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List:       suse-linux-uk-schools
Subject:    Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] The changing face of ICT
From:       "'Frank Shute'" <frank () esperance-linux ! co ! uk>
Date:       2002-02-05 20:17:27
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On Tue, Feb 05, 2002 at 08:08:21AM -0000, Bruce Miller wrote:

> Firstly,I thought it was time that the now misnomer of 'Plans for Linux
> distro' came to to stop and was re-named.

Agreed.

> 
> I don't intend to answer every single point of what Ian says other to say
> that in general, I agree. I also agree with a lot of what Frank is saying
> too.
> 
> What I don't agree with is this harsh way in we are talking about future
> members of our society. Frank cited his sitting AEB instead of Oxford maths.
> If if teachers hadn't been wise to this situation, all those years ago, then
> Frank could then have been condemded to the 'scrap heap' perhaps?

I was condemned to the `scrap heap'! I tried to go on and do A level
maths & I was completely lost - I couldn't even solve a simple
quadratic equation. So the teachers by getting me to sit an easy paper
had given me an illusion that I was some kind of maths whizz & would
have no problems studying pure maths at A level.

The result was that I wasted a year doing A levels for which I hadn't
been properly prepared. I quit after a year because I knew there
wasn't a hope in hell that I'd pass maths and then found I couldn't get a
job - high unemployment at the time & by then I was essentially classified
as a failure because I couldn't hack my A's. 

No you could say `well the stupid teachers should have got you to do
an easy maths paper at A level'. Well yes & I would then have gone
onto university under the illusion that I was some kind of boffin &
failed there instead. But the fact is that I would have been better
off going to do something at college instead.

Wouldn't it have all been a lot less pain for all involved if
they'd made me sit the standard `O' level in the first place & let me
fail & understand my true ability at maths instead of trying to
patronise me? 

The result was that I as good as dropped out for 10 yrs doing odd-jobs
(nurse, postman, labourer amongst others) before I decided that if I
was going to get anywhere then I needed to be educated.

I did an Access course in engineering & I had a wonderful maths
teacher & with her encouragement I realised I truly did have an
ability at maths, it just had never been stretched & I'd been
metaphorically thrown into the deep-end of maths at A level after just
having learnt how to paddle at the very shallow end of AEB maths.

Anyway I went on to do HND mech/man engineering (everybody should
study engineering IMHO for a good all-round education) and I'm now
doing an Hons in math sci & comp.

The moral of the story is don't bullshit & pamper your students,
they'll learn at there own pace if they want to learn - and certainly
don't do it in order to fulfill a bogus government target.

At 17 I didn't want to learn about maths - I wanted to learn about
doing drugs & women & having a good time but I was led astray by the
well-intentioned.

> 
> There are a lot of new technologies in the world and lots of new study areas
> these days as a result.
> 
> We have seemed very polarised in discussions on programming. Should there be
> RAD or should there not? This seems to the hub of the argument. In my view
> their should be RAD and the discipline of top down structured programming is
> too restrictive to creativty and not fast enough for a modern world. We just
> need RAD that is more robust.

RAD will never be robust because most of the users are unfamiliar with
fundamental concepts of software design. It allows the developer to
skim over these important concepts in order to allow quick
development. But if you're writing a critical piece of software or
large piece of software then your resulting flawed approach to software
development will result in instability, poor design, poor scaling,
poor usability, poor maintainability and every other software sin you
can shake a stick at.

> 
> There seems to be an obsession with with maths and programming as the only
> solution to ICT training as well. I have twenty students all wanting to do
> an A'level in multimedia, web design, Flash, 3d max, cinema and games
> design. The head is on my back to come up with the goods. Universities are
> now offering courses in this but I can't find an A'level syllabus because of
> this obsession. Maths and programming has it's place but computing is about
> more than just this, these days.

Multimedia? The term itself is ephemerous and just a buzzword IMO, so
you can't study something that you can't nail down.

Web design? They need to understand html, TCP/IP, client and server
side programming, graphical design using software like the Gimp and
usability.

Flash? It stinks and is for film maker wannabes. Send them to film
school to do something worthwhile instead - porno perhaps ;)

3d Max.? Ditto.

Cinema? Study propaganda & they can make a mint in Hollywood pitching
& making the next `American Hero Saves the World' film. 

Games design? Art/Film school & nothing to do with computers per se.
Unless they want to program games in which case they have to be a
seriously good programmer with good mathematical ability - you need
the maths to evaluate algorithms in real-time systems. You can't build
bloatware for games platforms.

Anyway, tell the head to get of your back. Most of the stuff isn't
covered by your remit and devising an ICT curriculum to meet all that
stuff certainly isn't.

> 
> About time the GNU site had a graphical revamp too. (IMHO)

Nothing wrong with it IMHO - it's functional which is more than can be
said for any number of other sites. Google being my favourite site.

-- 

 Frank 

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-- "Visionaries" cartoon

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