Lesson Plan
Common utility programs
Teacher’s Notes
Time (min) Activity Further Notes
5 Spray table/tray and wipe it. Ask students why it is nec-
essary to do such cleaning at home.
Explain that keeping a computer running at its best re-
quires various ‘housekeeping’ tasks to be done regularly,
much like running a real home.
Explain that anti-virus software stops malicious virtual
organisms taking hold and destroying your data, just like
antibacterial spray kills real-life germs to stop them
making you ill.
Requires: Dirty tray/table, cloth,
antibacterial spray.
Elicit from students that anti-bacterial
surface spray kills germs and stops them
multiplying and making you ill.
15 Worksheet 1
Housekeeping real-life vs computer. Show worksheet
on screen (or give out sheets).
Discuss the sheet and what the consequences (in real
life and on the computer) would be of NOT performing
the housekeeping tasks shown on the sheet?
Students can now complete the activity in pairs.
Explain similar/different columns using
anti-virus, and that students should feel
free to add their own examples.
Differentiation: more able students could
have a sheet with the ‘home’ column
missing, to see if they can come up with
their own ideas.
5 Watch the set of videos.
5 Check students’ understanding of the videos by asking
for definitions of key terms such as:
• anti-virus
• firewall
• spywaredetection
• automaticupdating
• systemclean-uptools
• defragmenting
Antivirus software scans for malicious
files and then removes them from your
computer.
Firewalls act as a two way filter which is
based on a set of rules.
Spyware detection searches for and
removes malicious software which can
do things like display irritating advertising
messages or collect your personal data.
20 Remind students that defragmenters reorganize files so
that the files are put together, which frees up memory
space.
Interactive: Defragging game
(http://www.cambridgegcsecomputing.org/weblink17)
Show the game on an IWB. Point out that the physical
disk (coloured circle top left) is made up of tracks
(concentric circles) split into sectors.
Share the rules of the game. Run through this with
students to clarify – once students are aware of how it
works, they will be able to work quickly.
After the game, summarize what the defragmenter is
doing and why.
Teacher can use this opportunity to cir-
culate amongst the students and assess
their understanding; to support them if
they struggle and extend them if they are
of a higher ability.
Length 60 mins Specification Link 2.1.3/b
Learning objective Describe the purpose and use of common utility programs for computer security,
(anti-virus, spyware protection and firewalls), disk organisation (system information and
diagnosis, system clean-up tools, automatic updating)
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