Mr Gove’s BETT Speech

Well, what an interesting start to BETT!

I was really cross this morning by many of the headlines flying around, for example, Gove’s Move to Scrap Boring ICT Lessons. What a demotivating headline to read for existing ICT teachers and certainly not the way to go about instigating effective change! Many of the ICT teachers I know work very hard to ensure their lessons are exciting, innovative and engaging and I certainly did when I was head of ICT.  Mr Gove states in his speech; “Imagine the dramatic change which could be possible in just a few years, once we remove the roadblock of the existing ICT curriculum. Instead of children bored out of their minds being taught how to use Word and Excel by bored teachers, we could have 11 year-olds able to write simple 2D computer animations using an MIT tool called Scratch.” Erm, Mr Gove, this is happening NOW in schools all over the UK!

Anyway, away from the headline-grabbing soundbites, Mr Gove actually said that teachers no longer have to follow the National Curriculum. This is great! However, again a little outdated. As James Greenwood tweeted;” ”Truth is that many ICT teachers worth their salt have been exceeding the reqs of the NC for a long time”. Having flexibility to do what is right for your students is very important, and, despite what many may be saying in the media and indeed Mr Gove mentioned a great deal in his speech, in my opinion, that will not always be Computer Science.

I totally agree that more could be done in schools to make ICT exciting and challenging, and including programming skills which are relevant for the 21st Century, is an important way. I loved teaching Computing elements to my classes years ago. However, I do think that there is a danger of, as many people said on twitter this morning, “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”. There are some elements of the ICT curriculum that are great – animation, modelling, web design for example. I know these can be incorporated into an engaging Computer Science programme, but I am concerned that “coding” will be seen as the only worthwhile activity. It’s not.

For example, I am reminded of my low ability year 9 class, a delightful bunch for whom getting that cat moving backwards in forwards in Scratch was a major achievement. Teaching them programming or coding for a prolonged period of time would be agony for everyone. So, it’s great that teachers will have the flexibility to do what is best and I hope it stays that way.

I also hope that Mr Gove will take teachers’ expertise into account during the consultation process and not simply be swayed by what big businesses, influential voices and the media are saying. Teachers such as Mark Clarkson and Andy Field have been sharing excellent practice and taking a balanced view for a number of years. Those teachers involved in #ictcurric are also very passionate about making the ICT curriculum relevant, challenging and exciting and Open Source Schools and Computing at School have been advocating many of the things he discussed in his speech for years. Mr Gove, his advisors and those baying for ICT’s blood should respect that teachers have a great deal more practical knowledge than academics, enthusiasts and big companies about what works in schools. Although such organisations have their part to play and I respect that they bring different ideas and viewpoints to the discussion, they do not have the professional training, experience and knowledge to be shaping educational policy. Great teaching is about inspiring and enthusing students and giving teachers an official pass to get on with teaching what they think is best for their students, together with the time and resources to learn new skills, is key.

Image cc gpoo