The Tectonic Plates of ICT are Shifting...or they should be anyway
An interesting article has appeared in the Guardian stating that a complete rethink is needed regarding the ICT curriculum, beginning with Primary School.
You know what? I couldnt agree more. I stopped following all National Curriculums a few years ago, teh level was so low and mostly irrelevant. The speed at which technology changes and the speed at which our children develop in this area means the curriculum needs to evolve or die. At the moment, it is in need of some serious resuscitation!
I could and should go into a lot more detail on this topic, and I probably will. But to puty it into its simplest form, the article says we need to concentrate more on programming skills. There are a multitude of online applications that allow us to manipulate, create, play. We accept these and take them for granted. But who is creating them? Why aren't we focusing on teaching our students how they can be the creators, the pioneers the inventors?
Check it out, its an interesting read.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Talking of code, I am creating a personal website and I was looking for a way to make it more funky and interactive. I was explaining this to a 6th Grad student (12 years old), and he started to email me examples of code using CSS Style Sheets and Webkit Animations. WOW! This is the type of student who would thrive on learning more in depth and code focused ICT material.
ReplyDeleteThis is an old article, but still emphasizes the point that the ICT Curriculum needs an overhaul.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00201864/harmful-ict-curriculum-set-to-be-dropped-this-september-to-make-way-for-rigorous-computer-science