How the teaching of IT in the UK needs a complete overhaul

As a former IT teacher, the curriculum is incredibly boring and outdated. A lot of the teaching is simple word processing and spreadsheets. However, most of these students have grown up surrounded by technology. Half the time the students know more than the teachers. It also doesn't help when the teachers are desperately lacking in any real technology experience. I was the only teacher I'd met who'd ever done any programming or had even worked in a tech company.

The curriculum also contains some of the most boring subjects known to man. Do students really need to have an understanding of "Change Management". We should be educating them about technology, introducing them to the possibilities and allowing them to create. Some of the most fun lessons I ever taught were on Photoshop, even with knowledge of only a few tools students will create the most fantastic images.

Children are naturally inquisitive and want to know how things work, especially around the internet and games. Unfortunately, most of the time these questions go unanswered because the teachers can't answer them and it's most likely not on the curriculum.

Personally the curriculum is currently worthless, it was incredibly boring to teach and even more boring for students. It's incredibly frustrating when there are so many great things we could be teaching these students to expand their minds and skills.

It would great to hear how this compares to IT curriculums in other countries.