Introduction
This list is designed to give you some starting points - it is far from comprehensive! The best advice I can offer is to identify a number of resources which you find relevant and useful and learn to use them effectively rather than trying to achieve complete coverage. It's worth establishing a 'search strategy' for resources and information which might involve: a favourite textbook or guide; centralised resources such as 'Virtual Teacher Centres' and the Local 'Grid for Learning'; subject specialist websites; and teacher communities where members exchange ideas and resources. This is probably more productive than going to your library catalogue or search engine and typing in keyword searches.
Governmental and Quasi-Governmental Agencies
- BECTa at http://www.becta.org.uk
- OfSTED at http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/
- the National Curriculum Online at http://www.nc.net.uk/
- the QCA website at http://www.qca.org.uk
- the QCA Schemes at http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes/
- the TTA at http://www.canteach.gov.uk/
Specific Online Documents
Some useful online documents which will provide you with useful background or contextual information on the deployment and effectiveness of ICT in schools
- The 'Using Information and Communications Technology ...' series from the TTA
- The DFES Report: 'ICT Futures - Transforming the Way we Learn'
- Ofsted report on the Impact of New Technologies and Government Initiatives
- Reports from the ImpaCT2 Project
- BECTa information sheets
Databases
- The BECTa Software database at http://besd.becta.org.uk.
Books
Be careful when buying books to support you in your ICT work! Many of those still available refer only to the 4/98 Curriculum rather than the current one. Of the current books, the best is probably:
- Sharp, J., Potter, J., Allen, J. and Loveless, A. (2002) Primary ICT: Knowledge Understanding and Practice (2nd Ed) (Exeter: Learning Matters).
Other books on classroom ICT which you may find useful, or interesting, or both:
- Ager, R. (1998) Information and Communications Technology in Primary Schools: Children or Computers in Control? (London: Fulton)
- Ager, R. (2000) The Art of Information and Communications Technology for Teachers (London: Fulton)
- Papert, S. (1980) Mindstorms: children, computers and powerful ideas (New York: Basic Books)
- Resnick, M. (1997) Turtles, Termites and Traffic Jams: explorations in massively parallel microworlds (Cambridge MA: MIT Press)
- Somekh, B. and Davies, N. (1997) Using Information Technology Effectively in Teaching and Learning: studies in teacher education (London: Routledge)
For more general reading about ICT and its place in the lives of teachers and students:
- Bereiter, C (2002) Education and Mind in the Knowledge Age (Hillside NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum)
- Castells, M. (2000) The Rise of the Network Society (The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Volume I, 2nd Ed) (Oxford: Blackwell)
- Castells, M. (2001) The Internet Galaxy (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
- Dutton, W. (2000) Society on the Line: information politics in the digital age(Oxford: Oxford University Press)
- Himanen, P. (2001) The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age (New York: Random House)
- Rheingold, H. (2000) The Virtual Community: homesteading on the electronic frontier (Cambridge MA: MIT Press)
- Tapscott, D. (1997) Growing Up Digital: the rise of the net generation (McGraw-Hill)
- Turkle, S. (1995) Life on the Screen: identity in the age of the internet (New York: Simon and Schuster)
And for an alternative view:
- Cuban, L. (2001) Oversold and Underused: computers in the classroom (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press)
Academic Journals
Journals which are worth reviewing for useful articles include:
- Technology, Pedagogy and Education (Formerly Journal of IT for Teacher Education)
- The Curriculum Journal
- Educational Technology
- Computers in Education
- Education, Communication and Information
- Journal of Computer Assisted Learning
- Journal of Research on Computing in Education
Newspapers
The Times Education Supplement has regular columns on ICT in Education and periodically has a 'pull-out' supplement on ICT with articles and reviews of hardware and software, as do the Guardian Education Section and the Daily Telegraph. Other 'newstand' titles which have occasional interesting ICT related articles include Wired (US orientation); Red Herring (some articles on ICT in development and global education projects) and the plethora of what my daughter refers to as 'nerdy computer magazines', which occasionally have education-related issues or articles.