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Section 6 ICT and Health Education The national guidelines for ICT 5-14 make the point that ICT skills are most effectively developed when set in context. Pupils should be given opportunities to apply and develop their ICT capability through the use of ICT tools to support their learning in health education. They should be given opportunities to support their work by being taught to: find things out from a variety of sources, selecting and synthesising the information to meet their needs and developing an ability to question its accuracy, bias and plausibility develop their ideas using ICT tools to amend and refine their work and enhance its quality and accuracy exchange and share information, both directly and through electronic media review, modify and evaluate their work, reflecting critically on its quality as it progresses. Equally, health education can be enhanced by the use of ICT. Research findings on health issues are published regularly and it is important that schools and pupils keep up to date with relevant health issues. ICT and the use of the World Wide Web can allow this to happen. It is also important that pupils can obtain information on health issues in ways that are safe, secure and allow due privacy. Safeguards are needed to ensure access is denied to inappropriate websites and material and to ensure that material, which may require to be followed through, can in a supportive context be suited to the maturity and health needs of the individual. All seven strands of ICT are potentially relevant to health education. However, those with the most immediate relevance are: collecting and analysing, for example about health services in the local area searching and researching, for example gathering data on drugs controlling and modelling, for example in a project on health risks in the local area creating and presenting, for example the causes and management of social and environmental conditions in respect of health issues. It is important that, in planning for ICT learning opportunities in health education, the opportunities created are realistic, straightforward and allow the simultaneous development of health studies and ICT skills and knowledge. [RETURN TO 5-14 ONLINE] [BACK] [INDEX] [NEXT]