towards a new ICT curriculum in UK

Hello,

last week the FSFE edu-team participated in a public consultation regarding 
the ICT curriculum in the UK. A blog post can be found here: 
http://blogs.fsfe.org/riepernet/?p=149

For your convenience, i'll quote the submission below.

Question: Do you agree that schools should be encouraged to deliver a more 
challenging, rigorous, discipline-related curriculum in ICT, especially by 
focusing on the foundational principles and practices of computer science?

Answer: Yes, we do. Computing provides a degree of systematic thinking that 
allows a proper understanding of what has become a fundamental aspect of 
modern life. It is not sufficient to train students in particular office software, 
schools should be encouraged to focus on the foundational principles and 
practices of computer science. Students should be empowered to understand how 
computers work, so they would be able to utilize ICT for operating or even 
creating yet unknown systems and software. A short example should be sufficient 
to underline the importance of education over training: Sir Timothy John 
Berners-Lee, because of having gained knowledge of computers as such, was able 
to develop new applications to aid his work as a fellow at the CERN. 1989 he 
combined various pieces of Free Software with his hypertext idea and by doing 
so laid the foundation of the World Wide Web.
Especially important is the inclusion of Free Software as a concept and a tool 
within the ICT curriculum. Due to its openness and freedom to study, modify 
and share the source code, Free Software is the cornerstone of a future-proof 
and sustainable ICT education. That freedom stimulates the students to learn 
from systems designed by others and by adapting these to the students needs 
and interests. This might lead to the creation of something new.

Question: How can schools be best supported to engage with the ICT industry 
and subject associations in curriculum development, in order to develop 
innovative and creative approaches to ICT teaching, including the teaching of 
computer science?

Answer: To a great extent, Free Software services are also offered by small and 
medium enterprises. Looking at how other European countries support their 
schools, the Austrian example is quite interesting: The ministry of Education 
of Austria offers a financial incentive for using Free Software and Open 
Document Formats. Schools therefore contract regional businesses and by that 
they don’t just support regional companies, but they also improve the 
availability of high skill ICT jobs, boosting the attractiveness of the region 
in general.
Best practices in other European countries also include the cooperation with 
Non Governmental Organisations and associations specialized in the integration 
of Free Software in ICT education, such as the Free Software Foundation Europe 
or FRISK (Skolelinux), as well as many groups with a regional focus.
Schools can be best supported by offering incentives (e.g. financial) for 
avoiding vendor lock-ins, proprietary systems and file formats. Providing 
infrastructure for communication and sharing of best practices, e.g. in the 
form of an annual conference, while at the same time empowering schools to 
freely make use of regional expertise is essential for a sustainable approach 
to ICT education.

Question: Do you have any other comments you would like to make about the 
proposals in this consultation document?

Answer: As demanded by employers, it is necessary to give students real 
computing skills. Instead of being taught proprietary software “directions for 
use”, young employees need the capability to adapt to any software. The 
important key skill in ICT is the understanding of concepts underlying a whole 
category or type of software (such as a spreadsheet or a word-processor), not 
merely how to use a particular application. Consequently, they should get 
unrestricted access to the source code, which is the case for Free Software. 
Free Software enables and empowers interested students to go one step further: 
instead of just using the software, they are enabled to modify or adapt it to 
their own needs, thus improving the applications they use or develop.
In Education, means are more limited than in other sectors, because they have 
to be employed on a large scale. As clearly stated in the Ofsted report, p. 47 
(136), it is more relevant to pay grey matter (e.g. help for projects 
conception, personal and educational training) or extra devices than to pay 
proprietary licences. Also, Free Software is particularly performing and gives 
increased perennity to hardware as it allows a longer use of old (and cheap) 
hardware. Together with the absence of licence charges schools are able to 
offer Free Software based ICT education instead of simple ICT training.
Free Software allows schools to set a better example and teach children to 
share and cooperate and thus join a whole community that shares knowledge. 
Free Software can be copied free of charge, therefore what a child can learn 
is not limited by the parents financial resources. With a cheap computer and an 
interest in programming, students can interact with developers from all over 
the world and contribute to Free Software. The well known ‘Google Summer of 
Code’ connects experienced Free Software mentors with young talents. This does 
not only demonstrate the students programming skills to future employers, but 
also the soft skills which the student acquired by working in international 
teams. Knowledge is universal, Free Software too.


kind regards

Thomas Jensch
edu-team coordinator

-- 
http://fsfe.org | http://fellowship.fsfe.org
Your donation powers our work!   (http://fsfe.org/donate)

Free Software Foundation Europe e.V. is a German Verein registered at the 
Registergericht Hamburg (VR 17030). Its president is Karsten Gerloff.

_______________________________________________
European "Free Software in Education" mailing list

https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-eu

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.17 (GNU/Linux)

iJwEAAECAAYFAk+KsboACgkQ5Qfc314T5MdxtAQA1EVg5uBL+z8m9kZHIB1T8bp+
cBethWzL+MEKxNoVj8Pz60AoRGY07hUbh++hUhuhnsgydtDU8WCDcpBxz2qWXCQM
MqW/mU127ME178LpJTwnWgcQZy8bM87igRpnWVIdPjldGzU7FXi9fjhjWW+gOzsG
1yKlsCvPvStxH+gbQis=
=mGgv
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----