[AlexC04]

I was an ICT teacher in the UK for 5 years. Our requirement is that we teach units to an accepted common standard.

http://www.teach-ict.com/contributors/Ritchie_King/gcseproje...

Is an example of one marking scheme that I found (on a quick search).

See page 7 and notice that the requirement is that the student "identify" on a scale of 5 marks

- A clear statement of the problem, giving some background detail and identifying user(s)

- Consideration of possible alternative solutions with adequate justification given for the chosen method

- Quantitative objectives or user requirement

Now if a student just goes out and makes a mobile app that doesn't cover any of the requirements so for the above section I'd have been forced to give a 0.

The UK school system has a number of very deep, systematic problems that are preventing it from delivering a good education in IT.

It's a shame, it's frustrating and it's not going to change any time soon.

[eftpotrm]

One thing I had drummed into me in my UK ICT education (admittedly 15 years ago and it wasn't called ICT then) was that we were aiming at fulfilling client desires; that we shouldn't just go off and produce something cool, if it wasn't of use to the described and defined end user (who we had a great amount of freedom to select) and we couldn't objectively justify our development approach, it wasn't good enough.

Now, I can't say I object to a marking scheme that requires students to learn to develop what is useful and efficient rather than just what is cool...

[daredevildave]

I would much rather kids make stuff that is cool, rather than stuff that is useful. They have 60 years after they leave school to make useful stuff (probably for other people).