Over the last year, there have been many discussions and questions raised with regards to the future that technology and in particular, ICT as a lesson has within the UK curriculum. Therefore, it was with great anticipation that I awaited the opening speech from Michael Gove.

 

Gove began his address by congratulating the business leaders gathered in the halls of Olympia, and in particular, those with BETT nominations. He said:

 

“It is a thrill to see companies such as Espresso using technology to benefit children. It excites me to think that their software is being used by tens of thousands of children in classrooms. We must celebrate UK companies as we are world leaders in education technology and are going from strength to strength – Crick Software are already in over 90 per cent of UK primary schools and have just secured a deal to service half of the schools in Moscow, Promethean has recently signed a memorandum of collaboration with the Mexican Board of Education to service Mexican schools – British success stories are all around us!”

 

Gove continued by discussing how he had seen technological advances across a variety of industries during his lifetime, from car manufacturing through to journalism – his own background. He added that it is important for educators to understand that the average child in the UK now has “more technology in their Smartphone in their pocket than Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong had to get to the moon.”

 

Perhaps a precursor to what was coming, Gove began speaking about how technology has been integrating into other areas of life over the years:

 

He said:

 

“The border between IT and biology is blurring. 20 years ago, science journals referred to the ‘AI Winter’ – a fear of technology and the cuts to funding. Now we have detailed computer modelling systems which have taken us so much further forward than we could have imagined. Brain-Computer Interfaces allow us to control our environment around us by simply thinking, and using technology, we are already assessing how we learn, how to test pupils and how memory works.”

 

 

However, Gove’s assessment of teaching was not as positive. He continued:

 

“Unfortunately, the fundamentals of teaching are still the same today as they were a hundred years ago. Take a Victorian teacher and place them in the 20th Century classroom and they would feel at home. Sure, the interactive whiteboard has removed the chalk dust, but generally, teaching today involves the teacher talking to pupils. Technology is bringing profound developments to education, but we are not preparing pupils for the jobs which are at the forefront of technological change.”

 

He added:

 

“A short while ago, there was a slump in the games development market, partly due to a severe lack of skilled workers. This is because the ICT agreement had neglected programming skills that these jobs need. In the past, we have been seduced into spending money on hardware that is unnecessary and quickly dated; I believe we need to take a step back. As science advances and our understanding of the brain increases, we learn about how we learn...the government needs to be asking what technology can do for learning.”

 

Gove went on to comment on three areas in which technology can support schools; democratisation of learning by allowing people to learn at anytime, anywhere through online resources such as i-tunes U, developing the skills of teachers by allowing people to learn from each other and creative teachers to work with pupils from across the globe, and finally, by offering unprecedented ways to improve assessment.

 

Admitting that it would no doubt raise some eyebrows, Gove spoke passionately about the strong role games-based learning has in schools, discussing how beneficial adaptive and engaging software is to thousands of children across the UK. Citing an ongoing pilot into games-based learning by Stanford University, Gove commented that the results had been “some of the most successful ever seen.”

 

Discussing his plans for the future of education, Gove began to outline how technology and ICT as a lesson was set to change. He said:

 

“We need to invest in training individuals and teachers so that they know how to adapt to new technology and keep up with the digital native pupils, not necessarily plough money into new technology.

 

“We will be working with the Teaching Agency to assess teacher training over the coming year. We will encourage schools to learn from one another – we know that some ICT teaching is excellent and we need to share this by forming networks and having a dedicated fund for teaching schools which are able to help others with their skills.”

 

Speaking about ICT as a subject, Gove added:

 

“There are problems with the current ICT curriculum. Whilst a degree in Computer Science is one of the best respected degrees, it is not linked to the ICT curriculum. The current agreement is too off-putting, too demotivating and too dull – it is unsatisfactory at best. It does not allow creativity or innovation and, as stated by e-skills, the GCSE as a whole is irrelevant and should be scrapped.”

 

He continued:

 

“From September onwards, we will therefore be withdrawing the current ICT curriculum. It will remain compulsory for ICT to be taught at all Key Stages however, we will be giving schools the freedom to decide what to teach and how to teach it.

 

“Rather than children being bored of being told how to use PowerPoint, we want them to create games and software by 11 years old. We want a rigorous, challenging subject and we need Computer Science to be seen as important. Whether a school chooses to teach someone else’s ICT curriculum or shape their own, they can make a decision that is best for their pupils.”

 

 

Summing up his opening speech, Gove concluded:

 

“Demand in the economy for high level computer skills will only increase in the future. Every nation will change due to technology and we must lead the way. Today I have set out a direction for educational technology but more is to come – there is more to say on the matter throughout the course of the year. We need your help to shape this and I look forward to hearing what everyone has to say.”

 

And with that, Gove was gone. Taking into account the initial anticipation of his speech, there was a palpable feeling that no one had really learnt anything new as many of Gove's aspirations for the future, such as children programming their own games, are already happening in schools up and down the country. Instead, many of those gathered were left pondering how they could create their own ICT curriculum when doing so was, as Gove had conceded, a sizable task in order to avoid it being instantly outdated. Whilst it was great to hear Gove and, ultimately, the government talking about the huge role that technology needs to play in education, it is difficult to gauge the impact this announcement will have on teaching and the curriculum and perhaps offers more questions than answers.

 

In two years time how many schools will have created their own ICT curriculum, as Gove has suggested, and how many will still be teaching to the same curriculum that the government has just scrapped? How will any new curriculum be mapped to Ofsted and how can teachers ensure consistency so that pupils from different schools moving into secondary or further education are all at the same level of understanding? There are many questions that remain and hopefully, some of them will be answered over time however, Gove will still have some work to do before he wins over many of the assembled crowd at his opening speech today.

 

What are your thoughts on this article? Add your comments below.