[ubuntu-uk] (Marketing) Royal Society asks you - why IT is boring?

[Jacob Mansfield]

apparently A lever IT is better, I'll find out in a year

On 26 August 2010 12:48, Paul Tansom <paul at aptanet.com> wrote:

> ** Matt Sturdy <matt.sturdy at gmail.com> [2010-08-26 09:50]:
> > On 26 August 2010 09:37, Matthew Daubney <matt at daubers.co.uk> wrote:
> <snip>
> > > My experience of GCSE IT was that it was "This is Microsoft Word, write
> > > a 2 page document including a table, a graphic and a footnote." which
> is
> > > _not_ what IT should be about. I lost _huge_ amounts of marks in one
> > > part because the project was "Create 4 linked webpages in Microsoft
> > > Front Page blah blah blah" which would have been a nightmare for any
> > > sane person to maintain, so I wrote it in PHP with a SQL backend and
> > > none of the markers understood it :(
> > >
> > > IT should be more about computers less about office work!
> > >
> > > -Matt Daubney
> >
> > I attended an excellent school for GCSE/A-Level and had a very similar
> > experience, and consequently had absolutely no interest in computing
> until
> > after I had finished my degree.  The thing that got me hooked was problem
> > solving.  Having an issue, researching it, and then fixing it is one of
> the
> > most satisfying things for me, and I guess for a lot of you guys too.
> >  Furthermore it teaches you to take any problem (even problems IRL!), and
> > break it down into manageable, logical steps, and I think that's a great
> > skill to foster.
> >
> > I don't know, so I'm asking... Is there any time given to this in the
> > current GCSE syllabus?  In my mind teaching kids an attitude and approach
> > towards solving a problem is what should be concentrated on.
> >
> > I think it could be difficult to assess and grade students on, and that
> is
> > something that would need to be considered... and I guess there are
> plenty
> > of other issues too, but I think it would be an excellent place to start.
> >
> > Matt
> ** end quote [Matt Sturdy]
>
> From what I've seen of current IT lessons (mainly from sitting at the back
> of a
> classroom working on the school server!!) it seems to be more the computer
> side
> of Business Studies than anything to do with the computers themselves. I
> mentioned Alan Turing to an IT teacher once and they didn't bat an eyelid
> that
> it was a name they'd heard or should have heard!
>
> Mind you, there must have been a fairly short period of proper IT
> education.
> Back when I was doing Computer Studies (as it was called) O Level - none of
> this new fangled GCSE stuff ;) - the teachers were learning only about a
> week
> ahead of what they were teaching. There were a couple of us in the class
> that
> knew far more on the practical side of things (not so much the history) and
> kept being roped in to help out since we'd done the work and they couldn't
> provide anything more because they hadn't learnt it yet! The fact that
> initially we only had one CBM Pet, and by the time I left that thad only
> grown
> to 2 CBM Pets and 3 BBC Micros (2 Mod A and one Mod B iirc) didn't help
> much,
> although coding on paper first did add some discipline. Thankfully they
> were
> pretty short programs, although my project failed to compile because I
> couldn't
> load it as the same time as the compiler in my 48k Spectrum - not that it
> needed to thankfully.
>
> I often say that if it wasn't for Linux I would no longer have any interest
> in
> computers. There's a massive amount of potential in education to make use
> of
> the flexibility and openness of Linux.
>
> --
> Paul Tansom | Aptanet Ltd. | http://www.aptanet.com/ | 023 9238 0001
> ======================================================================
> Sponsor me in the Moonlit Memories Walk for Rowans Hospice
> A 12 mile walk along Southsea seafront starting midnight 19th June
> Visit: http://www.justgiving.com/MoonlitTansom2010
> ======================================================================
> Registered in England  |  Company No: 4905028  |  Registered Office:
> Crawford House, Hambledon Road, Denmead, Waterlooville, Hants, PO7 6NU
>
> --
> ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-uk/attachments/20100826/f3297eb4/attachment-0001.htm