Education in Schools

Education in Schools
The level of education has increased due to the increase of electronics that can be used to make things better in the classroom, in terms of showing things to children and giving them the necessary things to maximise their learning.

Computers Being Integrated into Schools
One integration of the information age in the classroom are white boards, where teachers can easily show power points of the work that they have done previously to move things much more smoothly and to get more things covered in lesson, it also provides the teachers a good idea of what work that students have done in the specific topic. The whiteboard that teachers use can also be very useful when writing, as they can easily save class notes from previous lessons and even send them to their students for revision or if they have missed the day of school.

Across many schools in the UK, there has been an increase on the amount of computers that students have access to. This is mainly because with the computer industry constantly expanding, computer equipment has become much more affordable for schools, within their budget. Students are given free access to these computer to do all kinds of work for school, weather it may be research for a specific topic on the internet, or to type up something that have done. One popular way to do essays is to actually type them up using a computer, this method offers a lot of benefits compared to the traditional way of writing them out. Few of the advantages of using a computer is the option to spell check everything that you type, the simplicity of editing paragraphs but also the fact that it makes it look much neater and more professional.

Because of the expansion of computers, these has been a decrease in the paper work that students need to carry, as teachers do not have to print out documents, but simply upload them online where students can access them on the computer either at home or at school. However students still have access to printers if they wish to have a paper copy that they can bring with them wherever they are.

With the expansion of microprocessors, the size of calculators has greatly decreased meaning that the availability of them has greatly increased to the stage that any student now days can simply buy a handheld calculator, when they once used to be as big as a whole computer.

When did ICT become a school subject?

ICT in the UK became an official core subject in 1995 with the seeing increase of computer usage and help students develop their computer skills for their future life, however the main subject itself has greatly changed due to the increase of development in ICT. An example of this can be the new addition to the school system which is ‘Computing’ which is actually a new subject that teaches students how to program computer, and to teach them how they actually work, not only how to use them.

Computers have also made teachers lives a lot easier. One system that teachers widely use is called SIMS. This can also be known as the main database of the school where teachers can keep contact details, behaviour reports, attendance and grades on the computer which saves a lot of paper work.

Advantages and Limitations
he advantages of using computers at school are that teachers can show films on whiteboards, which students find much more enjoyable than just listening to the teacher talk but also including the fact that films can give a visual representation of things. Teachers can also use specially fitted cameras on holders and project the image on to the whiteboard. This could be used when the teacher wants to show something small that might be on the table, or in science when using a microscope they can zoom in on the object and project it onto the screen as well.

The usage of IT has also been integrated with subjects like art to produce computer aided design, which can also be used in subjects like graphics, or RMT.

However, some of the disadvantages of using IT is that it is extremely expensive to run all of the many computers at school, as well as to maintain the system to run them, which means that you also have to hire ICT specialists to be available most of the time to fix anything that might go wrong.

As software upgrades, it also need better processors and therefore school computers need to be updated which costs the school even more money otherwise the computers become unbelievably slow and almost impossible to work on.

On the other hand, another advantage of using IT in schools is the usage of USB sticks, what this allows students is the availability to be able to take work home and do it there on a computer instead.

In my personal experience, I have found the usage of IT very useful, and like the fact that it is a compulsory subject as I believe that it is necessary for adult hood and it is something that almost all employers are looking for. I also very much like IT but am disappointed by the fact that only now schools have become introducing ‘Computing’ as a subject, as that is something that I very much would like to take as a subject, and it could also help me to get into a university.