Archive for Acquisition

Comparing schools

January 25, 2012 jonathanbishop No comments

I share the concern raised about the risks of cyber-bullying following the publication of school banding by the Welsh Government (“School banding raises fears over cyber-bullying”, January 23).

As an advocate of New Labour, before leaving the Labour Party when Ed Miliband said it was over, I am strongly in favour of parents being allowed to choose which school their child goes to. The rank and file of Old and Welsh Labour say this won’t work because every parent will want their child go to the best school – well that is the point!

A market in education, such as by removing the unfair catchment areas that partition this market and create geographical ghettos, would mean the best schools would stay open and expand, and the worst ones would close.

In such a market you would need a way for the parents to choose the best school. Government-sanctioned league tables or school banding does not help – parents need to be able to create their own league tables.

Even the “least able” people can go on to websites like GoCompare or MoneySupermarket and select what is important to them about their home or car insurance policy and what is not. If we as citizens can prioritise insurance why not other things? It is not grades that make a school a best school. It is factors such as whether they have special support for your child’s disability, whether they have after-school clubs or extended hours, and whether the school has strong pupil-satisfaction.

So if the Welsh Government is happy to have de facto league tables – why don’t they give parents the choice to have their children educated outside their area so they are not subject to the stigma that they can do little about without “upping sticks”?

Acquisition, Application, Articulation, Info-scientific, Information Technology, Law, Letters and other Op-Eds, Socio-legal

Great idea for internet safety

December 24, 2011 jonathanbishop One comment

I WAS pleased to read the article in the South Wales Echo about the launch of a scheme to raise awareness of young people in internet safety issues (“New child safety DVDs and website”, December 12).

As a prize-winning author on trolling, the practice of posting messages on the internet to provoke or entertain, I know initiatives such as School Beat are important to raise awareness.

As those who attend my Trolling Academy (www.trollingacademy.org) know, online safety is something that is multi-faceted and needs to be explored from various angles.

The School Beat programme which involves schools is important.

At the Centre for Research into Online Communities and E-Learning Systems in Swansea, I am researching new computer systems that could make discipline in schools easier.

This would involve each student in a class having a laptop and accessing a tailored computer program which monitors them and assigns rewards if they act within the class’s behaviour contract.

I envisage a time in the future where, far from child poverty being tackled by giving parents handouts, that young people will receive vouchers to spend themselves if they show they can be disciplined in the classroom.

I know this works because it is what happened at the specialist private school I attended, and discipline was achieved without resorting to violence, which in SEN pupils like I was would only make things worse.

Acquisition, Application, Articulation, Bestowal, Boundlessness, Consideration, Economic, Info-scientific, Letters and other Op-Eds, Socio-legal

The Ethics of Lying

October 26, 2011 jonathanbishop No comments

Is it ethical to lie? I get very uncomfortable if I think I have lied or been dishonest, even when I did not realise that I was being so at the time, if you understand what I mean.

I’m going to look at common situations prone to lying and look at the ethics of the situation.

Does my bum look big in this?

If a woman can get her partner to clothes shop with her it is stereotypical she asks, ‘Does my bum look big in this?’. If their partner answers ‘yes’ they have scorned, or if they answer ‘no’ and she thinks ‘yes’ they have scorned.

So is honesty the best policy? If she does actually look big it in, then to not say so could lead to her to experience harmful comments from others if she actually accepts her partner’s word. So which is the bigger hurt, the immediate telling of the truth, or the long-term consequences of withholding the truth?

The Boogie Man

Parents will often use specific characters to attempt to control their children’s behavior. For example, near Easter they may say that the Easter Bunny won’t bring their chocolate eggs if they don’t comply. They’ll say some mythical creature will come and get them near Halloween. They may even claim that they are on first person terms with Santa Clause, who won’t bring their child presents if they don’t comply.

Whether this lying is ethical might depend on the interests of the child. If they say it to the child so they get ‘out of their hair’ while they are watching TV for instance, then it might be unethical. If they use it to keep the child out of danger such as avoiding them harming themselves or others then it might be considered ethical.

But would overuse of these techniques amount to the parent offering ‘improper disincentives’ when it may be more appropriate they develop more truthful strategies?

The Public Interest

Sometimes the politicians withhold or misrepresent the best truth for their own gain. They might at other times do so because it is in the public interest, such as the times in World War II that Churchill did not intervene to prevent a bombing strike as it would have let the Germans know their code had been cracked. I would argue that the politicians who lie about or misrepresent their personal or their party’s true opinion in order to get elected or gain some other advantage should face severe penalties.

Acquisition, An lonely on-looker's diary - The world through the eyes of an Aspie, Articulation, Bestowal, Socio-legal, The Official Weblog of Jonathan Bishop

The role of the BCS in regulating and encouraging entry to IT

September 7, 2011 jonathanbishop No comments

The IT industry is under-regulated in my opinion, and I think BCS – The Chartered Institute for IT have a big role to play in this.

I would like it so that a certificate of competence from the BCS for each area in The skills framwork for the information age (including from certification like CompTIA for tech support or ECDL for DBAs or other administrator) will be as required to practice in IT as FRCS is in surgery or CIMA etc. is in accountancy. I don’t think someone should be allowed to be an IT director or CIO/CTO of a Plc without FBCS or equivalent from IET or CILIP – Maybe they’d need CITP as well which IET and CILIP would have to sign up for.

So this creates a problem, how are people from my generation going to get the experience in order to operate at this level to get FBCS? This is nearly already out of their reach as they are already working for nothing as graduate interns just to get administrative experience.

The Baby Boomers can’t retire because their pension pots have swelled. Generation X are holding all the middle management jobs ready to jump into the Baby Boomers shoes, so my generation faces becoming the lost generation.

Geneartion Next will be youthful and energetic, when they are 36 at the optimal age in IT when the Baby Boomers have gone, we will be around 56 and not have had the life either the Baby Boomers had or Generation Next will have who will easily cruise to FBCS based on actual experience not synthetic.

So I’d like a career in the IT industry to be based on merit, not age or social networks as it is now. I see FBCS as the gold standard for this. Why should public sector job ads for IT be designed with a specific candidate in mind to get around the procurement rules? They should be based on SFIA so the criteria is objective, accepted and regulated. If the job ad is for a director position it should be based on SFIA Level 7 (FBCS).

SFIA along with CITP and FBCS are the route to equality in IT I feel. Jobs for the boys is rife in IT, but if everything had to be based objectively on SFIA and everyone had to be a member of BCS/IET/CILIP to work in IT, whose codes of conduct state one must not claim a competency one doesn’t possess, then a job in IT would be based on merit and not other criteria.

As the BCS code of conduct says one was not do work for which one does not have competency, and the problems I raise with my generation (The Net Generation) not being able to get experience, then there needs to be a training scheme to get them to the standard where they can be treated equally.

I think doctoral programmes are the route to getting FBCS without being held back by not getting opportunity as my generation are facing. Research councils already accredit doctorate (as ESRC) and newly trained educational psychologists can’t practice without a relevant doctorate. Equally I think no one should be allowed to offer any lower IT qualifications like the ones advertised on TV unless they were approved by BCS as meeting the standard for the training of the competency claimed.

So while my generation are waiting for the Baby Boomers to retire, and the Generation Next are getting ready to be the next best thing in town, my generation could be doing doctorates accreted by BCS to Level 7, and providing BCS convince public authorities to use SFIA to draft job ads objectively rather than on the basis of jobs for the boys, then maybe my generation will stand a better chance of getting the opportunity to realise our potential where we otherwise be denied in the current climate.

Acquisition, Boundlessness, Fourth Way Society Foundations, Humanities and Principles, Information Technology, The Official Weblog of Jonathan Bishop