Information Technology (IT) in U.K. Teacher Education

Gardner, John, T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education)

Information Technology (IT) In U.K. Teacher Education

Over the past eight years, the development of information technology in schools in the United Kingdom has proceeded in two complementary yet sometimes conflicting ways. This trend can be witnessed in the growth of the study of computing and the contrasting attempts to integrate the technology into educational practice in support of teaching and learning. The most noticeable and perhaps predictable result of government and local support for programs to provide schools with microcomputing resources has been the unprecedented increase in the uptake of computer studies as an examination subject in schools. Yet, over the same period, the Microelectronics Education Programme, MEP and, more recently, the Microelectronics Education Support Unit, MESU have consistently pursued a policy of encouraging a cross-curricular approach to the assimilation of information technology in schools.

The philosophy underlying the promotion of both of these methods of bringing IT into the curriculum is the better preparation of pupils for adult life. While there is general agreement of this principle, the strategies adopted for accomplishing it can vary from school to school. At least three types of IT input in the curriculum may be identified: academic IT, vocational IT and cross-curricular IT.

Purely "academic" IT is defined as the study of the computer per se. Emphasis is on preparing the way for higher education or on providing programming-type skills for a commonly perceived, but nonetheless dubious, improved employability. Closely related is "vocational" IT. Vocational IT aims to improve employability by providing pupils with skills in specific commercial and industrial computer applications.

"Cross-curricular" IT endorses a natural assimilation of IT by encouraging the educational use of the computer throughout the curriculum and throughout the school itself. …

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Publication information: Article title: Information Technology (IT) in U.K. Teacher Education. Contributors: Gardner, John - Author. Journal title: T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education). Volume: 16. Issue: 5 Publication date: December-January 1988. Page number: 87+. © 2009 1105 Media, Inc. COPYRIGHT 1988 Gale Group.

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