Dear silicon.com: Tech teacher shortage, Kangaroo and phones on planes

The issue that got readers talking this week was the IT-teacher drought - is "boring" IT to blame? Also getting readers reaching for their keyboards this week, the OFT and Kangaroo and phones on planes - love them or loathe them?

Teacher shortage
IT teacher applications continue to decline

Hardly surprising - the IT curriculum is crap and you end up teaching all of the kids who think that GCSE IT is a free ticket to play computer games all day. I know some exceptional IT teachers who have left school to get a real life.
-- Roger Huffadine, Worcester

I would quite enjoy teaching IT but what I would want to teach would be the skills that a business like my own requires, and I don't think that bears any resemblance to anything on the current National Curriculum unfortunately.

If schools used and taught computers using open source software then perhaps students would see the possibilities in a career in IT. I've seen it happen in fact, at my local Linux User Group. Students developing an interest in how their computer worked, being able to explore, modify and get involved and then go on to work in IT. Of course this is all outside school and done in spite of what they are taught there!
-- Paul Tansom, Portsmouth

That's exactly the impression I get from what my son does in ICT lessons - boring.

Instead of teaching important stuff, like how computers work, what's inside the box, how to put one together, what an operating system is and how it does its job, IP addressing, etc., they seem to be teaching them secretarial skills on what will soon, I hope, become obsolete software.
-- David Fletcher, UK

Editor's choice

silicon.com editor Steve Ranger flags up his picks on the site this week...

♦ ¿Dónde está el iPhone 3G?
♦ Peter Cochrane's Video Blog: Power outrage
♦ Getting to the meeting - without the journey
♦ Bill Gates, iPhone 2.0, mini laptops and much more...

Hopping mad
Kangaroo web TV faces competition scrutiny

It makes sense to have the content stored centrally. This means that it only needs to be stored once (backed up of course) and require a single distribution platform.

This will ensure compatibility across multiple players and only require one set of servers instead of one set for each broadcaster... So it's green as well.
-- Roy Corneloues, East Anglia

XP is dead
Time finally runs out for Windows XP, place

Sorry, whatever happened to "the customer is always right"? Wherever you look, it seems the world doesn't want XP, yet MS insist on ramming it down out throats! I have 400-plus users scattered around Europe to think about, managed from a single location. I don't want Vista but I suspect eventually I will have to give in to pressure from Microsoft. I don't like it though.
-- Anonymous, Western Europe

I'm on a plane!
We are now roaming at 30,000 feet...

However, one very prominent barrier remains. Business travellers and others want to make calls during flight and airlines and wireless companies want to make revenue from this service; but most people onboard don't want to be bothered by others yapping away during the flight.
-- Mark Snedecor, CA

Totally disagree with your endorsement. I and many others I know will choose the airline that does not allow mobile voice calls. "Honey, I'm on the plane!". What a horrible scenario!
-- Journeyman, Austria

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