Control
& Monitoring Made Easy
QCA Units
5E, 5F and 6C Re-written
The control
and monitoring side of ICT is one of the hardest areas for schools
to cover. Ofsted constantly comment in school reports as to the
lack of control and monitoring. Rob Widger, an ICT consultant with
the LEA and Steve Mills, an Advanced Skills Teacher, has re-written
the Control and Monitoring Units of QCA to incorporate a program
called ROBOLAB.
ROBOLAB
is an icon based programming software that allows teachers and pupils
to write sophisticated programs within mininutes. The LEA in conjunction
with Commotion have put together a winning package that will allow
schools to succeed with these difficult areas of the curriculum.
 Using
Robolab to fulfil QCA units for Control and Monitoring at Years
5 and 6
(This manual can be downloaded via the
intranet further down the page)
Introduction
Ofsted In the majority of schools
the Control and Monitoring side of ICT is frequently a weakness
in many school Ofsted reports. The ICT consultants in Hertfordshire
County Council identified a need to make the implementation of this
area of the curriculum easier for Year 5 and Year 6 teachers.
You will find in this pack the rewritten QCA documents for units
5E, 5F and 6C. There are lesson plans and work cards to support
the QCA document and a simplified guide based on INSET work carried
out over the year by the consultants.
Why use ROBOLAB ROBOLAB and the
RCX brick are easy to use. Rob Widger judges a piece of software
on how easy it is to pick up without using a manual. "I deliver
INSET on a regular basis with ROBOLAB and most teachers are using
the software, to write programs, within 25 minutes of being shown
how." Children are using Robolab within 15 minutes!
QCA The QCA documents have been
adapted to incorporate ROBOLAB. There are subtle changes to the
documents.
Recommended Kit to Cover QCA for
ICT
1 x Amusement Park Kits (This includes software, IR Tower, RCX Brick
and Lego)
2 x Lego Temperature Sensors, 1x Traffic light set (Optional but
provides concrete experiences)
It is strongly recommended that you
purchase the school charger and rechargeable batteries as the RCX
brick uses 6 AA batteries approximately every two weeks!
It is recommended that you purchase
up to 4 kits a computer suite. For the classroom you should buy
enough kits for the amount of machines you have available. In a
suite the recommended number of kits is 4, with up to half the class
using ROBOLAB and the remaining pupils using ICT in other subjects.
 Note
that these documents are held on the HGfL Schools' Intranet, and
are therefore available in Hertfordshire schools only. All files
are in 
Word format:
Front
Cover
Section
1 Contents and Introduction
Section
2 Staff Training and Teacher Guide
A course for ict co-ordinators to follow to introduce ROBOLAB
to their staff over the course of 2 twilight sessions.
Section
3 Implementing into the Classroom or Suite
Whether you have a suite of computers or just one machine in the
classroom then Robolab can be used effectively to cover the QCA
units for control and monitoring. Below are some ideas on using
Robolab and this pack within the school environment.
Section
4 Commotion Unit 5e
Included in this pack: Introduction, Adapted QCA for Robolab,
Instructions for constructing the models, Lesson Plans and Work
Cards.
Section
5 Commotion Unit 5f
Included in this pack: Introduction, Adapted QCA for Robolab,
Instructions for constructing the models, Lesson Plans and Work
Cards.
Section
6 Commotion Unit 6c
Included in this pack: Introduction, Adapted QCA for Robolab,
Instructions for constructing the models, Lesson Plans and Work
Cards.
Section 7 Further Training
FREE Software
LEGO Digital Designer
This free-to-download software enables pupils to drag and drop Lego pieces on screen, designing a model before they build it.
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