Fixing the Comp Sci teaching shortage

[PiqueABoo]

Dunno if it will work.

Graduates to be offered £20,000 to train as computer science teachers

The education secretary, Michael Gove, announced on Friday that current information and communications technology teacher training courses will be axed from next year. Instead, ministers will offer scholarships worth £20,000 to attract high-achieving graduates to train as computer science teachers.
..
The government also announced that about 500 existing teachers with an ICT background would receive training to teach computer science.

This bit is a complete fail though:

Gove: "If we want our country to produce the next Sir Tim Berners-Lee – creator of the internet"

[CAM]

£20,000 to learn how to use MS Office?

[tmcd35]

The government also announced that about 500 existing teachers with an ICT background would receive training to teach computer science. [/I]

Or retrain the countries 1 existing ICT teacher 500 times?

This bit is a complete fail though:

Gove: "If we want our country to produce the next Sir Tim Berners-Lee – creator of the internet"

The Beeb said the same thing at the Olympics opening ceremony, which really wound me up then. Thankfully, the ceremony itself did feature Tim sat in front of a NeXT Cube which redeemed the BBC Internet invention gaff.

[tmcd35]

Graduates to be offered £20,000 to train as computer science teachers

Warning: Don't click the link! - That picture'll give me nightmares for weeks!

[Davit2005]

£20,000 to learn how to use MS Office?

Add, and how to use Facebook


Quote "Graduates are to be offered £20,000 scholarships to train as computer science teachers in an initiative launched by the government and backed by companies including Microsoft and Facebook"

[mdrabble]

The government also announced that about 500 existing teachers with an ICT background would receive training to teach computer science.

What I want to know is when do we get the time and training to support these newly qualified Computer Science Teachers???

[AngryTechnician]

Microsoft I'm not so concerned about, but Facebook is the last company I would want anywhere near schools. Their seminar at the e-safety Live conference earlier this year was ample demonstration they have no clue what they are doing when it comes to dealing with children and schools.

[PiqueABoo]

The DfE press release says: "set up with BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT and supported by industry experts such as Microsoft, Facebook, BT and IBM."

[ The CAS computing curriculum had endorsements from BCS, Microsoft, Google and Intellect (some industry group)]

[alan-d]

It could work if done properly, however it wouldn't mean a thing if schools are not given the financial support to ensure that the IT infrastructure is up to the task of ensuring a good quality learning environment AND the safety of the students and integrity of the network.

We all know that unless the school has the means to provide closed workshops, virtual PCs and\or secure VLANs the current 'make do with whatever we can get our hands on' systems that are in place at some schools, will not be up to the job which would just leave us where we are already.

As they say, you can lead a plumber to water but if he doesn't have the tools for the job then he is just a labourer.

OK I made that last bit up