Why is the High School IT “Crowd” becoming an empty room?
Principal Supervisor: Associate Professor Amy MacDonald
Co-Supervisor: Dr. James Deehan
The modern world is critically dependent on information and communication technology (ICT). The demand for ICT graduates is huge. Despite the demand, uptake of ICT courses in high schools and universities has been dropping so that demand currently exceeds the number of new graduates by around 10 to 1, both in Australia and worldwide.
This project aims to identify the reasons for students choosing not to pursue ICT studies and careers by going to the source and asking year 10 and 12 high school students about their experiences and perceptions of ICT courses and careers.
In 2015-2016 I completed a Master of Education – Education Research through Charles Sturt. One part of this course was to conduct a small-scale research project. My initial focus was on improving student engagement in general, however, this evolved into an investigation as to why students in my school were taking up ICT studies at a rate ~2-4 times higher than the state average.
I realized this needed to be taken further and started to develop the current project with a view to using it for doctoral studies. When I approached the supervisor from my Masters’ project to act as a referee, he immediately became enthusiastic, which ultimately led to my enrolment at Charles Sturt for my doctorate.