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Knowledge Is ‘out There', Waiting For Mankind To Discover It, Like A Diamond, ...

Knowledge is ‘out there', waiting for mankind to discover it, like a diamond, immutable and eternal. (Griffith, 2000:201)
Knowledge in the Information Age is more easily defined as an ability to harness the vast wealth of information that has been made available by the advent of the Internet and the triumph of mobile telephony, which have both fired the engines that have fanned the digital revolution. As opposed to the accumulation of material production that was the defining characteristic of the previous curriculum, a knowledge based curriculum refers to the accumulation of informationprocessing activities, particularly in advanced capitalist societies (Castells, 1996). Design and technology is an integral means of shifting the impetus onto the acquisition of knowledge in an educational context. The contemporary curriculum therefore has to take these new means of communication as the starting point of reconfiguring the knowledge economy in Scotland. As a result, ICT (Information and Communications Technology) teaching has become increasingly important to secondary sector education as the skills required to master the Internet and the ability to communicate across sovereign state and linguistic borders are key to securing employment in the modern day. The concept of a ‘job for life' is obsolete; consequently, students must be trained and skilled in the qualities that are likely to be adaptable to an uncertain, constantly shifting employment environment as opposed to following the previous policy path, which was to tailor a curriculum for specific needs within a specific lifetime career. Essentially, the fallacy of applying old solutions to new problems has been exposed; new media solutions are thus required to solve new problems of education, knowledge and employment. The Scottish curriculum, as with the curriculum in England and Wales, has therefore witnessed design and technology move in from the periphery of the curriculum to become a core subject since 2000, proving to be increasingly popular with secondary school pupils. As a result, the revised National Curriculum established the importance of design and technology for students in the twenty first century.
It [design and technology] prepares pupils to participate in tomorrow's rapidly changing technologies. They learn to think and intervene creatively to improve quality of life. The subject calls for pupils to become autonomous and creative problem solvers, as individuals and as members of a team. They must look for needs, wants and opportunities and respond to them by developing a range of ideas and making products and systems. They combine practical skills with an understanding of aesthetics, social and environmental issues, function and industrial practices.


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