Posted on 01/30/2016 11:04:00 PM PST by Olog-hai
President Barack Obama says he'll ask Congress for billions in new spending to help students learn computer science skills.
Obama announced the plan in his weekly radio and Internet address on Saturday. He says developing analytical and coding skills is a must for jobs in the new economy. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
My kids, who went to primary and secondary schools between 1992 and 2010, learned that we were destroying tropical rain forests, and when all of the biodiversity in the world was destroyed by greedy corporations in the Amazon Basin and other exotic third world jungles, that would pretty much be the end of the world.
I'm sure no money was specifically earmarked for that, but I have no doubt it cost billions. This is what they learned instead of actual science until they got to middle school.
Today, I'm sure that billions -- again not specifically earmarked, but no doubt in the lesson plans of thousands of educators -- is being spent to indoctrinate kids on the evils of carbon, AGW, and all the rest.
$4 billion could easily be diverted from the non-science primary schools spend teaching claptrap. The problem is, who would teach it? I doubt that more than a handful of primary or secondary teachers could possibly teach computer science in any serious way. [High School math teachers surely could, but math education is already lacking enough...]
And teaching backwards, stupid programming languages is indeed one way to achieve that.
Why is math being taught in ways that are torturous and counter-intuitive? Precisely to convince students with mathematical aptitude that they really don't understand what they're being taught.
It doesn't help that most grade school math teachers are completely innumerate and the only thing keeping them "ahead" of their students is the teacher's edition of the textbook.
I view programming as basic logic. My programs always work, but they are not artistic. I know exactly what you mean.
Any time I’ve seen ghetto high school students with access to internet-capable computers, the LAST thing on their agenda was doing any work vaguely connected to academia. Number one activity was perusing high-dollar sneakers. That was the vast majority of them. Number two activity was watching sports games, mainly NBA. Number three activity was listening to crap music videos. and downloading stolen iTunes to their own iPods. Yeah, I can really see wasting $4B on “improving the computer skills of students”.
Of course we need a massive federal program to learn coding. It’s not like any kid with access to the internet couldn’t just go online with the thousands of free online courses themselves. And if anyone opposes the billions.. You’re racist and hate children.
The Art of Computer Programming Volume 1 (Fundamental Algorithms) Donald E(rvin) Knuth, Addison-Wesley, Copyright 1968.
(Dedicated to the IBM 650, a bi-quinary computer, drum memory, ...), and
The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick Brooks, as in the La Brea Tar Pits ... The story of software development for the IBM 360 ...
Most computer science students in my discrete math class do not pass. It is a rigorous theorem-proof course. It has to be a hard class to prepare them for the discrete structures course they have to take care in computer science. A lot of those students change their major because of the math.
The ones who don't, won't. But some will do something else great.
But the $4b is just to buy 'Rat votes!
How much taxpayer money gets allocated and spent on inner city youth programs, etc. is the liberal’s sole indicator of success, not the actual efficacy of the program itself. You see this constantly with schools and nonprofits sending out lists of all the grant money and donations they recieved (and wasted). At least when you spend tax dollars on a new bridge, you can see something tangible even if it did go over budget and was fnished a year late.
Lots of free coding on the web to learn with. Heck even Visual Net Studio went to the free internet edition a few years back and that used to cost something like $900 for the license. Learn Javascript, CSS, and HTML and you’ll have 90% of what you need for an entry level web designer job. That’s why some kids can learn web designing on their own by the time they are 12. If you want a CS degree to design motherboards, it’ll take a much bigger skill set.
Since many of the black riots, flash mob robberies, rapes, and Knock Out Games were all organized on social media, I would say they don’t care about peaceful application of anything computer or electronic, and we save the $4 Billion.
Applicants must be Muslim immigrants who are not yet citizens, right ?
“Any time I’ve seen ghetto high school students with access to internet-capable computers, the LAST thing on their agenda was doing any work vaguely connected to academia. Number one activity was perusing high-dollar sneakers. That was the vast majority of them. Number two activity was watching sports games, mainly NBA. Number three activity was listening to crap music videos. and downloading stolen iTunes to their own iPods. Yeah, I can really see wasting $4B on “improving the computer skills of students”.”
That sounds about right.
To democrats throwing money is the answer to all life’s inequalities.
“main()
{
printf(”’sup?\n”);
}
‘sup, Fred? (ROFL!)
The 4 billion is just a subterranean payoff to the teachers’ unions pension plans (Illinois comes to mind) in all the bankrupt states. Zero jus be lootin the treasury.
Don’t they teach this in high school and college?”
My wife teaches coding in Middle School 6th,7th and 8th graders.
Has her masters in tech education near the Intel facility near Folsom CA.
She has an amazing group of brilliant youngsters .. Many the sons and daughters of tech workers.
But would this program work in all schools ?
she doubts it.
Her comment is kids are already tech savvy for what they want to learn .. Apps on cell phones and video games.
That's great, post of the morning!!
Of course in the Common Core classroom the students aren't given any textbook about syntax, or program structure, or anything like that. Instead they are supposed to form groups and collectively write the program based on their own discovery of the underlying ideas. Assignments leading up to the first interactive program include writing essays on the names of early computer scientists who happened to be female or members of a government proclaimed group, and discussing how names can be sexist, racist, or whateverist.
And then the teacher will wonder why nobody in the class can actually write a program.
Meanwhile, the kids who actually want to learn to program will be working with some free development tools on $35 boards and having a great time.
That bears repeating. Not only are the basics available on-line for free, including lectures at Kahn Academy, and many forums where people answer questions to help beginners, but there is really no upper limit on the availability of free learning resources. University level courses from places like MIT and Stanford are available for free online. You don't get credit, but if you want to learn nobody is stopping you. (Of course many people who sign up for the courses don't finish them because at that level it isn't easy anymore.)
Open source software development projects let advanced students learn about very complex code, and how it can be structured. With a few textbooks and a lot of work you can understand how very sophisticated software works. If you really can understand and work on, for example, Linux kernel drivers, you won't have trouble finding work.
Of course all of this ease of learning means you have to compete against people all over the world doing the same thing. That makes the competition fierce and prices low.
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