Teaching ICT-related skills in primary school, using Geography as an initial educational framework

A new teaching sequence using ICT methods and tools was designed, to teach Geography as well as ICT skills, to primary school students. The starting point was the geography lesson, as by its very nature offers many different possibilities in teaching while using Google earth, search engines, creation of presentations being only some of them. This study focuses on a) familiarising students with basic ICT skills like the use of useful popular packages, and b) providing an alternative and more interesting way to teach Geography. The participants in this educational trial were 17 primary school students aged between 10 & 11. The trial took place mostly in the computer lab of a fairly average primary school located in one of Athens's sprawling suburbs. By the end of the trial most of the students have acquired skills in using most of the ICT packaged employed while refining in parallel their overall ICT competence. The trial demonstrated that computers can be used in stimulating teaching and learning, while teaching students to read carefully and assess the information found on the net as to its trustworthiness and relevance with the learning objective. Students' skills in communication and collaboration were also deemed to be greatly enhanced.