Monday 28 November 2011
Moves In Computer Science Education
Apparently there is a push in the UK to replace teaching of business software in schools (what one might refer to as "IT education") with teaching of programming (which I might refer to as "CS education"). That would be a very good move.
No doubt I'll be preaching to the choir on this blog, but "IT education" teaches kids boring, low-grade skills and prepares them to work as office drones. It does nothing to prepare them to work on interesting high-value high-tech projects. In fact it very likely damages the high-tech economy, by teaching bright kids to avoid computer-oriented skills and jobs at all costs. It would be much better for schools to avoid computers altogether than "teach" Word, Excel and Powerpoint.
For what it's worth, in my house our kids spend almost no time on the computer(s). I am very happy about that. I assume that they'll dive into it as teenagers, and I hope being cognitively much better equipped they won't develop a habit of just consuming content, but instead will be more likely to learn to master the theory and practice of the machine.
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