Broadening ICT Horizons: Navigation of Expanded Text

Abstract

In response to a Government directive about the level of computing competencies required for beginning teachers to gain employment in Australian government schools, the BEd (Primary) program at UNE was reviewed to ensure that computing competencies were covered across all of the compulsory preservice teacher education units. Further investigation revealed that central to the successful integration of ICTs was the need to adopt an expanded notion of 'text' to include not only traditional print-based media but also electronic media. As part of the pre-service unit, Reading in the Primary Curriculum, students were asked to navigate two kinds of electronic media (CDROM and WWW) and then to construct representations of the material that would help to direct school-aged students in their usage when extracting information. Discussion in this paper includes a number of issues which challenged the students during the investigation and the style and quality of the representations produced. Some implications for teaching follow the conclusions drawn from this investigation.