HANNAH GIVEN
University students are being used to help rekindle interest in computing science courses in Scottish schools amid concerns for the future of the subject.
Academics are concerned at the fall in enrolments for such university courses, which has resulted in a lack of qualified computer experts at a time when ministers want Scotland to be at the forefront of a knowledge economy.
Ucas figures for 2007 show that while applications for computer studies courses at university level were up by 0.1%, between 2001 and 2004 the number of applications had dropped from 29,014 to 16,801.
The difficulty for teachers and local authorities stems from the difference between computing studies and ICT, the latter being more common in schools. Computing studies deals with technical aspects of computers and technology, while ICT teaches pupils the user side of technology.
Chris Johnson, professor of computing science at Glasgow University, believes the fall in students taking computer studies can be attributed to the rise of the internet and the dot.com industries in the 1990s - the resulting crash in 2001 cut jobs in the global computer industry by half.
He said: "Ten years ago we were a real boom subject. People were coming to us because of the dot.com bubble, convinced they could make a career out of computing. Now we're really trying to drum up interest in the subject."
One way in which this is happening is through a option course at Glasgow University. The course, Computing Science in the Classroom (CSI), is run under the aegis of the Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme where final year students go to local schools and team up with a particular teacher to support lessons.
They have to deliver at least one of the CSI workshops during their visits and to design a new workshop and deliver it. Philip Gray, senior lecturer at Glasgow University, said the initial feedback from teachers, students and pupils on their visits has been "excellent".
The Scottish Government said it has no plans to cut back on teaching computing in schools. Next week it will publish the teaching guidance on technologies - including computing - which are part of Curriculum for Excellence, the government's new approach to teaching and learning.
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