ICT and Scotland's Schools

Michael Gove's comments about ICT in England prompts me to reflect on the position in Scotland. It is true that the trend has been towards a focus on the application of ICT in school education over the last decade or so . The assumption was that 'computing' was something which was for post-school and the vital importance of stimulating interest and establishing a grounding in the nature of computing itself at school was downplayed. However, Curriculum for Excellence explicitly includes Computing Science as part of general education for all up to age 15, including aspects of programming at level 4. More conventional use of ICT is a cross-curricular responsibility. As with much of CfE, the challenge is to ensure that the original vision is put into practice and built upon.