Monday, February 25, 2008

Teachers and ICT - sometimes a little knowledge is too much....

Why, oh why,oh why do certain teachers make the calamitous mistake of thinking they know what they're doing when it comes to ict?

It's a continual surprise to me these days about how little the average person knows about computers. I often use the analogy at work about more complicated ict, saying it's like expecting the average car driver to be able to carry out a full service. But some of the stuff that these folks don't know how to do - to use the same analogy, it's the equivalent of not knowing how to put petrol in the bloody car.
And these are not stupid people either. These are very bright (allegedly) people. But their inability to come to terms with computers is just spectacular. It's not as if they can do without the knowledge either. If you're a cleaner or HGV driver the ability to use a computer is not essential. When you're trying to educate young minds, filling them with a joy of learning and desire to discover the world, surely it's essential in this modern age?

And the one thing worse than not knowing anything about computers in this day and age? Thinking you know something about the damn things and proving otherwise. The sort of person who tinkers, messes and experiments until, inevitably, something breaks and they come running to me to fix their cock ups.

Guess which one I was dealing with today?

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