30 Apr 2009
The government will today confirm that IT skills are to be given equal importance as reading, writing and numeracy in primary schools as part of a comprehensive curriculum overhaul.
The moves will be recommended in a review of the current system by Sir Jim Rose to be published later today which is expected to be endorsed by schools secretary Ed Balls.
Online tools such as Google earth and social networking sites will feature more prominently in classes to avoid the creation of a "digital underclass" of people who can not get jobs because they do not have basic technology skills.
Leaked versions of the report were criticised by opposition parties for over-emphasising technology at the expense of basic skills.
Stephen Crowne, chief executive of Becta, the government agency for technology in learning, said IT would not be taught at the expense of more traditional skills.
“The traditional core skills of reading and writing must always remain at the heart of primary teaching, but we must also recognise that there is a wealth of technology available today which, when used effectively and imaginatively, can complement the traditional skills and aid teaching," he said.
When will the government wake up to the fact that the internet requires being able to read and understand what is there. Also it needs numeracy skills to be able to interpret the numbers thrown at you.
The internet also requires keyboard skills and again a certain level of development. Will we end up with children who can only talk in a form of typed shorthand learned by texting and chat rooms and not verbally? Run before they can walk?
I watched a child being taught mathematical skills using MS-Excel and he had to type in SUM followed by the cells containing the data; but did he understand what he was doing, and what if he gets his spelling wrong? And yet this child could not add up numbers on a piece of paper without transferring it to a spreadsheet. No wonder people get into debt if they cannot understand numbers on a statement.
Children must be taught basic skills first and computing introduced when appropriate. Computing and the internet are tools available to teachers - IT is not the god of learning it is made out to be.
Posted by: Vincent Offer 05 May 2009
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