Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
were made redundant as they were seen as having 'died' due to a perceived lack of
interest. A subject of particular significance here was Secretarial Studies which had
occupied a comfortable niche as a vocational subject preparing (mostly) girls for entry
into office and administrative jobs. The idea of teaching typing on typewriters was,
however, seen as anachronistic. The numerically large and influential group of teach-
ers made redundant in this process produced a pressure group. These teachers had
been moving slightly in their niche towards the use of electronic typewriters. This
pool of teachers threatened with significant changes to their work on the demise of
their own teaching subject can be seen as a powerful predator. When Secretarial Stud-
ies teachers were forced to move into computing, some attempted just to move their
previous niche into a new location by ignoring, or de-emphasising, any content mate-
rial that did not suit them. This aspect of their move into teaching Information Tech-
nology subjects can still be seen in the nature and scope of computing studies in the
final school year.
Another predator within the environment was a group of teachers with a philoso-
phical view that computers should be a tool used in every part of the curriculum
rather than a topic to be studied by in its own right. After their success in killing off
Computer Science, this 'Computers across the Curriculum' group continued to influ-
ence the way computers were used in secondary schools; an interesting example being
that of mathematics. In mathematics every year level was now required to add com-
puter-based learning of some kind into the curriculum. In 1999 it was found that com-
puting resources in schools were not up to this demand, and a trial of using computers
in the examination system failed. Mathematics teachers found the solution to this
problem in using relatively inexpensive graphics calculators rather than computers,
and use of Excel and Mathematica in schools decreased to almost zero.
4.1.3 The Third Turning Point: Death of One of the New Subjects
Another anomalous thing that happened was the downward progress of the subject:
Information Technology in Society . By 1997 the numbers in this subject had become
so low that it was not re-accredited for the next year. This is seen as an anomaly as the
creation of the new courses in information technology was based on a few simple,
logical propositions.
Information Technology was seen as having three main areas of interest:
1. Studying information technology itself - including programming
2. Studying the uses of information technology - especially in business
3. Studying the wider impact of information technology across the whole social
landscape.
The idea of three streams was to cater to a wide audience. It was presumed that stu-
dents fell into interest groups including those interested in technology and those inter-
ested in the social sciences. To have one of these streams collapse in such a short
period of time showed that this model of students logically following some stereo-
typed interest is not valid.
In ecological terms we find a number of principles in action in this turning point.
The creation of the stream is an example of the least energy relationship between the
curriculum authority and subject offerings. A subject was proposed by the sub-
committee handling computer related subjects and the option with the greatest return
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