On Jan 11th Michael Gove (the UK Education Secretary) addressed the BETT conference to announce his vision of the future of ICT in schools. I’ve been meaning to read it and respond since then, but have been too busy to do it justice. I still am, but if I don’t respond soon it will be too late.
Agreeing with the destination
Firstly, at the risk of sounding controversial, I broadly agree with his vision and some of his analysis. He describes a world in which IT is used across the curriculum – he mentions examples including 3D imaging being used in biology to demonstrate how the heart works. He criticises boring lessons with an overemphasis on Word, excel and above all PowerPoint – and I tend to agree with him.
I like his vision of an education system where the use and acquisition of IT skills are embedded in other subjects; spread sheets and databases are ubiquitous outside the classroom, they should be inside the classroom. Collecting, evaluating and presenting information are humanities skills and would be better taught in history or geography.
IT is a design subject, and should be allowed to be. Students should learn about how computers operate, and how to use them to solve problems.
Finally Mr Gove announced that he may be scrapping the ICT curriculum in September, describing the new situation as “open source”. Whilst I like the idea of freedom I’m about suspicious about what this will actually mean in reality, especially in the context of 16+ exams and Ofsted inspections.
A working example I’ve seen
My younger brother is the secondary and middle school principal in an international school in China. In his school every child carries a laptop to every lesson, all school work is submitted electronically and IT is part of the design department along with food tech and materials tech (woodwork etc.). In line with Mr Gove’s vision spread sheets are taught as part of maths and science, and other subjects teach other tools. It is a policy which seems to have been very successful, with results rocketing.
But how do we get there?
Saying that, I do have a few reservations. Not necessarily with Gove’s final destination, but how we get there. My worries are resourcing, skills, making sure key items don’t fall through the gaps and making sure we teach technology for all students, not just the geeks.
1. Resources
In the private school my brother is responsible for the budget per pupil is about twice that of the state funded academy school I teach in. Plus the parent population are wealthy enough to be expected to buy their children a laptop.
To make embedding of IT into the broader curriculum a reality students will need access to a computer in almost every lesson rather than just specific ICT lessons. In my school non specialist teachers need to compete to book time in the few available IT rooms, making it a special lesson for students to use computers outside of IT. Taking skills teaching out of specialised ICT lessons is impossible until that situation is remedied.
2. Skills
There are issues both inside and outside ICT departments. Many ICT teachers trained in other subjects (often business studies) and have no experience of programming. Repeated Ofsted reports on ICT in schools have identified the shortage of programming and database skills amongst ICT teachers. If Mr Gove wants programming to be taught in schools he needs to say what he is doing to recruit more teachers capable of teaching it (and to retain them).
It seems unfair to expect teachers in other subjects to suddenly become proficient in the use of IT systems that they may have never used themselves, especially if they became teachers straight from college. There needs to investment in training existing teachers.
If we remove basic skills teaching from one subject area without making sure that there are sufficient teachers capable of teaching them elsewhere, and that they have the resources they need to teach those skills we will fail our students.
3. Minding the gaps
There are important aspects of the current ICT curriculum that don’t fit neatly anywhere else.
Things have changed radically since a few geeks used BBC micros to write simple programs (the nirvana being cited). A few examples of things children now need to learn about include:
- The dangers of the internet
- How to be a responsible “netizen”
- Intellectual property
- And other, wider, social aspects of the technology revolution
Of course these can be fitted into other subjects (e.g. RE or Citizenship) but it is vital that they are taught and if no-one is explicitly responsible then there is a danger that they’ll be lost.
4. Tech for all
Much of the hoop-la around Gove’s speech has included current IT professionals reminiscing about how well IT was taught was 25 years ago. I got Computer Science O’level and went on to be programmer. But there were 2 BBC computers in a school with 1,800 students. My experience was far from universal. I teach a lot of students (of all ability levels) who have no interest in computers except as tools and toys. The IT curriculum needs to acknowledge and accommodate them too, and somewhere we need to make sure they get the skills they’ll need.
Beware of Geeks bearing gifts
Much of the debate around the computers in schools has been driven by the IT industry, either Google’s Schmidt or the computer games industry but the majority of students won’t end up as programmers. They will however end up as consumers of technology and the vast majority will use IT as key parts of their job. We have a responsibility to those students as well as to a small but important UK industry.
To achieve Mr Gove’s aims will take resources, vision and coordination. Simply stating a goal isn’t enough, a leader needs to provide a realistic way of achieving the goal. I don’t think Mr Gove has done that.
In responding to legitimate criticism we must make sure that babies aren’t thrown out with the bath water.
Posted by Tim L 
I never intended it to become a habit, it seemed like a good idea the 
I love bonfire night (never, ever, Guy Fawkes Night where I’m from). I love the incipient anarchy of my home town, 
