SYDNEY — Monash, Sydney and Queensland Universities are embarking on a project to
improve IT curriculum for school students to help prepare them for a wired
workplace.
The universities have received a $1.35 million Federal Government grant for
the three-year Building the Internet Workforce project, which will update
school curriculum to be in sync with the standard of courses provided by
universities and other tertiary institutions around Australia.
The project team will produce teaching materials for secondary schools,
universities and TAFEs for developing education resources about the
Internet.
This work is a move to improve education for students in IT areas and
address negative attitudes towards the IT sector from students.
This last point has become a key focus, particularly in the wake of research
such as Multimedia Victoria9s Reality Bytes report, that found high numbers
of secondary students held negative views of IT, some describing it outright
as “boring” (see
story).
As well as recording dwindling student interest in IT, the Reality Bytes
report also found secondary school teachers often received inadequate IT
training to meet the rapidly changing needs of the sector.
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