Abstract:

In this paper author discusses in more detail some of the results of the research on students' background and current knowledge of informatics.

The students have different primary and secondary school background in informatics because the subject informatics is only extracurricular activity and elective subject in Croatian primary education. It is compulsory in the secondary school but often just in the first grade.

The results of the survey on students' background and current knowledge of informatics on the sample of 218 students of the Faculty of teacher education of the University of Zagreb show that there are the following information and communication technology (ICT) subjects of most interest to students (most preferred first): web technology, audio and video processing, programming, image editing, and others. The subject of the least interest is the text and presentation editing.

Author concludes that there are the following reasons for such interest: the obsolete informatics curricula for the primary and the secondary education in the Republic of Croatia, the continuous and rapid development of the new information and communication technologies that influence the process of education by moving it even more to online and mobile domains, and the fact that the students are aware of those trends and they actively participate in them.

Keywords:

Informatics, ICT, education, curriculum.