Presentation: Tweet"How to rescue our kids: fixing the ICT crisis at school"
Computing is one of the richest, most exciting disciplines on the planet, yet any teenager will tell you that ICT (as it is called in school - "information and communication technology") is focused entirely on the use and application of computers, and in practice covers nothing about how computers work, nor programming, nor anything of the discipline of computer science. Over the last two decades, computing at school has drifted from writing adventure games on the BBC micro to writing business plans in Excel.
This is bad for our young people's education, and it is bad for our economy.
It is also quite fixable, but the inherent inertia in the educational system requires a clear message and case for change, from the classroom right up to the Secretary of State. After years of drift, a great deal has happened in 2012, so the iron is now really, really hot. Having a decent education system in IT and computer science is important. If we leave it to someone else, they'll screw it up. We have to roll up our sleeves, and now is the time to do it.
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