Fewer Students Taking 'A' Level ICT as a Subject

[tech_guy]

Remember when Word for Windows 6 came on 45 floppy disks?

 

 

And I still have a set here.

[tech_guy]

Jean-Michel Jarre in May

 

Blimey is he still alive!?

[Sirbendy]

Remember when Word for Windows 6 came on 45 floppy disks?

 

Office 97 ditto. And always, sods law...disk 45 would generate a CRC fail, and that was the entire evening wasted.

 

I do believe I have 097s disks somewhere.

 

My "All Windows" DVDs are my favourite posession ever..very dubious, but it's every version of DOS, every version of Windows from 1 through to 2003 datacenter (latest at the time), every bolt-on (MS BOB, plus packs, etc etc), all in ISO or IMG format, all creatable from the GUI on the 2 DVD set.

 

I occasionally fire up NT4 for the crack of it. Even installed ME just to remind me why I skipped it.

[powdarrmonkey]

Blimey is he still alive!?

 

Yeh, he performed Oxygene on the original synthesisers last year, I kicked myself when I found out on the same evening and was already committed to something But May should be good, he's touring

[wesleyw]

I remember installing office on my old 486sx a lot of fun that was I remember my mate always had to beat me bought a CDROM (Single Speed) doubled the memory and even got a decent chip DX2 50 I think. Mine for some reason still played Comanche better than his lol.

 

The Intel's i486SX was a modified Intel 486DX microprocessor with its floating-point unit (FPU) disconnected. All early 486SX chips were actually i486DX chips with a defective FPU. If testing showed that the central processing unit was working but the FPU was defective, the FPU's power and bus connections were destroyed with a laser and the chip was sold cheaper as an SX; if the FPU worked it was sold as a DX.

 

So both jinnantonnix and myself were right

[tech_guy]

I also had a game called "Stunts" (at least I think it was called that). It was a 3D car game where you could loop-the-loop and jump over stuff. Anyone remember that?

 

Oh jeez I wasted half my life playing that game it was so addictive:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stunts_(video_game)

 

And then there was Stunt Car Racer:

 

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stunt_Car_Racer]Stunt Car Racer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

 

Geoff Crammond produced some ace driving games.

Edited March 5, 2009 by tech_guy

[garethEds]

I agree totally and I've taught Computing, ICT and am now teaching Applied ICT.

 

When I did my GCSE exam we wrote a database in BBC Basic that did file handling. It was brilliant at the time and what got me interested in coding (even though I was writing for the C64 at the time).

 

When we moved on to ALevel Computing we did Pascal - anyone remember Cambridge Pascal on the Acorn Archimedes? I used an A3000 - one of the first in our sixth form. I wrote some ARM Assembler and my parents bought me an A3010 (green keys). I still have it in the loft. I remember using the Acorn WIMP libraries for my Pascal project.

 

Now - GCSE is all about Office and demonstrating their skills in communcation/modelling and data handling. There is pressure to get the kids through and so you tend to take the easiest route and put it all on a plate. Step 1.... Step 2.... Step 3.... - some of the kids cannot follow that!

 

ALevel - It's just got easier and easier. When I did Computing we had a two year course and 2 x three hour exams at the end. Now it's all modular. Study 6 or so topics and then exam. Rubbish.

 

Two years ago I was asked to run ICT instead of Computing - so I fought for a while against it but eventually moved. Year 12 - Excel. Year 13 - Access with VBA.

 

Last year I was asked to change again to Applied ICT. Again teaching Excel and Access.

 

I'm bored moaning about it. ICT is a fantastic subject with so much out there to see and learn. The curriculum should be fluid with room for change.

 

I'm just not sure where to put the pressure to get it changed. Maybe this report will push that change.

 

Anyone got a link to the Ofsted report?

 

Gareth