Teaching GCSE ICT - retrain or unemployment

We are fast approaching the era of computer science in schools, time is running out for schools, planning is required.  The dilemma caused by government partly, by Mr Gove and some may blame Google for their input on the great British education syllabus!  The theory suggest that comments from Google suggested Britain's  technology sector is so far behind other countries, many people do not consider British workers for jobs and there is a lack of people to hire from here.  This all related back to the apparent source of our troubles, just like so many other world problems, it is down to education.  Our children have learnt the most trivial of skills, using the same packages that maybe used in the real world, but this does not cement them with employment opportunities.

My thoughts on the underlying tone from reading on the subject is that ICT is a easy choice for students, simple and boring option, just follow the steps and you will get your grade.  My other suggestion is that because its staged in this way we may have prevented scores of children and generations from receiving a heard start in life and working there way in to the I.T. world.  Are this age of the "net children" any more advanced than mine of the 80's, where we were taught word processing using non GUI packages during the very few opportunities we got on a computer (we had one IT suite). Maybe not comparable to modern day packages but with the intuitive displays and dashboard on software now, but now you are not required to think, you point and click.  At least during my time you had to know commands, remember keyboard shortcuts (mice were not used back then) and yes this was before the web was everywhere.  I should make it clear, these students are still only children, you cannot blame them for poor education, poor teaching or boring syllabuses, they only do as they are told (sometimes).

So what is the solution, that's what you want, a magic wand to sort the technology gap, to give Britain a fighting chance and help our GDP?  The web and internet is providing ever more job prospects each year, with the mobile phone being a large catalyst, but so many are on foreign soil (just look at the stats above -  courtesy of code.org).  The plan is therefore to change the syllabus and bring in computer science as an option, finally a positive step, sure it will take some years to see the fruition of change, but worth it?  After recently involving myself with a community of people looking at how this may happen I can now comment on the subject.  From my research it is apparent the changes are scaring teachers somewhat, a radical change to this new science causes issues not just logistically but how can you teach something without any trained people.  The issue is there is not enough people with the tech subject knowledge in the first place, so where are suddenly going to appear from to teach this to the next generation?  Interestingly enough I see options and I understand the teachers perspective but let's get this straight you need subject specialists, there is no point teaching something you don't know about or don't care for.  You are entering a specialist area, land of the geek but also the world of science, where logic is your friend, so of course Maths and reasoning come in to play.

I believe a shake up WILL happen (and mostly likely already happening) in the teaching world and those not willing to learn or re-train (bad expression) will be left in the ever increasing unemployed list.  The group I spoke to all seem keen to find a way to learn the skills necessary to teach, but we come to the problem, how do you train them and when, what is the cost, because they have to carry on with the current year assessments and be ready to teach a new syllabus from the next semester (possibly?)  Would it be reasonable to train someone to cover Computer Science during the summer periods away from school, as that would be a large uptake for any person.  This may also cause problems logistically because you would need trainers along and across the breadth of the country, covering each and every county or school - is this even feasible?  This is why i understand so many are looking now for options or interim measures (like short courses on python), thank god for people like Computing at Schools (CAS) and the British Computer Society for their involvement.  Though hand on heart there are plenty of sources from across the pond (Khan Academy and CodeAcademy have to be up there).  There are many ways to learn, but practise does help, I know a way, the CAS group do and are working on solutions.

One flip side of the pending changes could be a massive influx of new graduate teachers, people like myself who have gone through a recent computer science degree (note i am actually a school ICT technician), have energy, passion for the subject and love to pass on our knowledge, but also love learning.  Maybe a re-assessment of computing teachers is required and new faces/new blood but you cannot beat experience.  Experienced teachers now what is required of them, now how to delivery, how to cope with problems and the inequities of life and children, the graduate is only potential at this stage. My other avenue of thought lies with people in the ICT support roles within schools, these people are dedicated professionals, they learn to cope with the needs of their environment and usually have the passion.   Why not harness their subject knowledge, let their passion flow to the students, involve them in lessons, integrate real life computing and the associated problems to the delivery of teaching.  The web has shown how people can collaborate from any walk of life, let's take that metaphor in to schools and let staff actually collaborate more on teaching, stop being departments, help each other.

Today I expressed my ramblings to an aspiring handful of (coding) students, these were the words used - "we are all tools in life".  We (in ICT support) aid the teachers ability to teach, teachers are tools students use to learn, the computers are tools we help to simplify and ease our work.  They did understand this, though funnily suggested that they did not think there teacher would liked being called a tool!!  Of course i laughed, but my point was communicated, they understood because I explained myself in a simple and clear manner.  We discussed operating systems other than Windows, coding in general and Raspberry Pi's (please get one).  hat was impressive about this small set of students was that they actually learned something from me, I asked a simple question, they responded with a good answer.  The answer was valid but was factually flawed, so I explained why, they understood and contemplated the facts I had presented.  They then had the ability to judge what i said, for their selves and had chance to disprove me or request more information, subsequently they then asked if I was going to teach.  I think, therefore, I may have proved my point, maybe its the trade qualifications I have studied or the real world computing experience, the minutes spent reading bloggs, the many hours at university (coding in HTML/CSS/PHP & SQL), maybe this all combined together has highlighted my passion - learning!

Enjoy your learning and good luck with the new syllabus.............