Should schools have a tech-literacy course?

[mdwh]

As I was in schooling a mere two years ago I can tell you that IT in British schools is still in a terrible state. Most of my teachers were pretty much all 70 years old and former maths teachers just doing it because no one else wanted to do it. All we learnt for about 5 years of secondary school was powerpoint, word and excel. No real knowledge of computers was needed. I remember one of the quesions on the test was a picture of a desktop computer with a circle around the mouse and the caption "What is highlighted object?". It saddens me because IT is essential nowadays - I still look at my computer specs questioningly the only thing I understand is RAM..

Yeah, I can see that in practice is can be badly implemented, and I can see the argument that it's better to integrate it with other lessons, as was my experience.

OTOH one of my friends is an IT teacher by choice, so be careful of anecdotal evidence, it may be one of those things that varies in schools. In my school, lessons like drama were a bit of a poor state. Many schools are in a poor state regarding maths (especially at sixth form, e.g., no support for double maths).

I just find it odd the idea of not using or teaching about computers at all - as I say, even my primary school had computers in the 80s, I'd have thought they'd be a bit more commonplace now Not teaching about IT at all is not an improvement over a poor implementation.

 

[Zelig]

But what's so special about IT? I mean, if we decided that Math was more important than IT, which was sufficiently important to replace with at least some of the Art lessons, and by your reasoning we should therefore replace it with Maths, shouldn't we already be doing so?

Therefore, either:

IT is less important than all other subjects.

Or schools should teach nothing but maths.

False dichotomy.

Some subjects are less important than math, and I'd be happy to replace them with math.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

You mean like the "fine arts" credit we have to do at my school?

EDIT: Found the thingy for my school:

Spoiler :

Language, Communication and Expression
¾ 3 English Language Arts, one at each grade level
¾ 1 Fine Arts: Visual Art, Art, Drama, Music, Integrated Fine Arts, Dance or Musical Theatre

Science, Mathematics and Technology
¾ 2 Mathematics
¾ 2 Sciences: one from Biology, Chemistry, Science 10, or Physics, and one other approved Science course
¾ 2 Others from Mathematics, Science, or Technology: eligible technology courses include Communications
Technology 11; Multimedia 12, Construction Technology 10; Computing Programming Advanced 12; Data
Processing 12; Design 11; Electrotechnologies 11; Exploring Technology 10; Production Technology 11 and
12, Architectural Drafting and Design 12, Home Trades Technology 12, Film and Video Production 12,
Fashion Technology & Design 12, Math for the Workplace 12

Personal Development and Society
¾ 1 Physical Education credit (for students graduating in 2011)
¾ Note; students graduating in 2010 may use CLM 11and PAL 11 credits or a physical education credit
to satisfy graduation requirements.
¾ 1 Canadian History: Canadian History 11; African Canadian Studies 11; or Mi’kmaq Studies 10 are eligible
courses
¾ 1 Global Studies: Global Geography 12; Global History 12, or Global Economics 12

Within the 18 course requirements for a graduation diploma, no student may receive credit for two courses in the
same specific subject area at the same grade level. For example, successful completion of English 11 and English
Communications 11 will only count as one credit.

Wait, where did all those ¾ come from?

 

[Earthling]

CFC doesn't support a lot of fonts and symbols very well Aimee, for whatever fancy half-ampersand/half-dollar sign that character probably was.

But anyway, I have to agree with other posters here who say there are more important things to teach. Basic proficiency at typing or really basic skills might be something to be handled for half a year in middle school - it is important for people to know this but it's something so many learn already now and could probably test out of.

At any rate, one of my major concerns by far is that everything that would be taught in a "tech literacy" course to most students would be worthless, biased, or both. The last thing we need is more wars between Mac and Microsoft over which OS to be "taught." At the high school level, you of course can teach decent math, science, and computer science courses including the use of computers or other technology, but there doesn't seem much point for a general course or for younger kids.

 

[Steve2000]

The problem with a dedicated Computer Literacy/Computer Skills course is that if the skills are taught without context, students are not very likely to learn much.

Computer skills should be emphasized in the curriculum of core courses. For example, spreadsheets can be taught in Math or Science, word processing can be taught in English, Presentations and Movie editing could be applied to any course that has students giving oral presentations. You get the picture.

From a pedagogical perspective, students simply learn better when they understand the purpose for learning.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Today, I managed to catch up to the school technician (who's always running around), and he was mentioning to the multimedia teacher something about upgrading the hardware. And I asked if they were ever gonna upgrade XP, he says that he's not using Vista and that Windows 7 wasn't proven yet. Then I mention, maybe a current version of Linux? And apparently he was looking into that, the main problem would be to convince the school board, who I suppose have their prejudices.

I doubt I'll be around to see it though, as I'm due to graduate in June. Hopefully.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

The school board will likely not go through with it. Microsoft and Apple offer subsidies on hardware if you use their operating system. My middle school got their macs for about 50% of retail with their agreement, same for my high school, except it was with Microsoft. If they go with Linux, they dont pay a license for Windows or OSX, but in turn, the hardware becomes more expensive. Sadly, this is the reality in most schools.
That and students/teachers would rebel at having to learn a new OS. I know it sounds silly, but consider that the average student merely uses their computer, they have no idea how it works, and thus putting Linux in front of them would likely go over as well as telling them to read ancient Egyptian.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Well, it was in Multimedia class where it happened, because I'm ahead, I'm usually just up and walking around and helping other students. 'Cause I'm very familiar with most the programs they use. And the tech came in about fixing some broken computers and he said it'd probably be worth it just to upgrade. And that's where the discussion about the OS came in.

Another thing, I printed out 2-3 articles (one of them turned out to be 28 pages, but we have a laser printer) and left them with the Multimedia teacher for the tech. Cause he was coming back later to check out the broken computer. Or something. I remember hearing a bunch of stuff about disk images.

EDIT: Remembered wrong. He was coming back later to reinstall the teacher's computer. It was another computer that was broken.