Eyes Above The Waves

Robert O'Callahan. Christian. Repatriate Kiwi. Hacker.

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.

Comments

tom jones
why does it have to be either/or? i don't have much praise for the Serbian education system, but even in the late 90ties kids were thought windows/office basics, plus (for about half of the kids) basic programming (pascal). i am all for teaching programming, but there is a certain kind of brain that is more "tuned" to that way of thinking, while basic "computer skills" today are as important as learning how to write/basic maths..
blog saya
computers there because people love to learn, so why should we learn computers? perhaps by now learn more than new technologies will emerge a much more sophisticated of today.
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Computer science is a very serious degree to get, you definitely need to be persistent and be very resourceful with your coding. Always choose a degree that you really like so that you'll always be happy.
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The reform on the education system may or may not be beneficial, but I must agree with the reform to include the core digital skills. Anyway, I hope that the government will be able to resolve the issue on computer science and IT.
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I strongly agree with your opinion, but sometimes we have to let our children choose and decide what they want. Because if they are not forced to do something, that will be good as a result.
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lauren maftel
Well job opportunities are great for computer science, from IT specialist to network engineer or java developer , I just depends if you do a 6 or 8 year course cracking all , if you do well and write a cisco exam you could be a potential candidate to work for windows or google
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thank's for your information