Computing is coming back into popularity in secondary education in the UK as both policy makers and teachers recognise its importance in our digitally-dependent businesses. It seemed to fall out of favour to be replaced by equipping young people with skills in office-based applications, thereby hoping to provide them with the basics of how to use computers to further their education and work prospects.
Computing is a different story – it is also referred to as ‘programming’, ‘computer science’ or (no groaning) ‘coding’. There’s a new GCSE offered in some schools around the country (including the one that I teach at) and it’s a great way of learning more about how computers actually work, without spending your entire time learning to ‘code’!
Here’s a video about Computing from some students in Canada that might help explain things:
And whilst there is a perception that it’s just for boys, far from it – the classes I teach are split 50/50 (approximately). The follow up to the previous video helps to show this:
And one last thing – it’s not just for geeks / gleeks/ whatever!
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