Indeed. ICT teachers have a curriculum to stick to, whether they like it or not. If that curriculum, dictated by everyone from the head of department to the local authority, says "create a crappy powerpoint app" and the student doesn't do that, then he's failed.
I remember the painful discussion I had with my lecturer at college regarding the website module on my AVCE ICT course (college level; 16-18). I had a choice: I could create a website putting everything I knew about semantics and accessibility etc into it, using valid HTML & CSS etc etc etc... or I could pass the course (using Frontpage + frames).
It's a shit system (I've seen it both sides of the fence - student and IT support) but getting teachers to the level of your average HN user just for the sake of 1 in every few hundred students is a waste of their time.
A more powerful social effect maybe, but that teacher won't keep his job. It sounds like this kid already knows what course he'll pick for uni, if he's going, and the teacher doesn't know the area at all, so can't help in any way.
I remember the painful discussion I had with my lecturer at college regarding the website module on my AVCE ICT course (college level; 16-18). I had a choice: I could create a website putting everything I knew about semantics and accessibility etc into it, using valid HTML & CSS etc etc etc... or I could pass the course (using Frontpage + frames).
It's a shit system (I've seen it both sides of the fence - student and IT support) but getting teachers to the level of your average HN user just for the sake of 1 in every few hundred students is a waste of their time.