­
Don't insult my students! — ICT & Computing in Education
  • Front Page
  • Search
    • Digital Education
    • Terry Freedman's Books Bulletin
  • RSS
    • Welcome
    • The "About" Page
    • Testimonials
    • CV/Resumé
    • My Writing
    • Published articles
  • Corrections Policy
Menu

ICT & Computing in Education

Articles on education technology and related topics
  • Front Page
  • Search
  • Newsletters
    • Digital Education
    • Terry Freedman's Books Bulletin
  • RSS
  • Info
    • Welcome
    • The "About" Page
    • Testimonials
    • CV/Resumé
    • My Writing
    • Published articles
  • Corrections Policy

Image by Megan Rexazin from Pixabay

Don't insult my students!

November 9, 2022

One of the comments on the Kwarteng budget in Britain was something to effect that it looked like it had been devised by A Level Economics students. Boy, did that get my hackles up!

Before becoming an ICT and Computing teacher, I taught Economics. Had my students devised the budget, it would have (a) made sense and (b) worked. And I know that because my class came second in a national schools competition.

I thought you might be interested in the way I (mis)used a computer simulation to get across some essential concepts. 

As part of my course I used a computer simulation called Running the British Economy, which I sort of changed to Ruining the British Economy. The aim of the simulation, as envisaged by its creators, was to create a situation in which the economy was running really well. Based on the Treasury economic model, it was ideal for showing in real time the effects of pursuing various macroeconomic policies.

After the students had played with the simulation a few times and became familiar with it, I asked them to see what happened when they decided to adopt two policies in turn. The first was to aim for zero inflation; the second, zero unemployment.

When they tried the first one, after a few computer years they achieved their goal -- at the cost of 98% unemployment.

Trying for the second goal, that of zero unemployment, brought equally disastrous results: hyperinflation.

By attempting to achieve these extreme objectives, the pupils became acutely aware that the Treasury model upon which the simulation was based implicitly assumed that the Keynesian view of how economies worked was correct.

What Did The Pupils Learn From All This?

  • They saw how economic concepts like the multiplier, accelerator, tax reductions and so on worked in a very "visual" way. Seeing the trade deficit climb up two "years" after you've raised the value of your currency makes a greater impression than seeing the results of an equation on a sheet of paper.

  • A wider benefit of the exercise, however, was that the pupils came to realise that the apparently objective simulation was, in fact, biased. It was ultimately based on certain assumptions, and -- here's the key thing -- those assumptions were implicit. There wasn't a warning on the pack which read "Can cause suffering to Monetarists (the opponents of Keynes' views)".

What we did, in effect, was to look under the hood, as it were. The model worked very well as a means of showing how the economy worked in practice. But by looking beyond that we were able to see that the simulation treated a hypothesis as an established fact.

We saw that computers weren't as objective as they appeared.

So, politicians, take that!

This article first appeared in As I Was Saying.

In Using and Teaching Computing & ICT Tags modelling
← 7 incredibly useful linksMy worst experience of tutoring →
Recent book reviews
Review: Social Media for Academics
Review: Social Media for Academics

This book is very readable, and if I sound surprised that is because it’s not always true of academics!

Read More →
Quick looks: VIBE Coding by Example
Quick looks: VIBE Coding by Example

For the time being, this book is free in Kindle format.

Read More →
Review: The Game Changers: How Playing Games Changed the World and Can Change You Too
Review: The Game Changers: How Playing Games Changed the World and Can Change You Too

Despite the relative paucity of immediately obvious National Curriculum links, teachers will find several of sections of this book to be highly engaging.

Read More →
Review: The Dictators: 64 Dictators, 64 Authors, 64 Warnings from History
Review: The Dictators: 64 Dictators, 64 Authors, 64 Warnings from History

In some respects one could view this book as a single warning repeated 64 times.

Read More →
Review: The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker: A History of the High Street 
Review: The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker: A History of the High Street 

Taking readers from the Middle Ages to (more or less) the present day, Gray charts how the places where we do our shopping and what we buy have changed over the centuries.

Read More →
Review: Extraordinary Learning For All
Review: Extraordinary Learning For All

As a source of potential ideas and inspiration, the book could be very useful indeed.

Read More →
Review: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them
Review: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them

One has the impression that the main role of the university these days is to maximise profit, while that of the majority of teaching staff is to ensure the ‘correct’ views are passed on to students. All the while, students’ main concern seems to be to seek protection from anything that might make them feel unsafe.

Read More →
Review: Next Practices - An Executive Guide for Education Decision Makers
Review: Next Practices - An Executive Guide for Education Decision Makers

Is a 2014 book on managing the computing provision in a school still worth buying?

Read More →
Still relevant (sadly): How to lie with statistics, by Darrell Huff
Still relevant (sadly): How to lie with statistics, by Darrell Huff

Although this book is over 60 years old, it is remarkably apposite for our times -- and especially in the fields of educational research and assessing pupils' understanding and progress.

Read More →
Quick looks: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them
Quick looks: Bad Education: Why Our Universities Are Broken and How We Can Fix Them

It was a great source of pride to me, getting hundreds of students through their A levels and encouraging them to go to university. But for some time I have asked myself a question: would I recommend this route now?

Read More →
Dig+Ed+Banner.jpg

Contact us

Privacy

Cookies

Terms and conditions

This website is powered by Squarespace

(c) Terry Freedman All Rights Reserved