Are You Only Teaching Kids To Drill Holes?

Drilling holes? What’s that got to do with ICT? Possibly quite a bit….

A perfect hole. But what's it for?You can always rely on Niel McLean of Becta to come up with a fresh insight, and his talk at the Naace 2009 Conference proved to be no exception. I can’t recall the exact details of the story, but Niel related a conversation which took place at a parents’ open day:

Parent: What’s this machine for?

Design & Technology Teacher: It’s for drilling holes.

Parent: So why would you want to use it?

Teacher: To drill holes.

Parent: Yes, but why teach the kids how to use it?

Teacher: So they can drill holes.

People don’t always express themselves very well, and this is a case in point. What the parent was really asking was: Why would anyone want to drill holes?

The issue is, how far do we fall into the same trap?

Q: Why use SlideShare?

A: To create slides.

Q: Why use Audacity?

A: So we can edit a podcast.

Q: Why use a spreadsheet?

A: So we can do calculations.

We need to make sure that we have a rather better set of answers!

This is #16 in a series of 25 reflections on the Naace 2009 Conference. It was first published on 28th May 2009.

Comments

[Amanda Wilson]

reminds me of when my kids were little always asking why things were the way they were needless to say by time daughter no 3 came along I had better answers.

[david]

hi Terry, yes it's funny. Could you supply an example good answer to one of the examples please?

[Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant]

@Amanda LOL
@David Hey, I think YOU should try and come up with some answers! LOL But will have a go.

[michael coquine]

You are so right. But communication skills are not mastered by all of us. Or I think that pepople are sometimes too lazy to care and to ask theirselves with one is asking something.

[Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant]

@Michael yes, or maybe it's cos they don't really see what the question is driving at because, to them, it is obvious? Hard to know.