On 27-Jun-03 MJ Ray wrote:
Contrast that with current computing and IT education. Some of it is actually independent of particular software, and necessarily so for markets where MS Office et al are not available in the language of instruction, but not yet in England.
If student or employer demand dictates -- rather than informs -- course provision, I think that is a disaster that will set us back years.
I couldn't agree more with the principle of this, and regrettably feel convinced that we are already seriously set back.
Once upon a time, all you had available on the computer was some general-purpose language (even BASIC!), and getting a job done on the machine involved understanding the task, learning the capabilities of the language, and creating a program which performed the task. People who came out of that stable could get things done! It was amazing what very many people -- in categories which nowadays would fall firmly into "computer-illiterate" -- could achieve under their own steam.
Nowadays, all you learn is that for Task A you use Software X (because you can, though you're led to believe that you have to), and by the way you're awfully confused about all these icons so this is what you have to click on.
Nevertheless, as a result of the whole history of educational "progress" over the last decade or so, colleges are now obsessed with filling their student places; and this is driven by the less savoury aspects of "Quality Control" and "Assessment Exercises". If they don't get students, they don't get money, and they're in trouble.
This snake eats its own tail, as you can imagine.
Ted.
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