I feel like there will be some software out there that lets you scan a physical multiple choice paper and then marks it for you.
So then we’re requiring every sqn to own a scanner, ideally with document feed functionality, rather than just computers.
Or a smartphone…
But if it’s an optional functionality then it’s not an issue anyway.
Off topic… but are there still squadrons without a scanner, printer, laptops.
If so, what exactly do their staff and committee do? For goodness sake its easy to raise money via grants!
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Surely not having a scanner would make any activity that needs forms sent to wing quite difficult?
Considering a basic 3-in-1 has been dirt cheap for years (freebie disposals aside) I would be shocked to find a unit without.
One of the women at work did a OU course and they had m/c tests and I very much doubt the OU had people marking each paper. That was in the 90s. I queried the time it was taking to get results back and was told 3 or 4 people got together over a couple of weekends with a mask for each subject, ticked the answers and counted them. It seems with a bit of investment back then the time could have been used to reduce the waiting to a couple of weeks max and potentially none of this rubbish would have come about.
It depends what you are looking for.
I do a lot family history and a search for a name even pinning with places and years, brings all manner of random rubbish and in many, many instances the same or similar names and places. It is amazing how many little villages in the UK have counterparts in other parts of the UK and Canada, US, Australia etc. Click on a link to find it’s thousands of miles away.
Then there are those websites where they no longer ‘live’, documents that don’t work and at work as I get with Bader at work, just blocked by the company. One of the faves for “no longer live” are squadron websites.
I remember our kids doing research for homework and giving up and resorting to books on the shelf next to them.
If you can get around this and get all the pertinent and relevant sites / info on page one of a search each and every time, I’d be astounded. But then it’s always easy to knock people for effect, don’t you think?
I doubt education would catch up as you put it as the cost would astronomical and relies on the myth that kids are “IT” savvy and would use “IT” for anything other than leisure. Also I doubt there would be one piece of software or system used across all schools. I know teachers have said when they’ve changed schools there have been different MIS. Another problem would be for schools the day the system dies or the leccy goes off teachers would still need to teach the 1000+ kids, so books and whiteboard and pen would be king. One teacher I know has all their lessons on PPT but has printed every single one and has on occasion, when the system has died, used them to do his lessons.
Based on what I see at the squadron I don’t see evidence of kids being that savvy when it comes to using software. It appears that schools teach coding and so on, which is fine for a few, but what they need to be “job ready” is full conversant usage of “office” software. I don’t even see this in graduates at work.
Oh lord. You’re the first person I’ve ever known who wants us to return to the days of an ICT GCSE or A Level just being a “How to use MicroSoft products” qualifications.
You obviously haven’t read his post he wants them to be competent on type writers not PCs…
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Bring back slate, I say!
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How many jobs are there for coders? Our local schools do a coding GCSE.
But all should leave school in this day and age fully able to use ‘office’ software and this doesn’t need a GCSE.
Well there is an entire sector . . . Engineering, plus research, areas or manufacturing, art.
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When I did an OU degree there were computer marked assignments. Fill out the form , send it off, and results within a week or so. That was in the 1980’s early '90’s . Minimal human involvement , except for setting the questions and auditing the answers.
Maybe misunderstood. I queried the time it took for cadet exams to be marked, as the woman said like you results back from the OU in a week maybe two depending on the postal service.
Coding has been a bit of dark art and I imagine a GCSE wouldn’t get you in the door, unless they do apprenticeships from 16.
More jobs for coders in it world than anything else…if i was back at school id focus on software development and be earning 30% more money than i do now.
Job boards are full of developer and software/tech/infrastructure sales positions. The world is headed towards centralised hardware (cloud computing) and software processes. The Internet Of Things has arrived and is accelerating.
Mobile and games dev is huge too.