Slashdot article: Do Kids Still Program?
From: http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/28/2236239&threshold=2 "From his journal, hogghogg asks: "I keep finding myself in conversations with tertiary educators in the hard sciences (Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry, etc.) who note that even the geeks—those who voluntarily choose to major in hard sciences—enter university never having programmed a computer. When I was in grade six, the Commodore PET came out, and I jumped at the opportunity to learn how to program it. Now, evidently, most high school computer classes are about Word (tm) and Excel (tm). Is this a bad thing? Should we care?" Do you think the desire to program computers has declined in the younger generations? If so, what reasons might you cite as the cause?" Lots of discusssion related to the themes of edusig and CP4E. --Paul Fernhout
Lots of discusssion related to the themes of edusig and CP4E.
--Paul Fernhout
Very apropos, thank you. And yes, making "computers" just be about Word and Excel is a terrible development. We need to make it clear to math teachers that just using calculators is to rip students off. One way to do this is to barrel ahead with math curricula that are, need I say it, invested in Python. Kirby
Hello kirby, ku> Very apropos, thank you. ku> And yes, making "computers" just be about Word and Excel is a terrible ku> development. We need to make it clear to math teachers that just ku> using calculators is to rip students off. One way to do this is to ku> barrel ahead with math curricula that are, need I say it, invested in ku> Python. I sent the following email out to our Math Task FOrce at Utah Valley State College this week (we do math the old-fashioned way and are taking a lot of heat for begin too hard). The quotes are from a local newspaper article interviewing high-tech businesses: === "And what's really staggering is that people who have some of the two-year degrees cannot do basic math. They rely on a calculator--garbage in, garbage out, and they don't realize it's wrong. And that's a big problem." They were quoting Dave Baglee, co-executive officer of IM Flash Technologies, LLC in Lehi. He also said that when you hire a two-year degree recipient, you're not "hiring a problem solver." The technology programs in the state were seen as a farce by some of the employers. "They're enrolling haircutters, and we have people fixing hair and cutting meat, not fixing engines and building engines and running injection moulding and doing technology types of things, which is where I want my tax dollars to go." That was Fred Lampropoulos. This is where our mishandling of K-12 math statewide and nationwide has gotten us. So we'll be cutting hair and meat while India and China lead in technology. Not a pretty sight. They also mention the home influence: "In this state ... we have an awful lot of moms and dads working and everybody trying to keep up, and the highest bankruptcy rate. Everybody has to have their flat screens and stuff like this... I think a lot of it goes goes right back to the home, and are we going to invest in things or are we going to invest in our children?" The rubber hits the road in business - it has to - and business leaders seem to know what the problems are. Is anyone listening? === But none of our math folks program or know Python! Ideas? I'd be happy to teach them if I could get them interested. Kirby, I think I need an immersion into your stuff somehow. (In my copious spare time, of course, which I have a negative amount of :-). -- Best regards, Chuck
But none of our math folks program or know Python! Ideas? I'd be happy to teach them if I could get them interested. Kirby, I think I need an immersion into your stuff somehow. (In my copious spare time, of course, which I have a negative amount of :-).
-- Best regards, Chuck
I think it's a question of whether we're in the middle of a cultural shift wherein adults accept the need for life long learning more realistically, and don't worry too much about "starting over". I see two positive indications that this is the case: (1) with increasing life spans and more health to look foward to after 50, more adults are willing to start new careers even into their 40s and beyond. It's no longer unrealistic to consider medical school in one's 30s, as there's still ample time for a productive career, even after several years retraining (my friend Henry is going that route, and thriving). (2) all the 'for dummies' and 'complete idiot' titles out there. People are less afraid to admit they don't know, because the technical fields are so obviously vast that it has become apparent that *nobody* knows it all (in the old days, ignorant peasants used to think the King maybe knew everything). Trying to reach a set of goals involving math comprehension by means of steeping oneself in a computer language would be a definite "starting over" for a lot of teachers. The kids I'm teaching these days (today in fact) think this is simply a sensible and intelligent approach (they love my classes), but the adults are more in wonderment, as this really does seem like an alien curriculum to them. But I think we're probably entering an era when "trying new things" will be in vogue again. In the meantime, nations which have already declared emergencies around math teaching (e.g. South Africa) *are* ready to start over and try new things, so the math-through-programming approach *is* set to take off in some places, if not everywhere. Those sitting it out, on the sidelines for this round, will be in a position to learn from our mistakes, as we barrel ahead. That's the good news. The bad news is they may never catch up, if they wait too long. Kirby
participants (3)
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Chuck Allison -
kirby urner -
Paul D. Fernhout