Australian ICT Educators Program

The Australian Computer Society has proposed an "Australian ICT Educators Program" ("A new paradigm: Why our education system needs an overhaul", Anthony Wong, 7March 2017). This would provide professional development for those teaching ICT in schools. The program would be modeled on the UK Chartered Institute for IT (CaS), from the British Computer Society.

 The Australian program, I suggest, could build on the good work already done by the University of Adelaide, with their on-line Digital Technologies Education Programs for teachers. I suggest using the same "on-line" first approach: first building on-line professional development modules for teachers and the supplementing these with face-to-face classes.

Also I suggest that ACS should not confine the initiative to school teachers. Teaching ICT in the workplace and in higher education is a neglected field. Previously I proposed the ICT discipline Introduce Teaching as a Specialization for Computer Professionals. One role for such teaching-qualified computer professionals would be to design and deliver professional development courses to school teachers.