[Gllug] open source centric ICT in Schools from Sept 2012 ?

[Khusro Jaleel]

On 01/11/2012 11:01 AM, Karanbir Singh wrote:
> Just caught this : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16493929
>
> "The current programme of information and communications technology
> (ICT) study in England's schools will be scrapped from September, the
> education secretary will announce later.
>
> It will be replaced by an "open source" curriculum in computer science
> and programming designed with the help of universities and industry."
>
> Well worth skimming through the comments, some very bizarre ones in
> there. Including, unfortunately, a very distinct lack of understand
> about what open source is. What are the chances that the people involved
> in setting up the new curriculum suffer the same mindset ?
>

I saw this today on the Guardian as well as yesterday  and there were a 
few things that I noticed. [1]

why is the education secretary saying that "computer science" students 
are bored out of their skull at having to learn Word and Excel all day? 
What does that have to do with computer science?

Then I'm worried about what the industry really wants. Do they want 
someone who is good at general computer science and maths or do they 
just want to make sure there are enough developers who know about the 
currently popular programming languages so jobs can be filled.

In the Guardian coverage there are several references to people at 
Google being happy about this change, indicating that perhaps it will be 
a good thing. There are also references to people at the Mercedes F1 
team complaining that they can't find good people and that they have to 
train them up before they can contribute, but I'm not sure what's wrong 
with that. Why not take a good computer scientist and train him for some 
specific F1 GP specific skills he may be lacking. I'm guessing it would 
be better for them in the long run.

Of course I have no idea why they used the term "open source". This is 
just going to terribly muddle things up for everybody. I wonder what 
their reasoning behind the use of that "term" was?

[1] - 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jan/09/computer-science-courses-digital-skills?INTCMP=SRCH
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