Does using ICT improve children’s enquiry skills?

Audio and Video Conferencing using Skype www.skype.com		Publishing written reports on the Internet using Making the News
Using an MP3 Player (with in-built microphone) to record speech		Recording changes in sound and temperature with a LOGGIT Explorer
Using Audacity to edit sound files http://audacity.sourceforge.net/		Using Digital cameras and video to record and analyse information

The children used a wide range of enquiry skills to investigate and gather information about issues linked to their local environment.

These skills included:

Activities that involved the use of ICT included:

Audio and Video conferencing

• Interviewing children in other schools about “where we live”
• 'Interviewing an expert'

Using MP3 Players (sound recorders) outside the classroom to:

• Recording thoughts and feelings about people and places
• Interviewing members of the public about local Traffic Issues

Using data loggers such as LogIT Explorers outside the classroom to:

• Measuring noise pollution outside the school
• Measuring and recording the temperature of different wetland habitats

Using Audacity to:

• Edit interviews and create radio and news broadcast
• Combine music and sound files to create advertisements about conservation themes

Digital cameras and camcorders to:

• Record images of land use, buildings, pollution, wildlife and their habitats
• Video traffic flow at different points on a main road
• Identify changes to a landscape – photograph natural and man made features