tech_guy Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 This isn't so suprising is it considering how boring we've made the subject - this what we've all been saying for so long: BBC NEWS | Education | Computer lessons 'lagging behind'
pooley Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 As you said its not surprising. I reckon a bright Year 6 kid could pass GCSE IT
tech_guy Posted March 3, 2009 Author Posted March 3, 2009 Wasn't there a 9 year old who did GCSE ICT last year?
tech_guy Posted March 3, 2009 Author Posted March 3, 2009 [Nostalgia Trip] When I was doing my 'A' Levels back in the stone-age (early eighties), ICT was unheard of and computer studies had only just come in as a subject although it was largely paper based. Students could compile code by writing it out and send it away to be run on a real computer! I couldn't do it at my school as it wasn't on the curriculum and it only had a single BBC B computer which was fiercely guarded by the science department who had purchased it. They did however allow us to write our own programs during lunchtimes and test them on the BBC Micro. Happy days! I still have my Sinclair machines on which I taught myself BASIC. [/Nostalgia Trip End]
webman Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 The "fun" has gone out of it - especially when they're taught to make websites with frames (what year is this?) Or Powerpoint.
TechMonkey Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 Especially as A level ICT is really a glorified business studies course. I made the mistake of going for that one.
silver Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 My son was asked to do AS level ICT early, in year 11 rather than GCSE - he loves computers and hated the course as it was almost entirely about Excel. He dropped it as soon as he could so instead of having an A grade GCSE, he has an E grade AS Terrible course
powdarrmonkey Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 There is a common misconception that A-level ICT == A-level Computing, and it really really doesn't (yes, I got bitten by that one too).
somabc Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 (edited) Hmm we had BBC Model B's but this was in the mid 1990's If I were an ICT Pupil asked to make a Powerpoint presentation I would bring this in for the teacher. Stop Killing Students With PowerPoint Death by PowerPoint Edited March 3, 2009 by somabc 1
Sirbendy Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 Me and the missus were debating this as we fell asleep. We've got a new tech, who's 17. Good lad, but he couldn't ID a "discrete" audio card versus an onboard... It occured to me that he's probably grown up on integrated kit - not ones with the seperate expansion boards etc. We (me and NM) were also reminiscing about BBCs, CP/M, mainframes, reel-to-reel tapes, 386s and the coming of the almighty DX, early pentiums, amiga workbench, monkey island etc yesterday..he looked lost. His idea of "retro windows" is Win2k.. I've a good mind to VM 2.03, 3.0, 3.1, NT4, and OS/2 if I can find that, and say "right. THIS is retro. Now configure me a CDROM driver in DOS." Might also see if I can find a 286/386 and say "build it up, get it running, install DOS and windows 3.x, lets see if you can..". I like the lad, I do, but...for all of his "Xenos academy" training, he seems remarkably lacking in some of the basics. heh. It's true though - the courses are dumbed down. We had 3 girls in the office asking US for advice on the configuration module, and it was news to them that PCs don't "see" the GUI, but talk in 1's and 0's, and are just at heart a mass collection of switches that are going on and off millions of times a second. It took a lot of explaining. Ditto refresh rates for monitors. I said "Do your TVs flicker?" "no.". "Hmm. OK. These lights...they're turning on and off roughly 60 times a second or so..that's similar to what an old style monitor/TV does." They didn't believe me, so I got out a digicam and said "look through that". They can put things in, but have no understanding of the underlying principes and systems. How many still confuse "hard drive", or "cpu" with "base unit"? Too many. It's a crying shame...they seem to find the underlying reasons and tech quite fascinating! Same with "web page design"..Frontpage or Studio. Then they look at me like I'm mad for doing it in notepad! CLI? They're lost. Even changing the GUI loses them..they're NOT learning, they're just copying someone else. 1
powdarrmonkey Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 They can put things in, but have no understanding of the underlying principes and systems. ... It's a crying shame...they seem to find the underlying reasons and tech quite fascinating! I concur wholeheartedly (I was the kid that took his toys apart to find out why they worked how they did...)
tech_guy Posted March 3, 2009 Author Posted March 3, 2009 I concur wholeheartedly (I was the kid that took his toys apart to find out why they worked how they did...) Lol me too - and the telephone, the tv, the radio - drove my parents mad. Always put them back together though and they worked.
webman Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 I did the same too. Sometimes they didn't work though
matt40k Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 Always got it working, how long it took and how many spare parts tho I done Business Studies which had IT tacked on. Would never have IT on it's own, unless you want to: > do it earily > after school as an extra > Have a good snooze mid-year > Google for 50mins out of an hr lesson
bizzel Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 I took A level ICT because computing wasn't available at my school and I needed some sort of IT qualification. We spent the first year learning Excel and the second doing VBA macros in Access. Possibly the most boring subject imaginable, it's no surprise to me that nobody wants to take it.
gibbo_ap Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 Or Powerpoint. Ouch...! has a teacher nagging me for a while to set up an area for ASDAN student to put there site on when complete, did all this yday, went show them what to do, turns out they had just done power point presentations ..... i felt like crying!!! ps they were 10mb files too!!!
gibbo_ap Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 I took A level ICT because computing wasn't available at my school and I needed some sort of IT qualification. We spent the first year learning Excel and the second doing VBA macros in Access. Possibly the most boring subject imaginable, it's no surprise to me that nobody wants to take it. same tho i selected do computing tho wen i arrived and was handed my timetable it read ICT, apparently computing had being dropped, the next year was spent doing excel and access. if i had know i would have gone straight to a different college....like i did the next year!
matt40k Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 has a teacher nagging me for a while to set up an area for ASDAN student to put there site on when complete, did all this yday, went show them what to do, turns out they had just done power point presentations ..... i felt like crying!!! ps they were 10mb files too!!! Did I burn your servers hdd as it was saving? One reason to upgrade to vista... mspaint compresses by default!!
webman Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 It's clear that the internet needs a new .ppt top-level domain
Dos_Box Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 I remember doing my Computer Studies course in the early 80's. Programming in BASIC, and really learning about how computers worked and functioned, partly because there were no office suites back then, and partly because even though there were word processors and spreadsheets the course didn't expect us to learn them because they were just software like all other programs. Computers can be fun and interesting in an educational environment. Just not in the way the UK curriculum goes about things!
chrisredfield93 Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 Well I did an double A level year and half ago we did a few extra courses on the side too - was way too much had a double EE at the end which I dont think that looks good but what I know lol. but these are the units in the latest propectus, I think there has been changes or they have selected diffrent units (because i do know that computer artwork wasnt there). But the software we used was MSWord,MSAcess,MSFrontpage,MSPowerpoint,MS Publisher. For Programming we used VB6, Flash MX 2004 and Dreamweaver) Yr 1 Unit 1 ICT & Society Set assignment - externally marked Unit 2 ICT & Organisations Internally Assessed Unit 3 Data Handling Internally Assessed Unit 4 ICT Solutions Internally Assessed Unit 6 Computer Artwork Internally Assessed Unit 7 Creating a Website Internally Assessed Yr 2 Unit 8 Project Management Internally Assessed Unit 9 Software Development Set assignment - externally marked Unit 10 Advanced Spreadsheet Design Set Assignment – externally marked Unit 11 Communications & Networks Internally Assessed Unit 13 Systems Analysis Internally Assessed Unit 14 Interactive Multimedia Internally Assessed
matt40k Posted March 3, 2009 Posted March 3, 2009 Still don't get why they are teaching VB6... no one uses it, it's all .net (2005\2008\2010). Ok, similar. Before anyone says about the cost of software, express is free!
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