linuxgirlie wrote:Don't start, I once had to help my partner mark ICT mock exams and we had around 5 pupils who wrote there whole exam that way.
Nordle I take offence at your facts I'm 21 on June the 1st and pretty sure I haven't got poor or awful skills (or should that be skillz)

But I don't know you, so that doesn't count

Maybe I just hang around with stupid people to make myself appear more clever than I really am

quy wrote some of these quotes, but I can't be arsed to keep using the quote brackets, if theres an easier way please let me know wrote:
>>did anybody check you out at primary school?
Guy cm'on, I was the travolter of our primary school, ie a tendancy to walk funny and violently point
>>At a personal level, the kind of brain that is imaginative and good at 3D is more likely to be bad at spelling and maths, despite being every bit as intelligent. Such a brain needs a very different teaching regime
Ahh, I think, although I didn't write it, that Im agreeing with you, or maybe we are just agreeing on certain points. In that I got the feeling for a few years that vast sums of cash was spent on PC's, but for no reason other than "its technological advancement, so it must be good". Teaching should educate yes, but it should also (hopefully) inspire kids, now if your saying that PC's can be used in addition to the basics, not 100% stick a kid infront of a CRT, not really as a PC in the office sense of the word, but more as a visual tool which gets kids engaged and creative, I can see real value in that for Primary school kids. A bit like the modern version of creative arts type lessons, you know, coloured papers glitter glue etc etc just without the mess, and yet they still get used to the input devices at the same time.
For some bizarre reason I had images of slave driving these 4-8yr olds infront of word getting them to type stuff (which of course it can, but not just limited to that).
>>>The problem is that computers help you to learn how to use computers, but thats about it...
It is sooo depressing to see you say that. We fought so hard to move on to fun, instructive educational software (and gadgets like my Joypad) that would integrate the virtues of IT into the everyday curriculum. Computers can be used to teach so much more than just IT.
Its clear that you KNOW what your talking about, and I don't. I think Im trying to say that I get a concern that PC's could be used as a clinical passifier, that they end up taking over from teachers, dumbing down kids rather than engaging them, and be used in a VERY dull and boring way.
I think Im begining to see that that is NOT what your saying is happening and I've totally missunderstoof the role of ICT in primary education classrooms.
>>>Schools got dragged into the expensive support/upgrade cycle by he who must not be named, and they just lost the plot. I mean, what French teacher in their right mind would prefer expensive and buggy Windows software to UK developed text books? What Head of IT has time in between reboots and printer outages to find and install decent Physics software for the kids to play, er, I mean learn on?
EXACTLY, thats the stage I remember at middle school, cutting back on teachers jobs to install a new IT infrastructure that nobody knew how to use and, christ it was so boring, there seemed a total lack of imagination. It was only at secondary school that we could see people producing art on a PC, scanning photos we'd taken in and using PSP and some weird effects, spending a similar amount of time and effort as on a more traditional canvas etc. In science we were doing basic robotics with lego and old BBC's, , it made logic gates interesting which is no easy task. In history, instead of just reading out of a text book, we used the doomsday system (yet more BBC's) to get more local information, then field trips to actually visit these places. In all areas it was used a complementary device, I think that worked well.
Crap, your right that its depressing that I've become extremely narrow minded over the last few years, I've got to get a new job
Perhaps not an teacher in ICT though
