IT at schools? Any good?

[=XDC=FluphyBunny]

ICT / .... Even so with technology moving so fast it is very difficult to keep the curriculum up to date and relevant.....

Now that's an interesting point? The curriculum would have to be fluid and the IT teachers would have to continually learn new stuff!

I wonder where our computer wiz kids come from? Are they self taught or do they hang in their till uni/further ed. where I would hope the courses offer a wider range of development.

 

[petemyster]

I still regret choosing ICT for both GCSE and A-level. I'd always loved IT as a kid, mainly because of my love for computers.

Doing the ICT courses in high school was a huge mistake. Most of the course was office management with some database work chucked in. The database stuff was useful, but everything else was pants.

Most of it came down to memorizing pointless information and learning exam technique to pass, e.g.

GCSE: Health and Safety Laws (memorizing the name, date, and purpose of a crap-tonne of H&S legislation), questions like, "Name 5 advantages of open-plan office layouts" and "List the 5 advantages of in-house vs out-sourced software development".

A-Level: "Describe the difference between syntax and semantics.", "List 5 advantages and 5 disadvantages of fax machines".

Other than the practical database work we did at A-level, and listing the actual questions that we had to answer over and over, I remember nothing. I still wish I'd done music instead. The IT courses in British schools need a drastic restructure to help us keep ahead with the rest of the world. Basic programming skills (what I thought I'd be learning) should be mandatory...

Basically what he said. The ICT course at my school was a joke just like that, no use really. Unless the course covers basic programming or something (which quite a lot of schools do) then its generally not worth the time.

 

[NeoNemesis]

Now that's an interesting point? The curriculum would have to be fluid and the IT teachers would have to continually learn new stuff!

Obviously that would be ideal, but teachers just don't have the time to be constantly training.

I am an enterprise systems architect and it's hard enough for me to keep up to date whilst I am delivering projects!

 

[Bumhug]

When I did GCSE computing about 20 years ago the first year was intense. All binary and how cpu's work and at 14 it just went way over my head, we didnt even get to use a computer. 2nd year our classes were in the computer suite (acorn archimedes) and no kidding the teacher came in first lesson and said for our coursework we had to do a project on the computers, went over what documentation was required and then that was it we didnt see him for 6 months. Needless to say everyone in the class spent the next 6 months playing games and doing no work at all with a mad panic to get things done in the last week. No idea how i managed to get a C in it.

These days im a network manager at a high school, ICT is just training for working in an office. Been asked a few times how come a webpage looks ok in dreamweaver but when opened in a browser it doesnt work, I print off the HTML and try and explain to them that their tables are all a mess but just goes over their head.

I do envy the kids though, the amount of games on offer these days is far greater than when I was at school, only so much virus you can play

 

[ashrobbo]

Heres an odd experience of mine,

I actually used to work as the IT technician in my old high school.

I studied at the school from 2001-2005 left in year 12 (first year of sixth form) as there was an IT technician job which i got, so i started working at the school when my mates still had a year to go.

I didnt mind IT in school but it wasnt anything exciting, basic spreadsheets, letter writing blah blah blah, dull as anything.

But over my 3 years of working there the curriculum did pick up and the subject got more interesting due to the tech available to schools such as graphic design, exams went online, VLE's all sorts.

 

[tom_e]

Absolute rubbish at GCSE - worst subject I took, do not do it.

I told a guy I knew in the year below me this about doing it at A Level, he then for some reason decided to tell the 2 teachers that took my class that I said it.
That didn't get me in the good books

 

[The Dread Pirate]

Heh my old secondary schools IT infrastructure was shoddy at best I remember stealing the root password which the techs had up on a notice board in their office we had a nice Quake server for about 6 months before the techies found and killed it.

 

[mrbios]

I run a school IT network currently at the same school i was a student at, when i was a student we found out the admin password, would get onto the remote control software and annoy people etc it was great fun. I learnt more from the technician at the time than i ever did from my IT teacher though.

Now though it's very different, kids can't do sweet **** all without us knowing about it and are very restricted in what they can do, but the school offers programing and computer building classes to later years and 6th formers which the more IT keen students enjoy a lot more. We also have 6th form helpers most years and the past 2 years those 6th formers have gone straight in to work out of 6th form in a connected apprenticeship scheme which also pays for them to do a university course while they earn.

When i was here i was lucky that the tech was keen to teach the more interested (2 of us lol) students some more advanced stuff, today though there's a lot more to it than just office, databases and simple html websites.