicle 'Bigtrak' helps develop mathematical skills in children of various ages. The essential problem is to work out how the program instructions relate to the movement of the vehicle. A more sophisticated toy 'Turtle' facilitates t

Production Company

Name

BBC Television

Distributor

Name

BBC Active Video for Learning - now BBC Learning

Contact

Carolina Fernandez Jeremy Wilcox (CF - for educational enquiries JW - channel sales manager)

Email

BBCStudiosLearning@bbc.com

Web

https://www.bbcstudioslearning.com/ External site opens in new window

Phone

+44 (0) 20 8433 1009

Address

BBC Studios Limited
Television Centre
101 Wood Lane
London
W12 7FA
UK

Notes

The BBC Active company has now been absorbed within BBC Learning, a division of BBC Studios. It was originally a joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Pearson Education. Formerly known as ‘BBC Worldwide Learning Studies’ and before that as ‘Videos for Education & Training’