Digital entrepreneurs: 'Take the brakes off digital engagement in schools'
Educators should base the curriculum around digital platforms and "take the brakes off digital engagement in schools," according to Chris van der Kuyl, chairman of games developer 4J Studios.
The Scotland-based digital entrepreneur told a business forum that "the pace of innovation in education is way, way too slow," and teachers should be encouraged to innovate through the inspection regime, the Sunday Herald reports.
The paper quotes van der Kuyl as saying: "We need to get the right people teaching and give them ability to say: 'Right, my whole curriculum is going to be based around digital platforms.' The best teachers are already doing this.
"If you made a simple change like demanding of the teacher population that they all innovate in digital skills and inspect them on that basis, you would very quickly see behaviour changing. Risk management is good, but it doesn't mean no risk: positive things may come if you take the brakes off digital engagement in schools."
The former Brightsolid chief executive also called for more support to be given to Scotland's digital sector, saying "organisations like Scottish Enterprise and The Entrepreneurial Exchange... should really be shouting about" digital business.
Van der Kuyl's comments were echoed by Peter Mowforth, from e-commerce company Indez, who said politicians should pay more attention to e-commerce.
"It's the biggest thing in business today, according to the ONS growing at 13% a year, but if you do a keyword search of the Scottish Government website there is almost nothing about this lowest-hanging fruit to help Scotland achieve growth and exports," Mowforth said.
In October this year The Drum teamed up with BIMA to run D-Day, putting digital careers on the agenda in schools across the UK. Experts from top digital agencies visited schools across the country to share their digital knowledge with 5,000 pupils.