(no subject)

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

We have a new IT teacher in the school where I work. We thought she was a bit, er, dim from some of the queries she's raised, but today's took the biscuit.

She fully expected to be able to log in to our intranet / network drives from anywhere. Without plugging it in to the network. OK, fair enough, maybe she expected us to have wireless in the school. But to expect to be able to use them from home, without any kind of connection to anything? God help us. And the poor kids she's teaching.

Comments

[margaretc.livejournal.com]

Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me.
My husband the luddite arborist knows more about IT than that.
I think I'll go hide under my desk and weep for our future. And for our present.

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

I really wish I was kidding. It seems the UK aren't overly fussy about who they let be an IT teacher these days :\

[nem0.livejournal.com]

Wow. I've had my users at work try to do that, but they're civil engineers. At least they're not trying to teach computer stuff to poor, (relatively) innocent souls.

That reminds me, I got invited back to my old high school for a technology round-table kind of thing, so the computer teachers can ask Real Tech Professionals (hahahaha) what high school students should be learning. I may have to drug myself to keep the cynicality to a minimum. Anyone have any PROTIPS I should be giving them?

[jasoncrowley.livejournal.com]

Wow, just wow.

I've got a bridge I'd like to sell your administration.

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

They're probably stupid enough to buy it too!

[http://users.livejournal.com/hub_/]

scared now.

[jethro.livejournal.com]

I was in a classroom here one time fixing something when I heard the professor telling the students about the PCI hardrive he just bought

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

We've actually given up trying ot stop the teachers telling the kids to "put the mouse on the CPU" at the end of a lesson. I'm convinced that one day an enterprising kid will take it literally...

[cirobi.livejournal.com]

wow... just wow. even our accountants get the concept of "ya gotta plug it into the network to access stuff" concept.....

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Reminds me a little of my own school 'computer' classes, which consisted entirely of retyping typed sheets of random paragraphs. The only reason that it wasn't called 'typing class' was that next door, there was a room of honest-to-god manual typewriters...

[jupiter9.livejournal.com]

What class is she teaching?

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

IT, just like it says up there in the post :)

[jupiter9.livejournal.com]

Er, OK. What's in an IT class?

I thought IT might be the department, like Math(s) or History, and then the class would be Networking, or System Architecture, or something.

The reason I asked was because I could see this happening if she were teaching programming, where someone could have learned it 30 years ago on a mainframe and never had to understand how the internet works or what a CPU really is, because it's not under your desk anyway. It's not good, but it's not the same as not knowing what you're teaching.

If her job is to teach students how to work computers in general, then she sounds like she's probably way *behind* her class.

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

Just what it says - a class where the kids learn IT. It's the equivalent of a US high school - kids aged between 11 and 17.

[jupiter9.livejournal.com]

Sigh.

I work in an IT department. We do anything from tech support to programming to database administration to networking to phone system support to soldering shit together.

So I don't think I'm asking a stupid question when I wanted to know what you meant by IT. For you, is "IT" how to work computers in general? Use the mouse, go on the web, put in a CD or DVD, write and print a document?

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

OK, fourth attempt at replying as I'm really struggling not to go for all out sarcasm, because, to me, it really is a stupid question. Perhaps British schools really are that different to those in other countries. But yes, general IT stuff.

[jupiter9.livejournal.com]

You really think everyone uses the term "IT" to mean exactly what it does in your workplace, and nothing else? Or they're STUPID?

That's rather provincial.

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

Deleted, because I really have no interest in a slanging match with anyone.