Richard Sarson

Wimbledon

Grandfather

This is my grandson's view of ICT teaching in schools, aged 14:

"I no longer have IT lessons (thank heavens), as I was so turned off that I did not choose it as one of my GCSE options. However i have many close friends who do study it, and the course being taught would indeed seem to be inadequate. If one puts enough - the amount that might amount to a C/D grade in English, Maths or Science - effort into your IT course early on, say first half of year 10, and then did no work at all throughout the rest of year 10 and year 11, you could be awarded with a 'distinction' at the end of the course.
This just depends on how quickly you complete the set modules of work. These modules of work seem to consist of pretty meaningless bull****. For the most part they just use already embedded skills, rather than teaching new ones.
At seemingly every stage/task of the modular course, you have to give a visual account of your doings by compiling a folder of 'print screens'. These are essentially screenshots on Windows computers.
It is a running joke with me and a couple of friends that to get a 'merit' in IT one has to open Microsoft Excel, and to get a 'distinction' one has to take an Excel 'print screen'. Worryingly, this is not as far from the truth as one might think.
IT courses seem to test less a candidate’s skill (much less teach them new skills), but rather more a candidate’s patience and dedication to monotonous tasks. A participant in this course who had absolutely no skill at all, and learnt it all through the curriculum would end year 11 (and indeed year 13 if the AS/A2 course is similar) a mindless robot with basic skills and absolutely no imagination or initiative to speak of. Of course 99% of students today have exceptional IT skills compared with their forbears, and thus they are perfectly able to carry out these tasks. Candidates are not challenged, and thus lose long term interest in IT. They doss their way into a distinction, and then play online games in lessons."

If the teaching ain't right, don't waste money on kit.