Kids in Ireland are learning IT skills despite our education system instead of because of it.
They learn at home or in a friend's house.
This is an appalling state of affairs. One which perpetuates a digital divide based on parental income instead of a meritocracy.
If this is allowed continue, what hope for the country and its current economic boom?
Richard Young
· 2 years ago
Nail/head. And since we're politicking...
I find it utterly incredible that we (UK) are going to spend an extra £28bn upgrading a strategic nuclear deterrent that, on past form, has a 25% availability rate and is *impossible to use*. Sorry, just the latest example of idiocy by this government that has been seduced by the idea of military activity as a proof of its fitness to govern, rather than its legacy to future generations domestically.
However, a quick glimmer of hope: it's young people who are at the cutting edge of Web 2.0 (although I'm still not *entirely* sure what that means). In terms of sharing knowledge and information they're streets ahead of most mature people - hell, look at MySpace. Although a lot more could be done in a formal educational context, I'm sure the mobile phone companies here and elsewhere praise the heavens for the blessing that is teen culture.
Final point: it's important that ICT doesn't become the sole focus. Churning out Windows Vista-capable school-leavers (gosh, what a Pandora's box...) is one thing, but confident, articulate, well-read, curious, polite young people are probably more important than ones who've sat through a pivot table tutorial aged 15. How they're enabled by technology can almost be an afterthought. Plenty of businesses see a return on training in systems, but if educators and parents are not providing people who have enquiring minds and communication skills, companies are neither going to want to employ them in the first place, and they sure as hell aren't going to be easy to train.
David Terrar
· 2 years ago
Hi Den, You mentioned me because of the rant I had on this the other day. You've touched a nerve. With India and China having the ability to churn out skilled graduates at 20% of the cost of UK or US, which still undercuts the Irish market, then we are all in trouble. Our education system is broken. It's teaching the wrong skills for the new information age that we are in. The ingredients that we need to be innovative are just not taught in our schools. Some are catching up with good technology, but in general, the kids are ahead of the teachers when it comes to web 2.0.
I completely support your idea of some sort of inititiative to try to get adoption of these tools in schools. I'd be happy to be one of the volunteers.
These comments are only the edited highlights... I'll be writing my own blog post about this later today.
David Terrar
· 2 years ago
Hi Den, As trailed in the previous comment, my own Education rant blog post is here. I'll be writing more over this topic in coming weeks.
All Comments
Kids in Ireland are learning IT skills despite our education system instead of because of it.
They learn at home or in a friend's house.
This is an appalling state of affairs. One which perpetuates a digital divide based on parental income instead of a meritocracy.
If this is allowed continue, what hope for the country and its current economic boom?
I find it utterly incredible that we (UK) are going to spend an extra £28bn upgrading a strategic nuclear deterrent that, on past form, has a 25% availability rate and is *impossible to use*. Sorry, just the latest example of idiocy by this government that has been seduced by the idea of military activity as a proof of its fitness to govern, rather than its legacy to future generations domestically.
However, a quick glimmer of hope: it's young people who are at the cutting edge of Web 2.0 (although I'm still not *entirely* sure what that means). In terms of sharing knowledge and information they're streets ahead of most mature people - hell, look at MySpace. Although a lot more could be done in a formal educational context, I'm sure the mobile phone companies here and elsewhere praise the heavens for the blessing that is teen culture.
Final point: it's important that ICT doesn't become the sole focus. Churning out Windows Vista-capable school-leavers (gosh, what a Pandora's box...) is one thing, but confident, articulate, well-read, curious, polite young people are probably more important than ones who've sat through a pivot table tutorial aged 15. How they're enabled by technology can almost be an afterthought. Plenty of businesses see a return on training in systems, but if educators and parents are not providing people who have enquiring minds and communication skills, companies are neither going to want to employ them in the first place, and they sure as hell aren't going to be easy to train.
You mentioned me because of the rant I had on this the other day. You've touched a nerve. With India and China having the ability to churn out skilled graduates at 20% of the cost of UK or US, which still undercuts the Irish market, then we are all in trouble. Our education system is broken. It's teaching the wrong skills for the new information age that we are in. The ingredients that we need to be innovative are just not taught in our schools. Some are catching up with good technology, but in general, the kids are ahead of the teachers when it comes to web 2.0.
I completely support your idea of some sort of inititiative to try to get adoption of these tools in schools. I'd be happy to be one of the volunteers.
These comments are only the edited highlights... I'll be writing my own blog post about this later today.
As trailed in the previous comment, my own Education rant blog post is here. I'll be writing more over this topic in coming weeks.