Lesson Plan

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Lesson Plan
Grade: Date: 25/02/2026
Subject: Information Communication Technology ICT
Lesson Topic: Know and understand characteristics, uses, advantages and disadvantages of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) including automated number plate recognition (ANPR) systems
Learning Objective/s:
  • Describe the fundamental principles and characteristics of OCR technology.
  • Explain how OCR is applied in contexts such as document digitisation and ANPR.
  • Compare the advantages and disadvantages of OCR and ANPR systems.
  • Analyse the ethical and privacy considerations associated with OCR/ANPR use.
  • Apply basic OCR workflow steps to a sample image using available software.
Materials Needed:
  • Projector and screen
  • Computer with internet access
  • OCR demonstration software (e.g., Tesseract or online OCR tool)
  • Sample scanned documents and vehicle licence‑plate images
  • Worksheet with comparison table and reflection questions
  • Whiteboard and markers
 Introduction:
Begin with a short video of a traffic camera capturing a licence plate, then ask students how the system “reads” the characters. Connect this to prior learning about image processing and pattern recognition. Explain that by the end of the lesson they will be able to describe OCR fundamentals, evaluate its benefits and limits, and outline how ANPR builds on OCR.
Lesson Structure:
  1. Do‑now (5') – Students list everyday situations where text is automatically captured (e.g., receipts, passports) and share responses.
  2. Mini‑lecture (10') – Present OCR concepts, characteristics, and typical workflow using slides and the suggested diagram.
  3. Group activity (15') – Using OCR software, groups process a scanned page and a licence‑plate image, record accuracy and required pre‑processing.
  4. Guided discussion (10') – Compare OCR vs. ANPR advantages/disadvantages; complete the comparison table on the worksheet.
  5. Ethical debate (10') – Teams discuss privacy implications of ANPR and propose mitigation strategies.
  6. Check for understanding (5') – Quick quiz/exit ticket with three key questions.
Conclusion:
Summarise how OCR converts images into editable text and how ANPR extends this for vehicle identification, highlighting key strengths and challenges. Students complete an exit ticket stating one new insight and one lingering question. Assign homework to research a real‑world OCR application and prepare a short summary.