Introduction to First Term Information Technology Lesson Note Primary One Week 1-2

This first term Information Technology lesson note primary one, week1-2 is prepared based on (Olatoye, The Scheme of Work plus 20 things You should Know about the New 9-Year Basic Education Curriculum, 2016, pp. 103-127). (Olatoye, 2016) drew the Scheme of Work in line with the new Standard Information Technology Curriculum (9-year Basic Edition) by the Nigerian Educational Research & Development Council. Information Technology is one of the four separate but related subjects compressed to form one major subject, Basic Science and Technology in the new curriculum. The other subjects are Basic Technology, Basic Science and Physical and Health Education. Accordingly, this note is meant to be delivered in the first and second week of the first term of the academic year.

Information Technology or Computer Studies teachers must understand that this is a practical subject. S/he must also remember the necessity of computing skills for effectiveness in this 21^st century. Hence, the teacher must focus more on equipping the pupils with computing skills – what they will be able to do with a computing device – than what they would know. Nonetheless, both are necessary.  The teacher should delivers the class by demonstration and motivation while majoring his/her performance by what the pupils are able TO DO at the end of the lesson.

First term lesson note: Primary or Grade 1- Information Technology, Week 1-2

SUBJECT: Basic Science and Technology

Theme 4: Information Technology

TOPIC: Meaning of a Computer, Similarities and differences between a computer and other related objects

REFERENCES

1. Okenabirhie, E. (2012). MacAdams Approach to Computer Science for Primary School. Lower Basic 1. Benin city: Macadams Publication Ltd.
2. Olatoye, D. T. (2016). Scheme of work plus 20 things you should know about the New 9-Year Basic Education Curriculum. Lagos: KR Publications.
3. Osumah and C.O. Omeiza. (2015). Computer Studies for Primary Schools. Benin City: Gateway University Publishers Ltd.

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS:

1. A computer set, Typewriter, Phone, Radio, Calculator, Digital wristwatch, Fax Machine, Digital Video Camera, Television set, DVD Player, Organizer, Projector, POS machine.
2. If these things are not physically available but a digital display is available, then a video clip of each as it is being used should be used.
3. If neither the display nor the physical objects is available, full colored charts should be used. Preferably, a copy of the textbook should be use
4. Chalk/Maker, and board/Screen
5. Introductory video of a person (perhaps, a kid) who felt ashamed because s/he called a computer related device by a wrong name in an important function such party with peers. In the event that the teacher is unable to compile the video (we make this available on request, for free), s/he compose a short narration to portray the incident with illustrated pictures /chart

Entry BEHAVIOR

This is no prerequisite requirement for understanding this topic. However, pupils that have had earlier contact with computer will be at advantage.

OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the lesson, the pupils should be able to:

• Identify (name) some computer related objects and state the use.
• They should be able to use some of the devices

PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE:

The pupils must have learnt the meaning of computer from their earlier years. Also, some probably have computers in their homes. However at this present primary two level nothing has been thought.

METHODS OF TEACHING:

The teacher teaches the lesson by Induction, Discussion and Demonstration.

TEACHER’S ACTIVITIES:

The teacher shall sources and prepares the materials to use. He/she will demonstrate the use of the computer related devices and watch the pupils do same.

LEARNERS’ ACTIVITIES:

The pupils shall participate actively in the in the lesson by listening, watching and practicing with the gadget. They shall also contribute to the class discussion by asking and answering questions.

PRESENTATIONS:

The lesson shall be delivered as in the following steps:

Step 1:             Introduction:

To introduce the lesson, the teacher plays the introductory video. That is, if a digital display is used. If not, the teacher uses the illustrated narration charts and narrates the story to the pupils. A child that felt ashamed because s/he could not identify a computer related device in an important function such party with peers). Afterward, the teacher tells the pupils that they shall in the week’s lesson learn how to identify computer related devices so as to avoid similar fate as that of the child in the video. Following this, the teacher writes/projects the topic on the board/screen and proceeds to step two.

Step 2:             Meaning of a Computer

The teacher tells the pupils that before they identify computer related objects, they have to identify computer itself. Therefore, the teacher asks the pupils who among them owns, have used or seen a computer before (it is expected that quit a number if not all of them would respond in affirmation). Hence, the teacher follows up by asking them that as an owner or having used of seen a computer before, what would they tell a stranger such as my grandfather that a computer is?

The teacher receives attempts while keeping the class interactive and democratic. The pupils will in their attempt likely give the use of a computer rather than the definition. Still at this, the teacher appreciates each pupil and writes meaningful attempts on the board. The teacher may, by means of questioning, steers pupils thought towards the definition in the form of intelligently countering them. For example, if a child says a computer is what he or she uses to play games, the teacher may counter (after appreciating the child), whether PS is a computer since it is also used in plying games.

After receiving several attempts, the teacher tells them that to define a thing is not just stating the uses of such thing but also providing some distinctive description. Hence, he/she defines a computer to them and gives a thorough explanation.

A Computer is an electronic device that accepts data as instruction process it and give out information

Explanation of the simple definition of computer

• By Electronic device here (in its simplest form) means something that uses electricity. That is, computer is something that uses electricity.
• Accept data means a human being must give the computer data or instructions before it can work or do something.
• And data means what we give or input into the computer to work on. Data include letters (A – Z), numbers (0 -9), pictures, audios videos. The human being operating the computer usually possesses the data outside the computer then uses input devices to put into the computer.
• Instructions include pause, print, play, send etc.
• Process means the work that the computer performs when it receives data and instruction. Any work that a computer performs is called a computer process. Human being cannot see computer process with naked eyes.
• Information means the result of the work that a computer performs which it gives back to the human being. Information is also called output.

After the explanation, the teacher redefines computer in similar words.

A computer is something that uses electricity, and is able to work on any data or instruction that a human being gives and give out the result.

Hereafter, the teacher leads them to identify the various forms of computer – laptop and desktop (physically or using chats). If there is a computer, teacher should demonstrate how a (either of the desktop or laptop) computer accepts data, processes it and gives out output for pupils to see. This may be as simple as typing a word:

• Teacher writes a letter or number (data) on the board. Then tells the pupils s/he will now give the computer that (letter or number) data.
• Teacher presses the letter or number on the keyboard. S/he tells them that processing began as soon as the key was pressed. But as said earlier, they cannot see the process.
• The pressed key (letter or number) displays on the screen. That is the information – the letter or number on the screen.

NOTE: there may be no need to burden the pupils with the name(s) of input devices as they will learn them in later lessons.

QUESTION ON DEMONSTRATION: pupils may ask what work (process) was done since the key that was pressed displayed almost instantly. Answer to that is that the computer is extremely fast compared to human beings. A computer can perform up to hundreds of processes in splits of a second. That’s why the result was instant – it actually performed some jobs before the key was displayed. Now for the curious pupils, this is a summary of what work the computer did between the pressing of the key and the display of the letter or number:

• 1st: The teacher pressed the key
• The computer detected that a key has been pressed, but it doesn’t know which key.

This is so because the computer doesn’t recognize any letters or numbers except zeros and ones. These zeros and ones are called computer language. To understand what key the teacher pressed, it has to convert the key to zeros and ones. Thus

• The middleman between computers language (0, 1) and man our language (A-Z, 0, 1, 2-9) changes the key to computer language and sends it to the computer brain.
• The computer brain (who now understands what that teacher pressed) get the answer i.e. the letter or number and sends it to the intermediary at the monitor/display (still in form of zero and one)
• The intermediary at the display receive the (0s &1s) from the brain of the computer and changes it back to the key the teacher pressed
• The monitor now displays the last result.

NOTE: This is not exactly what happens but it conveys the idea of computer processing. More so, the teacher is not to explain this in detail neither are the pupils expected to remember anything about it apart from the idea of computer processing.

He/she performs other couple of activities such as printing, playing videos etc. (as giving by pupils earlier time when attempting to defined a computer).

Step 3:             COMPUTER RELATED OBJECTS

Once the teacher has explained the meaning of computer, shown the pupils the various forms of computer and some of its uses (which the pupils probably know); he/she introduces the concept of computer related objects.

The teacher explains that some objects looks like a computer and can perform some functions of a computer. These types of objects are called computer related objects.

The teacher then ask the pupils to give examples of such objects – the objects have buttons or keys which we can press like computer, some of them have screen, when we switch them on, some gives same light (LED) as the computer . The teacher writes each on the board as each is mentioned. Afterwards, he/she picks one at a time, tell the pupils its use and (if available), show them how to use it or describes how to use each using the video clip (if digital display is being used), or full colored illustrated charts.

Some of such devices and the use are given below:

NOTE: If any of these objects are available in the school or as many as are available, the pupils should practice how to use them individually, if not teacher should use video or charts to give a vivid description of how to use them. Others such as how to use ATM may be given to them as homework to be carried out with their parents. In that case, the following questions may be given:

Question 1: Visit any ATM with your parent or older one; use their ATM card to withdraw some money.

Question 2: describe how you made the withdrawal.

Step 4:              DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A COMPUTER AND OTHER COMPUTER RELATED OBJECTS

After identifying and practicing/explaining how to use computer related devices, the teacher differentiates between the devices and computer. He/she explains that the general difference is that while  computers (desktop / laptop) are a multipurpose device, each of these can only perform one or two functions of computer while others are – but in reality, each of them are small computers because each accept data, process it and give output. For example the digital camera can only captures pictures but cannot play music or be used to type unlike the computer .

After this, the teacher display the various forms of computer, gives the pupils short activities to pair each computer related devices to the part of computer it resembles then state the differences between each pair.

Alternatively, the teacher displays the various forms of computer, desktop/laptops. Then picking one computer related object at a time, he/she ask the pupils to look at the form of the computer and tell him/her which part of the computer the object he is holding resembles. After which, they discuss the differences between the identified pairs.

Step 5:             NOTE WRITING

Before evaluating, the teacher summarizes the lesson into a short but detailed note which he/she writes on the board for the pupils to copy down into their notebooks. While the pupils write, the teacher moves round to ensure that every pupils are writing correctly. At the end, he or she reads the note together with the pupils the give a summary to the class once more.

EVALUATION

Evaluation of psychomotor objectives is made at the time of exercise or practice, while the following exercises are given to the pupils to assess cognitive objectives:

1.      Identification

Write the name of the following computer related object match to the use (check recommended textbooks, (Okenabirhie, 2012, p. 14)

2.      Differentiation and Similarities

Match to the part of computer each resembles

State one difference between each pairs

CONCLUSION

The lesson is concluded by marking and returning pupils’ notebooks, reviewing the entire lesson and making corrections where needed. He/she in conclusion, links the week’s lesson to following week’s topic. He/she tells the pupils that in the following week lesson, they will be learning the names of the different parts of a computer that the computer related objects resemble.