[Year 12 IT Apps] IT field

[Michael Walker]

>didnt know IT was sexy!

I didn't say it was or wasn't, it's just not perceived as sexy!

FWIW I personally think that IT is as sexy as you make it. There are plenty of news stories around about how IT can make a difference in people's lives (one in today's Age about how human rights activists use IT skills to promote human rights and freedom of expression), or how IT professionals make lots more money than teachers... :)

>For those interested...WA needs maths teachers big time and apparently so does NSW...(perhaps the pay might have something to do with why Vic teachers are supposedly moving over the border? or so they say...).

Something about living in an outback WA mining town that doesn't do much for me at any price... must have been from studying "Wake In Fright" in year 11...

>Hey, as a promo...perhaps someone can INFORM the careers teachers that IT graduates and specialists get a bloody good wage!  Then who cares if it aint sexy!!!

I don't think IT wages are exactly a secret. I think the real issue there might be the hangover from the dot com crash that there was a glut of IT jobs for a short period of time and the perception (that word again!) from the crash that IT jobs are unstable whereas nothing could be further from the truth. It would also be interesting to see what careers teachers consider IT jobs to be - I wonder if there is a perception amongst some of them that secretarial / PA type jobs are IT jobs because they use a computer as a significant tool in that job? Merely a thought - I have no empirical evidence either way, but it might explain why some students get pushed into IT that might be better off doing business type subjects.

I still think IT can be sexy given the broad spectrum of things it covers from design to helping others to making shed loads of cash. I suspect we can be our own worst enemy there in presenting IT as being repetitive exercises in Word or Excel in the middle years when the reality of IT is very different. I guess it depends on whether those responsible for curriculum in your school see ICT as teaching Office software packages for potential use in other subjects (ie replacing decorated poster illustrations with Powerpoint slides for oral presentations), or whether they see IT as a field in it's own right.

(grabbing tin hat and heading for shelter)
Michael Walker.



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