Page 57 - THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 9 AND 10 | Canadian and World Studies

THE ROLE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY IN THE
CANADIAN AND WORLD STUDIES PROGRAM
Information and communications technology (ICT) provides a range of tools that can significantly extend and enrich teachers’ instructional strategies and support student learning. ICT can help students not only to collect, organize, and sort the data they gather and to write, edit, and present reports on their findings but also to make connections with other schools, at home and abroad, and to bring the global community into the local classroom.
The integration of information and communications technologies into the Canadian and world studies program represents a natural extension of the learning expectations. ICT tools can be used in a number of ways:
• In the inquiry process: ICT programs can help students throughout the inquiry process as they gather, organize, and analyse information, data, and evidence, and as they write, edit, and communicate their findings.
• When developing spatial skills: Students can extract and analyse information using on-line interactive mapping and graphing programs. Such programs can also help students organize and present information in maps and graphs. Students in geography develop their ability to use GIS to layer information when analysing and creating new maps. The “using spatial skills” suggestions that follow some specific expectations in the geography courses provide students with opportunities to use various ICT tools and programs.
• As part of field studies: When engaging in a field study, students can combine a number of ICT tools such as GPS, hand-held personal digital devices, and digital cameras.
• As simulations: Various simulation programs are available that provide hands-on visual engagement to support student learning.
Whenever appropriate, students should be encouraged to use ICT to support and communicate their learning. For example, students working individually or in groups can use computer technology to gain access to the websites of museums, galleries, archives, and heritage sites in Canada and around the world as well as to access digital atlases and other sources of information and data. They can also use cloud/online data storage and portable storage devices to store information, as well as technological devices, software, and online tools to organize and present the results of their investigations to their classmates and others.
Although the Internet is a powerful learning tool, there are potential risks attached to
its use. All students must be made aware of issues related to Internet privacy, safety, and responsible use, as well as of the potential for abuse of this technology, particularly when it is used to promote hatred.
ICT tools are also useful for teachers in their teaching practice, both for whole-class instruction and for the design of curriculum units that contain varied approaches to learning in order to meet diverse student needs. A number of digital resources to support learning are licensed through the ministry; they are listed at https://www.osapac.ca/dlr/.
SOME CONSIDERATIONS FOR PROGRAM PLANNING IN CANADIAN AND WORLD STUDIES
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