1. Information and Communications Technology The Electronic Database and its potential as a learning, teaching and administrative tool

2. Introduction to databases Telephone books What is John Jackson’s number? Whose number is 1234567? Discuss limitation of paper based databases

3. Demonstration of Shells database Introduce Shells Database Demonstrate database structure fields and records Query process sorting, nesting sorts Selecting - ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘not’… hypothesising, hypothesis testing, data into information, Other databases CDDB, Musicmatch database structure

4. Developing a graveyard database Graveyard visit Data collection Input to database What can this data tell me? What questions must I ask? Data query – how to ask Tables, graphs Turning opaque data into understandable information

5. Administrative and cross-curricular use Electronic class or school database Easy to update, add records, delete records Mark schedules The spreadsheet as a database Student’s ideas w.r.t. using a database as an effective learning, teaching, administrative tool Use across the curriculum for learning and teaching weather data, history, archaology, environmental studies…

6. A constructivist paradigm Provide an interesting, relevant, and meaningful context for students to construct their own understanding of what a database is, and what it can do Classification of music by genre, artist, album.. (MusicMatch, CDDB) Provide a context for students to construct an understanding of the process of turning data into information Graveyard visit Data query process Hypothesis making and testing Opaque data useable information

7. Strategies for handling student diversity Identification of levels of expertise ‘Experts’ used as tutors, mentors Group work – experts with non-experts Provision of support structures for strugglers Provision of advanced projects for ‘experts’

8. Information and Communications Technology Presentation For: Research and Graduate School of Education Southampton University May 2002