News Gove bemoans UK technology education at BETT

When it comes to GCSE options, there needs to be more tranparency. I took Applied ICT back at GCSE level, and it was more a study of how a business uses ICT than a development of any skillset.
I hope that there's someone out there figuring out a good compromise between hard computational skills and the soft skills that are applicable to any use of computers.

 

I had the grave misfortune to have to teach applied ICT for a year. It is possibly the worst course out there. It is designed for teachers who actually know very little about ICT in practice. Funnily enough, it was in a school that typified what Gove was talking about with boring lessons teaching kids how to draw a picture of Homer Simpson by shading cells in Excel and copying out of text books. It didn't go down too well when I wanted to bin the old photocopies and start in on new work with the kids.

 

yes you can but for a lot of people it is to confusing as they dont know what the parts do and why they are important so they cant make the decision which one best suits them so they simply dont bother or get confused when trying. it took me 2 years to understand how i would go about building a computer because i didnt know what each part did and why it was important and i found a lot of conflicting information and some things just had to much detail for a beginner. finding a document is much simpler.

a lot of people i know still dont know what the difference between memory and a hard drive are and some even paid to have their pc installed in their homes for them because they dont know what plugs go where and didnt want to risk breaking it.

all i mean is they should be taught what the parts do so they can understand whats happening and not be scared to take a look inside for themselves. maybe its changed since i was at school but my friends kids who went to my school recently dont know either. i understand not all schools are the same but they should at least teach them some basics in every school.

 

I do actually mostly agree with you but it isn't an essential piece of knowledge for everyone in much the same way as knowing how to service a car isn't.

Whether we like it or not, most people are happy to buy stuff and replace stuff. That isn't ICT's fault, but a wider societal issue that I think will change as people have less and less disposable income. I'm a techy person myself and am happy to impart my knowledge but not everyone is the same.

What really rankles about this whole issue is the broad sweeping generalisations about ICT teaching and teachers without actually looking at what we do or what we would like to do.

Do I see programming as an essential skill for secondary school? No.
Do I see PC repair, building and maintenance as esential? No.
Why not? They are niche skills in the same way as gardening, motor mechanics or medcial sciences. If you are interested, then great. get a good education pre 16 and then specialise when you know what you want to do.

However, I do take opportunities to do some html and PC compnent stuff with my classes.

As I've said previously, I see my role as to develop students into "discerning users of ICT" who will apply their knowledge and understanding to their learning and life in general.

 

Like using capital letters at the start of sentences.

 

I want to applaud this but since the entire government no nothing about ICT and Computing, I have little faith in anything he say. I mean come on, this is one of the people that allowed the DEA to go through!

 

interesting topic

ICT in most schools is just basic Word and spread sheets maybe powerpoint, to keep them happy

the school i whent to was not the best school in the world (seems more like it was an last chance school to me), i ended up there as i did not fit in what i would call normal schools, to sum all that up i had Asperger syndrome (about 2 years into last school was diagnosed), so computers is what i was good at

I used to Fix the school computers at my last school as an student with 1 level from full access (basicly had admin access), 15 years ago

other thing i did that seemed pointless to me, the hardware coarse i went on i could of done in 30 mins still it was fun 2 dead pcs and one of them went up in smoke, AT pc not ATX at the time, on board VGA connector was offset so when powered on, some how it burnt out the board who knew (then again i have killed 3-4 motherboards in in the last 3 years, OC+no active VRM cooling = fail )

only thing i am not good at is Writing still, (Pen paper that is, cant spell simple words sometimes but can do complicated ones)

 

I don't want to have a pop at other people nedlessly, but they base everyone's experience of ICT in schools on their own. Not everyone had poor ICT, just like not everyone has poor teachers in general.

There are many excellent ICT, vast numbers of good ones and some poor ones, just like in any other sector.