[ubuntu-uk] BBC Click

[J Fernyhough]

On 6 June 2011 17:57, Paul Tansom <paul at aptanet.com> wrote:
> I don't know how many people watch Click on the BBC News channel, but I thought
> I'd note that they had a piece on the Raspberry Pi on the last one (over the
> weekend), with a mention of Ubuntu as part of a piece on the lack of decent IT
> education in schools and the need to do it better - i.e. programming and more
> in depth knowledge rather than just how to use MS Office.
>
> It is available online at http://bbc.co.uk/click and for the moment is the top
> item.
>

Great sentiment, never going to happen.

Firstly, the vast majority of teachers don't have the skills of
knowledge to be able to teach anything other than office skills - and
even then most can't even do that properly! For example, you'll be
hard pressed to find an ICT teacher who has a science, engineering or
computing background - most are business or management, or even PE.
When one particular example won't touch on image editing (despite it
being in the scheme of work) because they'd have to learn how to use
Photoshop Elements what hope is there of getting them to do any sort
of programming?

Secondly, the majority of children don't care about how a computer
works (any more than they care how a car works) - they just want to
use it. Granted, there are always some who do, and there are always
extra-curricular clubs and GCSE and A-level Computing for them.
However, the same children who are interested in how a computer works
also tend to be those who take Maths and Sciences at A-level;
Computing doesn't have the same appeal.

Essentially, it comes down to the fact that teaching difficult stuff
is difficult, and most teachers aren't up to it. To teach it in an
interesting and engaging way is difficult, and to keep up with the
pace of change relies on them having an interest in the topic, and
again, most don't. The number of teachers who can do it, and are
interested in it, are outnumbered and out-gunned.

Jonathon