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Event title:
The Silicon Factor BBC TV series

Timeline Date
January 1, 1980
Category
Government, Department or Organisation
Secretary of State
Subject
Area
BECTA Category
Event Content
By disapplying the ICT programme of study from September this year schools will be able to offer a more creative and challenging curriculum, drawing on support and advice from those best positioned to judge what an ambitious and forward-looking curriculum should contain.
Michael Gove Tweet
DETAIL OF THE EVENT
A series of three programmes investigating the so-called microelectronics revolution.
1: So What’s it All About?
The silicon chip, unnoticed by most of us a few years ago, is now something everybody has heard about, few understand and many are beginning to fear. Is it really the basis for a revolution as profound as the industrial revolution? And what kind of revolution is it?
In this first programme,
Bernard Falk takes a laymen’s view of what the silicon chip is, how it s made and how it works. From a Chicago millionaire’s home to a Birmingham car test-track, and from a psychiatric hospital in Scotland to a Swedish factory, he looks at how the new technology is being used and at what it could do in the future.
Film editor JOHN LYTE Producer DAVID ALLEN
Contributors
Presenter: Bernard Falk
Editor: John Lyte
Producer: David Allen
Evidence indicates that recent curriculum and qualifications reforms have not led to significant improvements in the teaching of ICT, and the number of students progressing to further study in ICT-related subjects is in decline. Furthermore, the ICT curriculum in its current form is viewed as dull and demotivating for pupils. Its teaching may not equip pupils adequately for further study and work, may leave them disenchanted or give rise to negative perceptions that turn them off the subject completely.
Michael Gove Tweet
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