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New computing curriculum welcomed by IT industry

by Mark Tyson on 18 September 2013, 14:33

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Last year the government admitted that ICT (information and communications technology) teaching in English schools was terrible. However educators and computer scientists have been working to fix it and a new national curriculum for computing was recently published. Following the new curriculum publication it has been welcomed by BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, with “its full backing” reports ComputerWorld.

Creation vs Usage

Many children found the old ICT curriculum boring. I know this from my two children who studied ICT at high school recently. Also Ian Livingstone CBE, chair of the Next Gen Skills campaign and Eidos life president, offered the same sentiment to ComputerWorld. In the last few years ICT studies have been focussed on computer literacy and using computers to do the kinds of computing tasks required in regular office and administration support roles, such as using the Microsoft Office suite. However this wasn’t the right approach - “ICT is not computing... we've wasted generations of people who can't code,” protested Livingstone.

The new computing course still includes a core of digital literacy and the use of popular productivity programs but goes much further in trying to cultivate “future creators and inventors of technology and maybe future technology entrepreneurs,” says Bill Mitchell, director of BCS Academy of Computing. Mitchell explains “The new curriculum is a step change that focuses on computational thinking whilst still embodying the most important aspects of digital literacy, which everyone needs to live effectively in our digital society.”

Exciting

The new computing curriculum is said to be “rigorous, relevant and exciting”. Most children nowadays are already confident at using computers so it is argued that the digital economy will benefit much more from a “more developed” curriculum including the fundamental principles of computer science, logic and computer coding.

Key aims

The new national curriculum for computing aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation
  • can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems
  • can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems
  • are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology

The full list of subject content and goals through key stages 1 to 4 is listed within the official publication here.

Do HEXUS readers with experience or knowledge of the present ICT curriculum see the new curriculum as a positive change?



HEXUS Forums :: 15 Comments

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As a mainly disinterested observer, (my kids are undergoing the already much changed Scottish high school system), the thing that strikes me is that this is more-or-less what many out side of academia have been asking for for years. According to them (these interested parties) UK education has focussed for too long on making sure kids could fire up Word (to write CV's?), and do Powerpoint slides - which is a pretty narrowly focused view of “IT”. No real attempt to get kids interested in the guts of their PC's (the kind of thing that I guess most Hexus readers know well) nor non-Microsoft OS's or applications. The only real exception to that being the Raspberry Pi, which seems to have been more of a success in the hobbyist community than schools.

As to the BCS “endorsement” of this new curriculum - my reaction is “meh”. Unless someone's going to correct me, BCS has always struck me as a pretty blinkered, academic-focussed group. Given the notable increase (well anything more than zero has GOT to be a notable increase) in focus on programming I would have been more impressed if a more relevant body - like the Institution of Analysts and Programmers - had given their blessing to the new subject list. And I'll take issue on that score with the headline - the BCS doesn't represent the IT industry afaik.

Question to the Hexus admins, why is “Powerpoint” okay, but the plural (“Powerpoint” with an added “s”) updated to “Powe*******” - or have they been in too many bad presentations and now regard mulltiple P'points as a swear word? :P
BCS is on the engineering council, and so can award a charter, your final destination of technical education in this country after getting a degree. So yes they can be a bit stuffy (hence I am in the ieee instead) but they do have quite a lot of relevance.

Edit to add: A quote from the IET would have worked too, but they are more hardware side so probably not the best to get a quote from.
Oh Powe*******!
We'll have a look at the filter. Edit: Powerpoints

On topic, the new curriculum is definitely a step in the right direction. In secondary school, the exam boards will dictate what pupils learn about, so I hope they don't end up making it as boring as it is now. I was so bored, taking screenshots of spreadsheets over and over again. I hope the teachers are up to it, I've had some really thick ICT teachers.
NOTE: I am not an admin or a member of hexus staff, so this isn't an official answer, but:

Appears to be some kind of vouchers/discounts website - could be a default block in the forum software or a company that has previously tried to advertise on hexus without going through the proper channels…?