ABSTRACT
It is almost universally accepted that pupils should be taught Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and should leave education as confident users of computers and associated technologies. In this chapter, the author discusses two things. The first is to interrogate ICT as defined within the National Curriculum and examine the crucial ways in which this subject differs from other subjects, or whether it can properly be called a subject at all. The second is to compare the idealised world of the Curriculum orders with some of the real world challenges faced by pupils, teachers and schools as they attempt to perform the 'transformation skills' so wished for the by the statutory authorities. The latest revisions to the National Curriculum for ICT do improve the clarity of the document and in particular the status of ICT as a cross-curricular discipline is enhanced, but despite the revisions many key issues remain unresolved.
