I know that some teachers let their pupils dictate what they will learn in Computing lessons, but except in one general case I think it's am misguided notion.

The exceptional case is when they are doing project work. My approach there was to set the problem or challenge at the start of a six week period, and then leave the pupils to decide how they were going to tackle it, and what they were going to do by when. Obviously, I provided guidance and help, but on the whole they were in charge of their timetable.

Indeed, there is another aspect of project work that lends itself to pupils setting the agenda: if you allow them to decide on the challenge or problem in the first place.

But when it comes to more ordinary lessons, I think allowing the pupils to decide what they want to learn is a big mistake.

My reasons

First, they don't know what they don't know. Unless the pupils are familiar with the whole of Computing I don't see how they can possibly make a reasonably informed choice of the topic they wish to cover.

Second, what they decide to focus on may not be the most important thing they ought to focus on. I regard this is a subset of the first reason.

Third, if you are teaching to a qualification, it is down to you to decide what needs to be covered, and in what order.

Fourth, even if you are not teaching to a qualification, that idea I mentioned a moment ago is very important: order. The syllabus, and therefore your lessons, should be more than a collection of topics. In Computing especially it is reasonable to take the view that some concepts are fundamental, and that without an understanding of those then anything else you cover will be like a building resting on sand.

Fifth, in my experience, without guidance pupils tend to select topics that are too easy, or which are not as rich in terms of possibilities.

Sixth, call me old-fashioned, but I think the teacher is nominally the person in charge, and should therefore be the actual person in charge.

My track record

Just for the record, I have some experience in what I'm talking about, and this has influenced my views. In particular, I have experimented with allowing  adults to decide what they would like to cover (in the context of a course about understanding how the economy works). Most had no idea of what they would like to cover, except for a vague notion that they would like to be able to understand the news. Others had very definite ideas, to the extent that taking note of all of their preferences would have made the course (a) unmanageable, (b) cacophonous (which the only word I can think of to describe a mish-mash of a course in which nothing really gels with anything else) and (c) counter-productive because the result would have been an understanding not of how the economy works, but of how aspects of the economy works in particular circumstances.

That was my experience with adults, who have had a lot more life experience than kids, and whose thinking is (one would suppose) more mature.

I have no reason to believe that handing my computing lessons over to kids would yield better results.

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