Computer Science Teachers - Should they be required to develop an application for others?

For a while now I have been concerned about how Computer Science, and particularly programming, is being taught. This was brought into highlight when I met an enthusiastic young student who wants to get into computer game development. She is keen to learn and has enrolled in an FE College but was more than a little disgruntled when she was told that she would be learning ActionScript, a language that surely belongs in the dustbin of history, especially as Flash is rapidly making an exit from most developers toolbox.

This made me think about the issues we hit in the 80's, when computer programming lost it's 'fizz' in education. Back then we had few real 'programmers who could teach and few teachers who could program. A great deal of programming was taught from textbooks and worksheets using standard application templates, such as the pretty boring 'Video Store' development as a template for 'learning programming'. Computer programming became fairly stale as a subject, compounded by pretty awful exam structures that failed to address relevant and up-to-date topics and this, by and large, acted as a real 'turn off' for young people who wanted to learn how to code to satisfy their own needs.

The low levels of expertise, confidence and experience within the teaching profession and the generally boring lessons being taught (I saw so many that I nearly fell asleep in!!) pushed young people to develop on their BBC B's and Sinclair Spectrums in their own bedrooms rather than in the shiny, new computer suites that schools invested in.

IT COULD HAPPEN AGAIN!

What worries me is that it seems to be happening again. Yes, there are examples of keen teachers who produce great lessons and enthuse their pupils. But these are few compared to the army of teachers who are having to teach Computer Science with little or no experience of actually coding themselves.

Developing a computer program is more than just 'computational thinking' and learning some code structures. Unless you have actually developed a piece of software that actually solves a problem and/or adds some value, for yourself and others, then it is really hard to impart the knowledge required to empower young people to get the most from a Computer Science course.

Back in the 80's some of the best computer programming lessons were taught by teachers who had developed software for themselves, some of which made it into the Microcomputers in Education Programme packs that were shared with schools across the country.

Perhaps now is the time to get every computer science teacher to design, develop and ship an application that solves a problem ir adds value to their staff and/or students and share it with others on Github, perhaps with some prizes offered by computer companies? If the process of developing this application was seen as CPD and funded by the school as such - with time and perhaps some money put aside for support - then everyone, not least the students, may gain a great deal from the experience.

If nothing else, it would give CS teachers some real life experience of code development and may help them contextualise their teaching,