Why do we teach people to read? Is it because we want them to be able to get a job?

Obviously they will be at a disadvantage if they can't read, but surely our reasons must be much broader than that. People need to read to access all the other learning, but even that isn't enough.

If you can read you have access to things that inform and things that give pleasure and the great thing is that you are free to choose. I gained that freedom by the time I was seven or eight.

So why has literacy and English gone down the route of making it such a chore? I meet so many children who can barely read. I meet so many children who say, "reading is boring." Not once in my life have I ever felt such a sentiment.

Why do we teach people ICT? Is it because we want them to be able to get a job?

Obviously they will be at a disadvantage if they can't use ICT, but surely our reasons must be much broader than that. People need ICT to access all the other learning, but even that isn't enough.

If you can use ICT you have access to things that inform and things that give pleasure and the great thing is that you are free to choose.

So why has ICT gone down the route of making it such a chore? I meet so many children who say, "ICT is boring." Not once in my life have I ever felt such a sentiment.

I don't think it's just ICT. The life has been sucked out of so much educational experience, but ICT is particularly bad because it doesn't seem to fit anywhere. One the walls of the year three class I was in yesterday there were fun posters, made by the children using pencil, paint and crayon about Henry VIII. In the same school, the posters about WWII made by year 5 are lifeless constructions of clip art, wordart and downloaded pictures. ICT has not added anything to the learning.

What is really frightening is that you see just the same poster styles in year 7 through 11. It's as if nobody stops to ask, "just what is it that makes an effective poster?" ICT in this instance is simply a vehicle to extend other skills and mostly it doesn't achieve that.

e.g. i've just done Unit 4 - design a multimedia product in powerpoint and could have easiliy done it in flash, but i am limited to what my department want me to teach.

I'm assuming this is key stage 4 and from what you are saying, there might be no new learning going on here,  just the old assembling of bits found elsewhere with some stock animation whether it's needed ot not. I don't understand why your department don't jump at the chance of you adding to their resources with a scheme using flash. Surely the value you add is value to the department and not just for yourself.

I ban word art after year 7, if they want a banner, they need to look at alternatives.

in this school, it's all about the pass rate, not the skill taught.

fortuneteller:

To promote IT courses with low standards could be an endorsement of a sink school IT department.

As you duck the questions from post 21 I repeat why are the standards higher on the diploma? what do they learn that is higher than OCR Nationals? Have you even compared the specs? Put some meat on the bones please....

I'll start you off, let's run with the most popular full option choice on OCR being the web design unit. Could you outline why the standards in the diploma are higher than those on the OCR course?

I fully admit that I have not read the spec for the diploma with regards to web design so I may well be wrong but somehow gut feeling tells me your course offers nothing beyond and above the standards laid down by OCR. Oh yes don't forget that I target all my kids at distinction criteria for this unit so don't draw comparisons to the pass criteria. Still that's the low standards that I endorse in my sink school department so will not be a problem for you.

fortuneteller:

So, you have a new year 10 starting ICT next September. What will you inflict on them?
A vocational course with no future which has got its assessment in a muddle that can only be sorted out by action that would fail vast numbers of candidates...

I will be teaching DiDA, because whilst some people may not choose to teach it (and that is clearly a personal choice), my students and my staff all enjoy the subject. I will not be selecting a course that looks startlingly dull and unmotivating. What I shall continue to do is teach my students a variety of ICT(?!) skills, including VB, javascript, photoshop, web design, spreadsheets, databases etc. etc. to as high a level as I choose, because the course allows me the flexibility to do this.

What I do not want to do is go back to (applied ICT anyone?) asking them to write a bunch of poxy reports about: (taken from http://www.diplomainfo.org.uk/documents/IT_Level_2_Principal_Learning_ammended.pdf)

• "Explained organisational structures and functions within a wide variety of
  organisations, showing how the structure is appropriate for each organisation." OR
• "Compared and contrasted the cultures, values and goals of organisations studied and how this impacts on the organisations in meeting their objectives"

Maybe the nationals and DiDA aren't perfect, but they are a damn site better than that load of old twaddle..

..hmm, hang on though...they could make a powerpoint about the stuff above...that sounds great..oh, and put clip arts in...YES!

fortuneteller:

There hasn't been any critcism of standards in the Principal Learning for the Diplomas.

erm that's because the course has not been running long enough to find out and the critcism of the OCR was of the pass grade levels not the distinction.

fortuneteller:

QED : there are differences in standards.

No QED: only one has had standards assessed so far

fortuneteller:

Feel free to do further research into this.

In other words you can not answer my questions because you have no working knowledge of the standards and can not put meat on the bones. As I said please justify why the standards of say the web design aspect of the diploma are higher than the OCR Nationals. You don't know do you.