Comments on: 35 under 35, and why IT at school needs to change http://www.katescomment.com/35-under-35/ Thoughts on British ICT, energy & environment, "Cloud", and security from Memset's MD Sun, 01 Aug 2010 20:24:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Jo http://www.katescomment.com/35-under-35/comment-page-1/#comment-657 Jo Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:10:00 +0000 http://www.katescomment.com/?p=169#comment-657 I learnt my I.T skills in the Army and I am pleased to say that 50% of the engineers where female! Although I now work for the UKs biggest retailer and I am the only female engineer in the my area of the company. I learnt my I.T skills in the Army and I am pleased to say that 50% of the engineers where female! Although I now work for the UKs biggest retailer and I am the only female engineer in the my area of the company.

]]> By: Kate Craig-Wood http://www.katescomment.com/35-under-35/comment-page-1/#comment-421 Kate Craig-Wood Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:18:21 +0000 http://www.katescomment.com/?p=169#comment-421 @Rikev it is good to hear that some schools are doing more, but many (especially state schools) are most certainly failing to deliver an adequate IT course. It is seen as a subject for "slightly dim" pupils, and most respected universities will not accept students onto IT-related courses if they only have an IT A-Level; they insist on maths. My partner's 15 year old son is currently doing IT GCSE at a state school in West Sussex. He, a bright & capable pupil, is being bored witless by the course which lacks any programming whatsoever. I reviewed his last piece of coursework; a laborious examination of how to Google for information - stuff the kids do in their sleep! @Rikev it is good to hear that some schools are doing more, but many (especially state schools) are most certainly failing to deliver an adequate IT course. It is seen as a subject for “slightly dim” pupils, and most respected universities will not accept students onto IT-related courses if they only have an IT A-Level; they insist on maths.

My partner’s 15 year old son is currently doing IT GCSE at a state school in West Sussex. He, a bright & capable pupil, is being bored witless by the course which lacks any programming whatsoever. I reviewed his last piece of coursework; a laborious examination of how to Google for information – stuff the kids do in their sleep!

]]> By: Rikev http://www.katescomment.com/35-under-35/comment-page-1/#comment-419 Rikev Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:10:19 +0000 http://www.katescomment.com/?p=169#comment-419 At the girl's school I work at, the kids do have to do databases, word processing and other office-based tasks as they are necessities. However, they also do web design and program their own games at both Key Stage 3 level and Key Stage 5. An online Virtual Learning Environment is also used to promote a web-based learning experience and next year, pupil information must be provided to parents through web-based methods. At lower levels such as Key Stage 3, the methods are simplified. Programming is learned in Scratch to make Flash-like applications while a VLE has tools to make basic web-pages quickly. As they progress to A-Level, they start digging into coding with DarkBASIC (based on C++) or making pages with Dreamweaver and Flash plus hardware-based units. There's lots of things out there for kids to do in IT in schools. They just complain about the boring bits they have to do as not all IT work is games and web pages. At the girl’s school I work at, the kids do have to do databases, word processing and other office-based tasks as they are necessities. However, they also do web design and program their own games at both Key Stage 3 level and Key Stage 5. An online Virtual Learning Environment is also used to promote a web-based learning experience and next year, pupil information must be provided to parents through web-based methods.

At lower levels such as Key Stage 3, the methods are simplified. Programming is learned in Scratch to make Flash-like applications while a VLE has tools to make basic web-pages quickly. As they progress to A-Level, they start digging into coding with DarkBASIC (based on C++) or making pages with Dreamweaver and Flash plus hardware-based units.

There’s lots of things out there for kids to do in IT in schools. They just complain about the boring bits they have to do as not all IT work is games and web pages.

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