[Osia-members] ICT in Education

[Jack Burton]

On Fri, 2013-04-19 at 10:13 +1000, Daniel Jitnah wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Of possible interest these articles below both comment on the need for 
> much better ICT education (same source).  For OSIA of course, the 
> comments made in there are very much in line with the submission made to 
> ACARA in July last year by OSIA.  OSIA stressed the need for a higher 
> standard of ICT education starting in the secondary education sector. 
> (see osia website)
> 
> http://www.itwire.com/it-policy-news/govenrment-tech-policy/59520-ict-lacking-recognition-says-acdict?utm_source=iTWire+Update&utm_campaign=e9c2ccf208-2012100810_8_2012&utm_medium=email
> 
> http://www.itnews.com.au/News/340233,ict-excluded-from-federal-teacher-training-plan.aspx?eid=3&edate=20130418&utm_source=20130418_PM&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter
> 
> Nice to see the relevance of OSIA's submission in the larger context.   
> Note also that in 2013, OSIA has a new Education portfolio.

Thanks for bringing those articles to our attention, Daniel.

Yes, indeed it is concerning that our Government appears to have decided
that computing is neither a science in its own right, nor even a branch
of mathematics -- the worst state of affairs since computing was first
introduced to Australian schools in the '70s.

Prof. Sterling's comment in the second article on the annoying tendency
to conflate digital literacy programmes with actual teaching of
computing [he says "ICT", but "computing" is more appropriate here, as
it makes the distinction much clearer] is also worthy of note.

As I understand it, the boat has already sailed as far as the ACARA
review of the maths & science curriculum goes.

The final consultation reports were published in November last year and
they make quite interesting reading.

OSIA's submission in acknowledged in the appendices to both the Science
[1] and Mathematics [2] reports. Although neither report quotes from the
OSIA submission, its central proposition is mentioned in passing at
Section 3.4 (on page 23) of the Science report, which reads:

"Various respondents suggested that additional science subjects be
developed by ACARA. These included psychology, marine science,
environmental science (as a stand-alone subject not related to Earth
science), computer science, and general science."

So at least computer science gets one (albeit fleeting) mention now. It
is not clear from the report whether or not ACARA intends to develop any
of those additional science subjects.

The Mathematics report is a little more concerning. Computing is not
mentioned at all ("ICT" is mentioned, but only as a teaching tool, not
as a topic of study). Furthermore, in response to feedback from other
respondents they seem to have decided to remove from the curriculum two
of the mathematics topics from their previous draft (linear algebra &
graph theory), the prior inclusion of which our submission had welcomed.

However, ACARA are now seeking feedback on three other "learning areas",
this time at F-10 level, one of which is "Technologies". The
consultation period for "Technologies" closes on 10 May.

If a sufficient number of OSIA members are interested in drafting a
submission to ACARA on the subjects with "Technologies", it may be worth
putting together another ad hoc committee to do so -- anyone interested
in contributing, please contact Daniel.

Regards,


-- 
Jack Burton MACS CP
<jack at saosce.com.au>
--
Director, Saosce Pty Ltd
Chairman, Open Source Industry Australia Ltd
Immediate Past Chairman (SA), Australian Computer Society Inc.
--

References:
[1]
http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Consultation_Report_on_the_Draft_Senior_Secondary_Australian_Curriculum_-_Science.pdf
[2]
http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Consultation_Report_on_the_Draft_Senior_Secondary_Australian_Curriculum_-_Mathematics.pdf