On Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:10:01 +0100, dennis@home wrote:

"Bob Eager" wrote in message
...

The problem is still the expectation (that I see) that an ICT course is
any preparation at all for doing something like computer science -
whereas in reality they are two different subjects!


ICT is supposed to be about the principles of communication, like when
to use a spreadsheet, not how to do a spreadsheet in excel.

No, it's about how to use one too. How to use the tools to solve the
problem.




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On 8 Sep, 18:59, Bob Eager wrote:
On Tue, 08 Sep 2009 10:14:18 -0700, David wrote:
On 8 Sep, 17:47, Bob Eager wrote:
On Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:25:01 +0200, David in Normandy wrote:
OK, so it was a combination of factors. However, the first thing that
struck me was his computer illiteracy in general. He was supposedly
doing an ICT course at school and all he seemed capable of doing was
turning the power switch on and guessing usernames / passwords.
Beyond that he was clueless. I expect school ICT courses to impart a
certain basic level of computer literacy about computers, files,
folders and programs and to include a generalised knowledge of word
processing and at the very least what a spreadsheet is - whoever the
vendor.

My son has just gone back to school in year 9. They've just started the
OCR National (GCSE equivalent which a lot of schools are moving over
to) ICT course. First lesson yesterday was files and folders, and they
were expected to go through the steps, do screenshots of each stage,
and make a commented Word document out of them.

Urgh, I am on that course, we have done two units in year 9 and we are
still doing it this year, it's easy yet annoying.

Depends on the number of units actually done. My son expects to do the
lot! Mind, SWMBO is an OCR moderator and knows it inside out (when she's
not teaching Java and databases elsewhere).

The problem is still the expectation (that I see) that an ICT course is
any preparation at all for doing something like computer science -
whereas in reality they are two different subjects!

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*http://www.mirrorservice.org

Interesting. Apparently the whole course can be equivalent to 4
GCSE's. The whole class failed Unit 1, some with very minor errors and
some with major errors so we are busy correcting Unit 1 at the moment.

On Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:48:47 +0200, David in Normandy wrote:

Exactly. The kid showed neither interest nor aptitude. I got the
impression he was there because his school had put him there.

Yep, my experience of work experience kids is bipolar, those that
really want to be there and those that would rather be anywhere else.
There doesn't seem to be a middle ground of "Well I'm here, I'd
rather not be, but I may as well make the most of it".

--
Cheers
Dave.

In article o.uk,
Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:48:47 +0200, David in Normandy wrote:

Exactly. The kid showed neither interest nor aptitude. I got the
impression he was there because his school had put him there.

Yep, my experience of work experience kids is bipolar, those that
really want to be there and those that would rather be anywhere else.
There doesn't seem to be a middle ground of "Well I'm here, I'd
rather not be, but I may as well make the most of it".

When I worked at Thames TV we had quite a few. They probably hoped to be
'working' in the more glamourous areas - but insurance prevented that. So
sound wise they got put in the Sound Library. A place where 'listening'
cassettes of LPs etc were made. So not the most interesting of locations.
And quite a few made their disappointment pretty clear. And I'm sure many
of my colleagues reciprocated...

--
*There are two kinds of pedestrians... the quick and the dead.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:03:24 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

When I worked at Thames TV we had quite a few. They probably hoped to be
'working' in the more glamourous areas - but insurance prevented that.

At the Beeb they were allowed in the studios (floor or gallery, radio
and TV). The biggest problem was that normally the first anyone on
the crew knew about a work experience person arriving was when they
arrived! There wasn't any information for them or for us to help
either get the most from the week.

Of course "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it
drink", but if we had had some for warning and some standard info
sheets it would have been a lot better than "Just look after
Fred/Freeda will you"?

--
Cheers
Dave.

Huge wrote:

Instruction manuals are full of OTT safety advice, but it would take a very
brave - or stupid man to fit a saw blade to an angle grinder.

QVC were recently selling an accessory for angle grinders. It let you
cut and sculpt wood. It was a circular blade with a chain saw chain
wrapped around it.

My (wood worker) father used to use a tool to sculpt the seats of Windsor
chairs which consisted of a hemispherical mount with three curved blades
attached (like lines of longitude) which attached to an angle grinder.

All these tools have been tested either by manufacturers aware of the
legal implications of making dangerous ones, or by years of experience
and led by the needs of skilled craftsmen.

There's a mania for modular, snap-it-on, adapt-it-to-another-function
tools, and the idea that anything can be attached to any other thing to
increase usefulness - I think that's dangerous.

"I saw Lon Cheney walking with the Queen."

Chaney, but yeah.

Daniele

In article
,
D.M. Procida wrote:
There's a mania for modular, snap-it-on, adapt-it-to-another-function
tools, and the idea that anything can be attached to any other thing to
increase usefulness - I think that's dangerous.

Such as? The Multi-Master yes. But it's a relatively safe tool anyway.
There are plenty where you share a battery - but that's a different matter.
I can remember with a shudder all those attachments for electric drills -
most of which were near useless.

--
*You! Off my planet!

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 8 Sep, 05:43, RubberBiker wrote:

The one's I've seen are designed for *small* grinders, have a suitable
tooth spacing for the rotational speed, *limiters in front of each
tooth*, proper blade guards etc

There are two sorts. The Arbortech (rigid disk) is a lot more
controllable than the chainsaw chain (Lancelot) form, particularly for
avoiding kickbacks, probably because it has better cut limiters. I
wouldn't allow the chainsaw chain sort in the workshop. I even know
chainsaw carvers who won't use them, preferring the Arbortech.

One of the most dangerous similar things to do is some amateur
chainsaw carving, without using a chainsaw that has been set up for
carving. If you do this with a top-handle saw, it really doesn't bear
thinking about.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article
,
D.M. Procida wrote:
There's a mania for modular, snap-it-on, adapt-it-to-another-function
tools, and the idea that anything can be attached to any other thing to
increase usefulness - I think that's dangerous.

Such as? The Multi-Master yes. But it's a relatively safe tool anyway.
There are plenty where you share a battery - but that's a different matter.
I can remember with a shudder all those attachments for electric drills -
most of which were near useless.

I am sure there are plenty of safe ones. It's the idea that you can do
this kind of thing with just anything that has tragic consequences for
the poor bodgers who think they've had a good idea.

Daniele