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.

There is a slightly patronising tone to the advice that irritated me. A Mr Docherty is quoted as saying : “First thing is don’t bother telling anybody else about your social life. Nobody is interested about your social life and it doesn’t help.”  and then he’s quoted as saying “Secondly, never make any comment about your work, about your employer, about teaching issues in general”.

Obviously as a teacher I’m aware that I need to be careful about what I do online – I’d never “friend” a pupil (or make contact in any other way) and I keep my privacy settings pretty much at the maximum. I’m aware that I need to ensure that I keep any dealings with pupils entirely professional, and I don’t particularly want my students knowing too much about me. As for not making comments about your employer, that advice hardly only applies to teachers – travel agents and police officers have been sacked for Facebook comments, but there can be a little too much paranoia. Surely it’s for my friends and family on Facebook to decide if I’m boring them.

But the thing that worries me the most is that I shouldn’t participate in general discussions about teaching issues. Surely as professionals we should be engaging with and discussing the issues. I hate to think what Mr Docherty would make of blogging.

For decades it seemed like each year was quicker than the last, life was accelerating away from me in a dull blur. The last few years though appear to have slammed the brakes on, I struggle to remember the beginning of 2011. Admittedly it could just be that my memory is going as I get older.

After the excitement of Ghana and the challenges of my PGCE and NQT years a pedestrian, gathering myself year was probably what I needed. Not that it has always been easy. I’m still struggling to work out how to teach (even if, and here I brag, Ofsted did describe my lesson as good). I still have too many lessons I despair of.

I’ve had good points, I used my holidays walking halfway across Wales and visited friends (and did I mention Ofsted liked my lesson?). OK, I didn’t mention the few days in Dublin but that would be dull. I’ve also explored my responses to my first ever involvement in industrial action. I’ve alluded to my on-going studies.

I’ve just got back from spending Christmas with my brother and his family in China. That’s one of the reasons I’ve not posted here for a while. It was really great to see the family.

While in China several of my brother’s colleagues asked me when I was going to switch to teaching in an international school (he’s the principal of an international school there). It is a tempting option, but one I may defer for a year or two if only to finish my Masters degree.

So I don’t think 2012 will see many major changes (except hopefully I’ll buy myself a house locally). I expect to still be trying to figure out this teaching lark, probably still in the same school, and if past experience is any indicator I’ll still be single.

The prospect of strikes was in the air when I was training, and was something I dreaded and wasn’t sure what I would do, after all I was hardly becoming a teacher for financial reasons – I could have gone back to being a programmer if it was money I was after. On the other hand I was being made promises about stable futures, and I’m hardly a hair-shirted hermit suited for an old age of poverty and my private sector pensions weren’t exactly promising a glorious lifestyle.

So I chose to make a life decision based on one set of promises. I was (partly) enticed from a louche life squandering a private sector salary for the prospect of a more meaningful existence followed by a better funded retirement.  Now those promises are being reneged on. I think I have a right to politely suggest that this isn’t right.

I don’t really understand the private sector workers complaining about our striking to protect our pensions when theirs are (apparently) so bad. I have two questions:

1. If we have it so much better why not do what I did and swap sides?
2. Does this really need to become a race to the bottom for us ordinary workers (private or public sector) while the executives’ salaries spiral upwards?

I still have misgivings about striking, and I know most teachers do too. It isn’t something any teacher does lightly.  We understand that sacrifices have to be made, and we have accepted a pay freeze and an effective cut to education spending. Personally I’m willing to accept some concessions on the issue of pensions, but I want to feel that the government is taking negotiations seriously; making offers at the table and not after negotiations have ended, not making stupid comments about 15 minute strikes and implying we are blindly following militant leaders rather than being able to make our own minds up.

The equation is R_n = R_n-1 x P x (1 – R_n-1)

With initial values of R₁ = 0.4 and P = 3.9

The blue line represents no rounding applied in Excel

The red line shows the result if R_n is rounded to 2 decimal places before being used for the next generation, while Green is rounded to 3 decimal places.

In excel cell C4 has the formula  “=ROUND(C3* $C$1 *(1-C3), 2)”

This is a classic (and very simple) feedback equation – It’s the population growth equation and can be used to predict the populations of animals. For quite a lot of initial conditions it gives very stable results. However for certain initial values the result appear to be random. Interestingly it explains the apparently random fluctuations of lemming populations as their reproduction rate (P) is one that gives a psuedo-random series.

Weather systems are archetypal feedback systems. The equations involved are more complex, but the principle remains.

What the graph above shows is that whilst initially the results for all three give very similar predictions within a few generations (perhaps days in weather reporting) they start diverging significantly very quickly. Remember, these are the same equations using the same starting conditions – the only difference is the level of rounding being applied.

Rounding errors are implicit in all measurement systems. and all digital calculations. The difference between the red and the green lines is just one decimal place of rounding.

Lorenz showed that the weather feedback systems are chaotic. My graphs demonstrate how small errors in a chaotic feedback equation results in massive divergences. Thus any attempt to accurately predict the weather in a few months time is simply guessing.

NB – this has no implications on the global warming debate.

Some lessons I’d just like to be noticed 

Names by thefatworm

Actually, I do remember quite a lot of the names of my students. Especially the naughty ones.

• Ian (M) Banks
• Terry Pratchett
• Douglas Coupland
• John LeCarre
• Neil Gaimen
• Jasper Fforde

There may be others and I don’t necessarily claim that all of these are literary greats, or that I’ve read every thing they’ve written, but they all constantly produce readable, interesting and often amusing books.

A rather worrying predominance of SciFi/Fantasy though. Not sure what it says about me.

Which is why I’m baffled by the elevation of Guido Fawkes to icon status by recent protestors. Guy Fawkes wanted to replace an emerging democracy with a religious dictatorship. Fawkes, and the anti-democratic, anti-rationalist mind-set he represents are the baddies. As much as I may disagree with decisions made by parliament I still believe it is the least worst way of achieving consent. And if you don’t like it get involved and change the decisions being made.

So remember, remember: Guy Fawkes was an intolerant religious terrorist.