Gove plans ICT overhaul in schools

Michael Gove has announced an overhaul of ICT teaching in schools.

He obviously doesn’t understand ICT does he.

There are basically 3 aspects to ICT

1. Hardware/connectivity

2. Applications development

3. Applications training/use

In my experience (over 25 years) in IT I have gleaned that most people know just enough about applications to do their job. Most IT training in schools covers this aspect but even now we get the majority of people e in work barely know the rudiments of using their IT. WE have become accustomed to setting educational standards required to be competent in a job, e.g. Minimum 5 GCSEs including English and Maths. I wholeheartedly agree that there should be an IT GCSE as a minimum standard. Currently we have the e ECDL, if only this was the minimum, it would be a huge step forward.

Now regarding the other 2. How many people have passed their Driving Test and can get from A to B without understanding the laws of Thermodynamics that power their engine? Yes – its not necessary, unless you are a car designer. Thus we have the dilemma what exactly is IT and how do we wan to teach it. The teachers must have the knowledge.

Programming and development. From my experience schoolchildren cannot be taught this but what they can be taught is maths/science and logical thinking.

Let me illustrate.

Do you know what an IP address is? Does 10.211.5.7 mean anything to you? How does your computer know how to connect to the Website when you type in www.website.com – it could be anywhere in the world!

10.211.5.7 is an IP address (Internet Protocol). The number is unique to a device (in the world) and consists of Decimal numbers representing Binary Octets. 255=11111111 in Binary. 256(dec)=100000000 (in Binary). Computers work in Binary which represents on/off. You may have heard of 8, 16 or 64bit systems. What is a Megabyte of RAM? Hence you see Mathematics is key to understanding this. How to work in number bases.

Behind the computer on your desk there are a vast army of people all over the world (and many in your business) controlling how these systems all hang together and ensuring that you can access your bank account online, watch your TV programme or simply get the loaf of bread to your corner shop. IT is behind all this. But its not Microsoft Excel that does it, or anything you’ve probably seen on your PC. I know because I do it. How can schools teach this? Simply they can’t. But they can teach logical thinking, Boolean Algebra, set theory, understanding statistics, databases etc.

Bottom line the best education is good old Mathematics and science for the 21st Century but the kids need a good ability to read, write and do arithmetic.