[CS4HS] ICT as a subject - What , How? - or do we bother at all!

[Roland Gesthuizen]

I have been accepted to participate and contribute CS4HS Sydney, an event
at Sydney Uni that is running over the next two days. As I did for our last
CS4HS Melbourne event, I hope to get the thumbs up to share #CS4HS twitter
posts and work again on a similar Storify article. Here was my last one.
     http://storify.com/rgesthuizen/cs4hs-1

As ever, I invite your feedback and collaboration as I reach the cognitive
limit of my small brain.
     http://blog.media.mit.edu/2011/10/cognitive-limit-of-organizations.html

Following is an interesting message that I am sharing that was posted to
the QSITE community list. It is surprising to read how much traction this
is getting in the UK. Wondering when we will catch up.

Regards Roland

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ian Quartermaine <iquartermaine at aisq.qld.edu.au>
Date: 5 April 2012 16:40

These two articles out of the UK illustrate two separate issues for the
teaching of ICT as a science. I find my myself agreeing with both.* *I
believe students are leaving most Australian schools with less core ICT
understanding compared with 15 -20 years ago.

**

** **

*Article 1

*

*Why all our kids should be taught how to code*

There is a growing consensus that the way children in schools are being
taught information technology is in need of a radical overhaul. Here John
Naughton explains the problem and offers a manifesto for revolutionary
action.

****

*“….**The biggest justification for change is not economic but moral. It is
that if we don't act now we will be short-changing our children. They live
in a world that is shaped by physics, chemistry, biology and history, and
so we – rightly – want them to understand these things. But their world
will be also shaped and configured by networked computing and if they don't
have a deeper understanding of this stuff then they will effectively be
intellectually crippled. They will grow up as passive consumers of closed
devices and services, leading lives that are increasingly circumscribed by
technologies created by elites working for huge corporations such as
Google, Facebook and the like. We will, in effect, be breeding generations
of hamsters for the glittering wheels of cages built by Mark Zuckerberg and
his kind*.”****

** **

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/mar/31/why-kids-should-be-taught-code
****

* *

*Article 2*

* *

*Why ICT should still be taught in schools and a way to do it properly*

http://largerama.creativeblogs.net/2012/04/02/why-ict-should-still-be-taught-in-schools-and-a-way-to-do-it-properly/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
****

** **

Great article if just for the links provided in it.****

** **

Happy Easter ****

#end****

** **

*Ian Quartermaine***

*Project Officer (ICT)*

[image: Description: Description: Description: Logo]****

96 Warren Street Spring Hill QLD 4000
PO Box 957 SPRING HILL QLD  4004****

Email: iquartermaine at aisq.qld.edu.au
Website: www.aisq.qld.edu.au
Phone: (07) 3228 1550 Fax: (07) 3228 1575****

*Mobile: 0410426654*

** **

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