The GIST Hub

Hello RepRappers
Sorry I couldn’t make the last meeting, I was sick and definitely 1dimensional.
Hope things are progressing build wise.

Still tinkering with Arduino connected to the occult world.

John

Open Invitation – a GIST Magazine / Town Hall Meeting to discuss and respond to the DfE ICT consultation

Dear Local Educator, Parent, Employer or other Interested party,

On 18 January 2012 the Department for Education launched a public consultation on the Government’s proposal to disapply the National Curriculum Programmes of Study for Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and associated Attainment Targets and assessment arrangements, from September 2012. (http://www.education.gov.uk/a00202113/faqs-on-the-ict-curriculum-consultation)

The GIST Foundation is an active local community of individuals drawn from technical and creative organisations across the region. We are educators, social entrepreneurs, volunteers, technicians and business people who come together with the primary purpose of sharing knowledge and best practice in the digital creative arena. The Foundation has special interest groups in all areas from specific programming languages to systems thinking and physical computing.

At the start of 2011, inspired by some of our younger members, GIST launched an initiative called “Geek Cadets”. The aim of this group to make our core activities more accessible to a younger audience. GIST started out life essentially as a professional community of practice, but quickly grew into a broader church of knowledge sharing and social entrepreneurship. Geek Cadets focus was particularly trying to provide opportunities for learning fundamental programming skills in school level education.

In August 2011 Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google issued a somewhat blunt statement about his views on the adequacy of teaching ICT in the UK (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/26/eric-schmidt-chairman-google-education). This was followed in early 2012 with the announcement referenced above.

The GIST Foundation already has strong ties with some of the individuals and organisations who will be responding to the consultation. We would like to invite all interested parties, but especially educators from local schools and colleges, to come to an open town-hall meeting at 7:00pm on Wednesday 3rd January 2012 in the Showroom Cafe Bar. The room will be available from early evening. We would like to find out what role, if any, local educators feel an organisation like GIST can play in supporting the teaching of ICT, and garner -all- points of view for inclusion in a response to the consultation.

We’re not currently aware of any other responses to this consultation being drafted locally, so this may well be your best chance to have your voice heard as the part of a larger community of practice. We would also welcome input on the drafting and all aspects of producing a response. This is to be a community driven grass roots response and all input is most welcome.

Any news on plans for the group going forward. Have we any events planned?