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Re: [LUG] Computing in Schools..

 

 On 11/01/2012 09:40, Adam Latham wrote:
Perhaps there is hope after all:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16493929

Gordon

Absolutely right!  This M$/Adooby training course that is essentially the
current ICT GCSE level course is poor at the very best.

My son is about to start his BTEC ICT and essentially it's 2 years to
build a website in HTML with some embedded Adooby player stuff and a tiny
bit of Javascript.
That's abyssmal! I did an HND at Cardiff Metropolitan University (UWIC as was - www.uwic.ac.uk ) which was as I've just described in another reply, but to recap:

(this is from memory so may have changed since).

Year 1.  Networking/Multimedia/Programming.  Legal and Business modules. [1]
Year 2. Choices. 2 of N/M/P, Object Oriented Programming or Web Programming. Plus Legal and Business modules. -> Graduate with HND and possibly upgrade to BSc as first two years are the same. Year 3. (top up from HND to degree in Software Development with whatever choice). Drop one of the 2 choices and complete programming project (not research dissertation) and then graduate.

Of that time about six weeks was spent teaching HTML, CSS and Javascript. At the end of which we had an assignment to produce a webpage to place orders and total up the costs. As a Warhammer player mine was a page to buy Dwarf Army figures ;) The point being you went from ZERO HTML (although not in my case but some certainly did) to being able to produce a working webpage able to input data and work with it inside six weeks. And that six weeks of course was while you were being taught the other modules too, so wasn't only web design. Probably only 1 hour a week taught, 1 hour tutorial.

[1] Some didn't like the Legal and Business modules, but obviously if you're going to work professionally - especially self-employed as a contractor - you need to know how to manage yourself as well as other people, and of course how to do it legally.

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