Yours is not an unusual view. ICT, however, probably has more relevance to English than to any other subject area. Read on.

I know some teachers use ICT to create worksheets, but how are they using ICT in the classroom?

A computer bought recently enables you to talk to people across the world, watch videos on your computer via the internet without having to download them, edit images, record and edit sound, and synthesise sound. You can even talk to the computer and see your words produced as text. You can paint, draw and produce fonts.

You can obtain free practically any text produced before 1900. You can link pages and ideas across the world. You can publish your work for the world. You can collaborate in real time with someone thousands of miles away. You can store books, music, videos and sounds.

What is the biggest benefit to an English teacher like me?

The most powerful thing for English teachers is to explore the editing process. All writers know that editing text is crucial, and anyone involved in film-making knows that editing consumes more time than actual filming. Yet for many students the first draft is the final draft. Editing, for many, only becomes feasible with a computer.

So where do I start?

Everyone who has access to a computer has a tool that can make possible the most sophisticated editing of text. ICT can alter the way that we construct work through outlining, mind mapping and through linking ideas. It alters the relationship between writer and reader. It redefines the concept of publishing and audience when what our students write can reach a vast international audience. Email, telephone conferencing and video conferencing opens out the classroom. One excellent piece of kit is an interactive whiteboard. Two others are a digital camera and a DVD player.

What is an interactive whiteboard?

The interactive whiteboard is rapidly becoming the high-tech blackboard of the 21st century. It is a large board at the front of the class on to which you can project what is on your computer screen. It means that you can use one computer with a whole class. A high-quality projector displays the computer image on to the whiteboard which has a sensor system to allow you to use a pointer - or even your finger - in the same way that you use a computer mouse.

Teaching text editing where everyone can see the how the words can be manipulated is particularly satisfying. Page design can be experimented with, and everything that you write can be saved and prepared pages can be called up. You can also use the whiteboard to show a video or a DVD. At present it is an expensive piece of equipment but, used well, it is the easiest way to transform a classroom. The two websites below offer a good selection.

www.promethean.co.ukhome.htm www.bullet-point.co.uk What is a digital camera?

It is a camera that stores the pictures as computer files inside the camera, not on film. You can take the disk from the camera and put it straight into a computer. No complex leads and downloading routines. Bliss. Every picture does tell a story. Now you and your pupils can illustrate a poem or story with an image: use images to stimulate creative work; tell a story in imges and experiment with changing the meaning of an image by cropping it.

One good make of digital camera is the Sony Mavica. There are various models and prices, and all are good performers.

www.sony.co.uk Is a DVD player better than a video player?

It is easier to find your way round a DVD disk and cut to different scenes in an instant. Try locating a particular sequence on video tape! When studying Romeo and Juliet, for instance, you can easily compare Tybalt’s death in Zefferelli’s film with Baz Luhrmann’s version. Many disks have additional soundtracks, commentaries from directors and critics - wonderful for study of the media.

The best thing is that you can pick and choose with pin-point accuracy the sequences so that you rather than the film’s director are in charge of the material you use with your group.

Richer Sounds offers a good, cheap selection.

www.richersounds.com How does ICT benefit exam prospects?

Research! Research is altered because of the availability of so much information, so many texts, so many archives. We can take texts on similar themes, summarise and synthesise them. We can explore the best ways of constructing searches. We can explore the growth of texts by saving and storing each draft, freeze framing the process as it proceeds. All that will help improve standards.