Feb 05 2008
Michael Kolling in PC Pro
Michael opens up on ICT education in the UK in PC Pro:
It’s like giving children a calculator but never explaining the underlying principles of multiplication. “Teaching children office-automation skills borders on child abuse,” says Dr Michael Kölling, the University of Kent academic, who’s attempting to get the Greenfoot software we’re using for our tutorial into schools across the country. “The main problem for us is they call it computing. Kids think that’s computer science. It isn’t productive, it doesn’t stimulate interest. Children should be creative, they should get the joy and satisfaction that comes from seeing their ideas take shape.”
His point is that Greenfoot is a much more engaging environment for students to be programming in then, say, doing spreadsheets in Excel. He’s right: forcing 13-year-old students to learn Excel macros is a form of child abuse.
