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ICT Teaching Methods – Applications

Conference Paper · July 2008

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.20272.76802

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 ICT Teaching Methods – Applications

Nóra Csiki – László Zsakó

Department of Media and Educational Informatics, Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest

e-mail: csnori@inf.elte.hu, zsako@ludens.elte.hu
Abstract

Today the important ICT topics are taught with the help of various
methods. Some of them are unsuitable for successful teaching - learn-
ing whereas others may bring about success in certain age groups and
class types.
The application teaching methods are even less elaborate than those
of programming and programming languages hence today they can
look back only on a history of 10 (or maximum 20) years. However,
one can find similarities between them and the methods of teaching
programming. [SzZs,PSzZs]

Introduction
The most important teaching methods of the various fields of information and communication
technology (ICT) have already been developed [SzZs,PSzZs]. As ICT teaching cannot boast
with a long history, in most cases they have not been clearly formulated, and their formation
is not so conscious but rather instinctive, which also results in the fact that most teachers do
not use one single method but a sort of blend of methods, where one of them is represented
dominantly.
This methodological “uncertainty” also ensures that there are teachers who are capable of
teaching successfully even when they use a method labelled as being negative below. The
negative label can be principally explained by the fact that these methods do not “automati-
cally” ensure good teaching; moreover, it is fairly easy to teach very badly when one relies on
them.
Hereinafter the most widespread application teaching methods are listed and reviewed:
Problem-oriented (It chooses application tools for the gradually expanding series of
tasks, or extends the used concepts and functions from the required tool.),
Application-oriented (It teaches the skills necessary for creating a certain type of
document in the order of its structure and expansion.),
Menu-oriented (It teaches application knowledge through an application, or more
precisely, through the menu items of the application.),
Function-oriented (It defines the general functions of an application system e.g. in-
serting, correcting, printing, formatting etc. for word-processors, and then links con-
crete knowledge items to them.),
Concept-oriented (It defines the concepts used by an application system e.g. cell,
row, column, block, sheet etc. for spreadsheets, and then discusses the functions re-
lated to them.),
Abstract tool-oriented (It defines the ever expanding series of abstract tools, e.g. tra-
 ditional mechanical typewriter, electronic typewriter with correction function, elec-
tronic typewriter with line formatting function etc. for word-processors, and then dis-
cusses the necessary knowledge for each level.).

A. Problem-oriented
The problem-oriented teaching method can well be used in the world of applications, where it
essentially means the same as in the world of teaching programming and programming lan-
guages.
Let us take application task series that are built on one another, and structure them in a way
that one needs newer and newer application knowledge to solve them; but in the meantime
one should continually use the previously acquired knowledge. [SzT,T,V]
How they are distinguished later can be illustrated with an example taken from word process-
ing:
When tabs are taught, it is not practical to use tasks that concentrate exclusively on them.
According to this method, such tasks should be chosen that make students use the opportuni-
ties of character and paragraph formatting learnt previously.
The continuous use of previous knowledge is vital for profound acquirement; as continuous
practice helps perfect acquisition and routine use in the future.
The elements of a task series might support the introduction of various new knowledge items:
the knowledge of an application type, its general structure (e.g. What are the necessary
elements that an invitation card should contain?);
aesthetic knowledge (What makes an application nicer, more useful, more practical,
etc.?)
thinking and planning skills (What are the reasonable steps that should be taken to
create the given application? How can it be solved faster, more easily and simply?
etc.)
familiarity with tools (What application system functions are needed in order to solve
the given task, and where can they be found in the application system etc.?)
The peculiarity of this method could be that it will easily and logically lead students over
from one application type to others if the solution of a problem requires a tool that can be
more easily realized by using another application program.
The only hindrance of the method – as compared to its programming counterpart – is the lack
of necessary task-books. While there are plenty of programming task-books on the market
(including one that contains 2000 tasks [HZs]), either there are not any application task-books
or they contain few tasks e.g. there are about 100 for word processing, about 150 for spread-
sheets, and only 15 to 20 for presentation in the books published in Hungary. Moreover, the
tasks in these books are not well structured.
Teachers who use this method face a serious difficulty: practically, they themselves have to
work out everything.

B. Application-oriented
Actually, it is a variant of the previous method with the difference that it does not aspire to
teach every possibility, but it deals only with those that are necessary for an application or a
document type.
Regarding word processing such can be for example a letter, a cv, a circular/mail merge, an
article, a form, etc., and the line could long be continued. [F]
Let us take e.g. an article as a document type! A simple article has an author and a title, and it
has headings and ordinary lines. Therefore, one may need to format paragraphs (indents and
spacing), characters (font effects, size or even type). It is also very likely that among ordinary
lines there will appear lists. In a more “colourful” article there can be illustrations (pictures,
charts and tables), and one has to ensure their positioning and sizing. In a scientific article one
may want to use formulas, references, footnotes etc.
This method makes a characteristic distinction between text and desktop publishing, as the
starting document types are different. Desktop publishing deals with newspapers, books, i.e.
often with large documents. Although a significant part of the related concepts, operations and
tools are, of course, identical with the ones learnt in word processing (they can even be cre-
ated using the same tools), their importance, application frequency is clearly different (e.g.
column, table of contents, page numbering, index etc.).
Drawing includes posters, lines, illustrations, logos, mosaics, layouts, maps etc.
Let us look at an example: one has to create an illustration (a figure) to a task that originates
in graphs. (The task could be e.g. a programming task, or just an article to be written on a
road-system.) Here, by all means, one need to depict the nodes i.e. one must be capable of
drawing a circle, a rectangle, or an ellipse and giving their parameters (Fig. 1.). The nodes
should be somehow identified so it is necessary to place characters inside the nodes, and ad-
justing the drawing and the text to one another. (Fig. 2.) The nodes must be connected i.e. one
will need to draw a straight line or a curve, and consequently, there may appear line features
(type, width, end point – e.g. an arrow-like ending may denote the direction of the edge) (Fig.
3.).
If there is a label related to an edge, one may have to consider fitting it to a curve (Fig. 4.).

2 3
4 6
1
100 200

3 4 6
1 1
5
Fig. 1.
2 7 2 8
8
2 3

9 10 150 50

8 4 1
5 3
5 11
7
6 Fig. 3.
7 Fig. 4.
Fig. 2.
Please note that illustration is an “act” that is not always done with the help of a drawing ap-
plication. For example, Word offers good tools to make flow charts.
In Spreadsheets it is much rarer to define document types, but such can be for example tabu-
lation and analysis, statistics, financial analyses, mathematical applications, charts, simula-
tions etc. [LL].
In Database management there is an impressive example for this in an article by Peter Anton-
isch [A].

C. Menu-oriented
It belongs to the negative methods: it relies on the idea that the knowledge of an application is
equal to knowing how to use an application system. Regarding this as a starting point, it
would like to teach all the items on the menu of an application system, in the worst case fol-
lowing the order of the menu structure.
This way it primarily conveys lexical knowledge and routine usage; whereas it does not con-
sider thinking (planning) or aesthetic and practical layout to be of high importance. [N]
An example for this can be found in the syllabus of the course below
(http://www.oktatas.magyartelekom.hu/tportal/template/magentanar/pdf/a_szovegszerkesztes.pdf):

Formatting Characters and Paragraphs

Contents Time
The building blocks of a text (character, word, paragraph). 5 minutes
Selecting a text (using mouse or keyboard). 10 minutes
Formatting characters (size, style, type, colour, underline). 10 minutes
Special formatting of characters. 10 minutes
Changing the position of characters and spacing. 10 minutes
Effects in a text. 10 minutes
Alignments. 10 minutes
Indents and spacing. 10 minutes
Text flow. 10 minutes
Formatting instruments. 5 minutes

D. Function-oriented
Like the algorithm-oriented method of programming, it also tries to formulate the scope of
actions that can be done in a certain application and it tries to build the process of teaching
upon these actions.
Let us take an example from word processing!
Step 1: Word processing deals with creating, storing, modifying, formatting and then printing
(displaying) text documents, as well as with their language features.
Step 2: Creating a document may include using ready materials such as texts, pictures etc.
and creating new ones.
Step 3: Storing documents assumes saving and loading documents and handling variants.
Step 4: Modifying means deleting, changing and moving certain parts and inserting new ones.
Step 5: Formatting deals with specifying the features of characters, words, paragraphs, col-
umns and special elements (pictures, tables, formulas, …).
Step 6.: Language feature include paying attention to spelling, hyphenation and the use of
synonyms in order to enhance style.
Step 7: In connection with Printing one can define the size of a document, its layout, as well
as information on the printed pages.
The above, incomplete list refers to the fact that the most important question of a method is:
What do you want to do?

E. Concept-oriented
This method resembles the data-oriented method of teaching programming: it focuses on what
basic elements should be used in that particular field of application. [K]
Let us see a word-processing example for this, the basic elements and concepts of
word-processing [B]:
character table
word picture
paragraph objects (formula, …)
bullets and numbering borders, background etc.
column reference (footnote, endnote etc.)
page frame
margin style
Style slightly “sticks out” of the above list. It is practice to use it as the type concept of pro-
gramming languages. Unfortunately, the above list lacks the concept of “sentence”.
The basic concepts of drawing (apart from the notions related to page):
point plates
lines labels
shapes (rectangle, circle etc.) layers
The basic concepts of spreadsheets:
cell column
block (block-like area) sheet
set of blocks (interrupted) workbook
row diagram
Consequently, as soon as the basic concepts of such an application have been reviewed, it can
be stated for each concept what kind of operations can be done with them (often they are
identical e.g. insert, delete, select, format belong to nearly each of them). The success of the
teaching and learning process greatly depends on selecting the right order of concepts and on
how well the curriculum is structured.

F. Abstract tool-oriented
This method specifically aspires to teach tool know-how. It is applied when students familiar
with the application have to be taught a new tool or they would like to use the new possibili-
ties of a tool learnt before more effectively.
In this case the difficulty may come from the difference between the level of their knowledge
on the old and new tools (e.g. it is totally different to do word processing when using a tradi-
tional typewriter and using a word processing application). There is a typical experience in
adult education: those who are experts in using a certain tool have great difficulty in learning
the use of a new one. This method applies the solution of defining several intermediate levels
between the old and the new tools and always teaching the novelties of one level at a time in
the teaching process.
 A short evaluation of the above methods
The problem-oriented method is the one that should be exclusively used in levels of primary
and secondary education where the stress primarily lies on realizing and trying out algorithms
and not on the complete acquisition of a programming language.
By its nature the application-oriented method is definitely suitable for vocational training,
where students must get to know various document types, as well as their realization possi-
bilities.
The menu-oriented one is the worst possible idea, which degrades the user to a “dummy but-
ton-pressing machine”, and it is absolutely useless for teaching meaningful use of applica-
tions. Unfortunately, several testing methods including certain exams of ECDL prefer this
teaching method.
The function-oriented one greatly resembles the algorithm-oriented method of programming,
whereas the concept-oriented one to the data-oriented method. One of them focuses on the
things to do, while the other one on structures and concepts. Therefore, as it turned out in
teaching programming, these methods do not suit general education but only ”professional”
application training i.e. teaching people that use computer applications often and diversely in
their everyday work.
Finally, the abstract tool-oriented teaching method can exclusively used in adult education,
where well-trained experts are taught the meaningful use of a new software tool.

References
[A] Peter K. Antonisch: Databases as a Tool of General Education. Lecture Notes in Com-
puter Science 4226, 59-70, 2006.
[B] Bujdosó Gyöngyi: Szöveg- és kiadványszerkesztés oktatása az egyetemen, Informatika a
Felsőoktatásban’96, Debrecen, 101-109, 0996.
[F] Fodor Gábor Antal: Esztétikus dokumentok Worddel, Jedlik Oktatási Stúdió, 2003.
[HZs] Hubert Tibor - … - Szlávi Péter - Zsakó László: Programozási feladatok I-II. Kossuth
Kiadó, 1997-1998.
[K] Kökény Sándorné. Szövegszerkesztési alapismeretek, Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó, 1996.
[LL] Lévainé Lakner Mária: Excel táblázatkezelő a gyakorlatban, ComputerBooks, 2000.
[N] Nógrádi László: PC suli XP alapokon, Nógrádi PC suli Kft, 2004.
[PSzZs] Papp-Varga Zsuzsanna - Szlávi Péter - Zsakó László: Methods of teaching program-
ming languages, 2007.
[SzT] Szalayné Tahy Zsuzsa: Táblázatkezelés, Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó, 2000.
[SzZs] Szlávi Péter - Zsakó László: Methods of teaching programming, Teaching Mathemat-
ics and Computer Science 1, No. 2, 247-258, 2003.
[T] Tóth Tamás: Szövegszerkesztés, Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó, 2001.
[V] Varga Kornél: Az adatkezelés alapjai, Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó, 1998.

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