Starting off on the wrong foot…
I have mixed feelings about the WJEC/AQA A-Level Computing course available in the majority of UK Colleges - in some aspects it’s a good introduction to basic computing practices, but in other aspects it really does teach you to do things the wrong way.
This year, the practical project is to design a reward system for use by a school to reward students for various merits, through which they earn points that can be redeemed for physical prizes. Easy, huh?
Our college chooses to teach the .NET programming language - great for beginners! Fellow classmates are amazed at how easy software development is - they just drag and drop controls and enter a few commands to create a functional program. I really do think that this is the best way to introduce software development and get people interested.
However, I think teaching poor method and procedure is completely unacceptable.
We are developing a system that deals with usernames and passwords, but the current curriculum does not cover security. Students in my computing class are being taught to store usernames and passwords in plain text, in the same file, in a predictable location (application directory).
They’re also being taught to store this information in text files, which doesn’t happen in practice. I believe a simple database such as sqlite should be used and explained.
Security is the biggest issue I have with this - I believe it is giving future software engineers a completely incorrect idea of how not just authentication, but correct security practice in general, is carried out. I think this is unacceptable.
However, I’m developing my system in Ruby atop of the Ruby on Rails framework, instead of using .NET (a personal preference), and am using industry standard salting and hashing methods to ensure that users’ credentials are completely secure.
I do conceed that password salting and hashing is probably too complex to teach complete beginners - but nothing is stopping the curriculum from including something basic such as character substitution.
Are you studying A-Level Computing, or have done? I’d like to hear your thoughts and opinions on this subject, feel free to share them with me!
Why GCSE examinations are now irrelevant
GCSE exams are supposed to test your knowledge of your entire secondary school education. That’s why it’s called a General Certificate of Secondary Education, right? These are supposed to be something that colleges, universities and employers look at to determine how intelligent you are. That’s what we’re told, anyway.
I believe GCSE examinations are now irrelevant. These exams don’t test your knowledge of a particular subject, they test your ability to cram and revise, which is ultimately a bad thing for your learning. By cramming, you’re not actually learning anything - you’re remembering facts, short-term. Once you’ve sat the exam, the majority of people forget these facts… that’s not good.
I admit to cramming, I do it a lot! If I can remember some important facts about a subject that I’m not really interested in, instead of revising over a long-period of time, I will do.
It’s not just the examinations that are flawed, it’s the coursework too. I, from personal experience, can tell you that official GCSE coursework is riddled with cheating. I haven’t cheated myself, but I have seen many people cheat on more than one occasion. A certain teacher of mine ‘accidentally’ left speaking coursework subject titles on her desk, and ‘unknowingly’ left the room. That’s fair, right? No, it’s not.
My main point is, these examinations do not test your knowledge the majority of the time. As I said above, they test your ability to cram facts into your brain, which isn’t good and often results in people looking better on paper than they actually are in person.
Another thing I dislike is the fact that we, as students, are told that these GCSE examinations determine how successful we will be in our lives. That’s rubbish. How successful you are or will be is determined by one thing. You.
GCSEs are simply stepping stones into college. For your average college course, the requirements really aren’t that high. You usually need 5 GCSEs at A*-C. I’m sitting 12 GCSE courses - which accumulate to 19 exams! (Which is quite frankly ridiculous!)
I’d love to hear your thoughts on GCSE examinations. Do you think they’re a good thing, or do you agree with me and believe they should be revised?
Thanks for reading,
Joshua Lee Tucker
The need for more diverse extra-curricular activities
Disclaimer: This post is specifically written with the British education system in mind. I have no knowledge of any other education system, so I am unable to comment on anything but what I have experienced during my time within the British education system.
We have a lot of subjects which teach us basic skills like Maths, English and Science. Right? Well, this is all fine and dandy and is something that I agree is absolutely necessary in the modern world. However, many of us attend school every single day, yet we learn nothing about what we’re interested in. Some of us know what we’re interested in, and have already decided upon our future careers. In my case, this is computing.
I understand that it isn’t feasible to introduce a computing class into high schools in the UK. There just isn’t enough people interested in computing to justify doing this. However, what is stopping the introduction of an extra-curricular computing class for all students within a LEA?
This doesn’t just apply to computing, this can be applied to a wide range of activities that will help people in their future careers. Photography, for example. We have the ability to study art, but I’ve seen the curriculum for Art & Design, and it does not include photography. Why can’t we offer an extra-curricular photography class for those interested in pursuing photography as a future career?
A lot of people will blame this on government funding. Although this is an issue, I believe that many people use this as an excuse. My school recently spent a lot of money relocating the staff car park. Great, so the staff have a separate entrance to the school. This is great for the staff, but not so great for the students, who are the primary concern in an education establishment.
Instead of employing extra staff for these extra-curricular subjects, we could offer a monetary incentive (much less than a new employment) for college lecturers to teach extra-curricular activities to students in high-school. Colleges have a much wider variety of subjects on offer, so why shouldn’t we offer a small number of these extra subjects to the small amount of bright, passionate and enthusiastic students that desire them.
I hope I’ve left you with some food for thought, please feel free to give me some feedback on this article.
Thanks,
Joshua Lee Tucker
Stifling Creativity and Failing Students
The current education system is terrible for the students who take an interest in modern, relevant subjects like computing. I am a teenage software engineer who has been writing software for the past 5 years or so (since I was around 11), and have just finished high school.
I am an A-grade student, who performs consistently in most of the subjects that I take. However, I strongly dislike the education system in its current state and think it could be greatly improved.
The education system stifles students’ creativity and promotes conformity. This does nothing but damage the great potential that is present in a decreasing amount of students nowadays. I have a great example of this: A friend of mine is interested in journalism, and hopes to become a journalist when she is older. My school gave her some advice in order to achieve this: “You will need to study English Language, Politics and Sociology in college at A-level and then continue to study journalism in University”.
I have multiple issues with that example:
* Why does she need to become a journalist “when she is older”? Why can’t she start a blog, get writing and become heard immediately? She hasn’t been taught to start early - she has been taught to plan for her future career in education. This, in my opinion, is a laughable matter.
* Apparently, she needs to study all of these complex subjects in order to become a journalist? Let’s just take a look at the definition of a journalist - “a person who writes for newspapers or magazines or prepares news to be broadcast on radio or television.” Where does it say you have to study these subjects? Nowhere. Once again, the current education system is complicating things.
These are just some of the issues that I have with the education system in its current state.
I also believe the education system fails students at their convenience. I, an A-grade student, was suspended in my third year of high school for having a minor disagreement with another member of my class. I stress the fact that this was a minor disagreement - no punches, no physical contact. Both of us involved in the disagreement agree that the punishment was excessive. Not only do I believe this punishment was excessive, but I also believe that it was unnecessary. What did I get out of that suspension? I’ll tell you:
* I learnt that schools would rather throw one of their pupils out of their school for a minor offence, than be seen doing nothing but HELPING students.
* I began to despise the education system more than I already did.
* I learnt that the education system thinks it has its own judicial system. I was never given the opportunity to speak to someone on the Board of Governors - I wasn’t even given the opportunity to speak to the head-teacher!
To be completely honest with you, I’d prefer myself being suspended than someone who is completely reliant on the education system, someone who would collapse if they thought the education system has no future for them.
I have one more story about my time in high school education to share with you:
I was sat in my registration class when I was called up to the offices by my head of year. When I walked into the office, there was the whole Senior Management Team (SMT) sat around the table, along with my head of year. They wanted to speak to me about what they called “hacking”. I sure did laugh when they said that, which probably didn’t help.
They wanted to speak to me about how I accessed a secure drive on our school’s network. Did I do any damage? No. I left a text file on the drive, titled “Secure? Meh” with my name inside. Instead of asking me to work with the schools IT manager to fix the security issues that surely should have been their priority, they told me that if I did anything like this again, I could be permanently excluded from school.
Once again, the education system is stifling creativity. I was creative enough to find a way to breach their security, and instead of praising me, they threatened to punish me.
These are the main issues that I have with the education system in its current form. I believe there are many ways that the system could be improved to promote creativity, which would result in a much more supportive education system!
I appreciate you reading this somewhat long-winded article, and I’d love you to leave some feedback or maybe a response blog post!
Thanks again,
Joshua Lee Tucker
Opinio - Acquired!
I have my final exams coming up, I just don’t have the time required to successfully run a site like Opinio. I did have plans for many new features, but I don’t have the time to implement them.
Instead of letting the project die, I thought I’d see if anyone was interested in purchasing the service, and they were! I know the developer who will be taking over, Coleman Stavish, and he is a very talented and motivated person who will hopefully continue to expand Opinio and take it to new and exciting places.
I hope I can continue to help out with Opinio, as I believe it’s a truly fun and exciting project.
Here’s to a new chapter in the life of Opinio, and to many more future personal projects!
Thanks so much,
Joshua Lee Tucker
Opinio - 24 hours later!
It’s been 24 hours since I launched Opinio, so I thought I should share some statistics.
104 users have signed up for Opinio, there have been 59 questions asked and 307 opinions have been shared.
I think these are pretty decent figures, and show that Opinio has been somewhat of a success.
Thanks for using Opinio!
Josh
Swish Progress
We’re making steady, awesome progress on the Swish 1.1 update!
We have so many features packed into this update, we just can’t wait to show you all!
I really do suggest grabbing Swish whilst it’s still on sale, it won’t be for much longer!
Dive Inside: Swish 1.1 Preview
Greetings!
We’ve been hard at work creating our 1.1 Swish update, and we’d like to show you a preview of a new feature we’ve added. We think you’re going to like it!
We’ve listened to your responses, and have added pull to refresh! This is definitely not the only feature you can expect in 1.1, it’s one of many.
We think you’re going to like the update that is coming soon.
Thanks for supporting Stunnify!
iPod Nano… as a watch!
I recently purchased an iPod Nano 6th generation, to try and hack to get unsigned code running etc. Although the iPad Nano is lacking many features, it works brilliantly as an iPod, but not much else.
However, people have found another use for it! Using it as a watch! It might sound stupid, having an iPod Nano strapped to your wrist all day, especially since it’s not waterproof.
I saw people using the iPod Nano as a watch on Twitter, so I decided to give it a go. Guess what? It works surprisingly well!
I’ll attach some images at the end of this article.
I’m using a NATO watch strap, which is based upon the British Ministry of Defence standard issue (G10) strap. It’s an extremely strong watch strap, made out of Nylon and Stainless Steel.
All in all, I think that using the iPod Nano as a watch is extremely feasible! Especially if you’re an Apple fanboy like myself.
You can buy the watch strap I’m using (although in a different colour) here: Regimental NATO Strap
