Lately there has been a call by governments to teach computer programming to more students and at an earlier age. This is coming from both the UK and the US and I can understand this concern with an emerging workforce lacking the skills required to compete with it's business demands.
I understand this goal, as you always want the most educated and creative population as possible. Knowledge is always beneficial to individuals, communities and countries. Every student will not have the aptitude for programming, but it should not be scary to them either.
Teaching software development is not the same as a trade school with the goal of lesson drills and testing for repeating those lessons. As with any good education the ability to understand and apply what has been learned in new conditions and solve problems is the real goal.
Teaching 1 million Visual Basic programmers would not go far to increasing our technology workforce. Teaching 1 million knowledgable creative, understanding programmers would. The goal is true but the difficulty is in the implementation. With the focus on the mechanical logic, testing and measuring results, I'm not sure this will get very far. First of all I'm not sure we really know how to teach software development. We have the languages, the lessons, it just feels that there is so much that we are missing.
I tend to think of creating software is a mixture of logic, knowledge, emotions and physiology with so much not being explored on how human goals effect development. With the web filled with technology knowledge of how to program with specifics on every possible behavior and operation, what is there to teach? Well, the web is filled with information, but it needs to be placed in the context of human lives and the dynamic interaction of a complete development project. These web islands need to combine into a complete and integrated world that the students can navigate through. Thats what we could teach.
(Do you know what the photo is of?)
I understand this goal, as you always want the most educated and creative population as possible. Knowledge is always beneficial to individuals, communities and countries. Every student will not have the aptitude for programming, but it should not be scary to them either.
Teaching software development is not the same as a trade school with the goal of lesson drills and testing for repeating those lessons. As with any good education the ability to understand and apply what has been learned in new conditions and solve problems is the real goal.
Teaching 1 million Visual Basic programmers would not go far to increasing our technology workforce. Teaching 1 million knowledgable creative, understanding programmers would. The goal is true but the difficulty is in the implementation. With the focus on the mechanical logic, testing and measuring results, I'm not sure this will get very far. First of all I'm not sure we really know how to teach software development. We have the languages, the lessons, it just feels that there is so much that we are missing.
I tend to think of creating software is a mixture of logic, knowledge, emotions and physiology with so much not being explored on how human goals effect development. With the web filled with technology knowledge of how to program with specifics on every possible behavior and operation, what is there to teach? Well, the web is filled with information, but it needs to be placed in the context of human lives and the dynamic interaction of a complete development project. These web islands need to combine into a complete and integrated world that the students can navigate through. Thats what we could teach.
(Do you know what the photo is of?)
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