He continued by asking, “What are the challenges ahead?” and then developed three main areas that challenge the teaching of ICT in schools:

Practicalities of teaching ICT:

i. The need for more teachers especially in the top end of secondary.

ii. The need to come up with courses and training for ICT teachers.

iii. The need to develop strategies for keeping up to date with hardware and software.

v. Rooms to put the increasing numbers of computers.

v. Timetabling to give manageable class sizes and workable option choices.

Teaching:

i. Improved resources for ICT the subject.

ii. Software that helps you teach about your subject.

iii. The best way to teach a topic - what are the ways that are available? It is important to remember that ICT is a recent subject – cf. Pythagoras’s theorem

iv. How do you teach what you don’t understand? – who teaches the ICT teachers?

v. Just how do you use the web in a classroom?

vi. Email accounts – are they a good idea or not?

vii. Problems of dealing with information overload and of getting the right information

Pupils:

Frank concluded by referring to “The biggest challenge of all.”

i. How do we make it interesting for them?

ii. How do we teach pupils what ICT is all about?

Franks presentation is also available online.