One of the guys who started this gave a talk at Chicago's OpenGov Hack Night about a year and a half ago. I honestly don't remember much about it, except for a huge feeling of "meh". A class on excel would be better than the crap they showed.
Firstly that in order to maintain an acceptable pass rate the requirement standards will be dumbed down.
Secondly that this will then diminish genuine qualifications and interest in the field of Computer Science itself.
We have seen this exact thing happen in the UK, which had an early lead in software thanks to a vibrant microcomputer scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The government made "I.T." a major part of the school curriculum, taught by teachers who had little more I.T. skills than any other member of the general population, and which ended up being all about how to use Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Nett Result: falling Computer Science Rolls in UK Universities - basically they succeeded in largely killing kids interests in computers.
This couldn't be more correct. I'm a student at a UK University studying Computing Science and if I didn't learn in my own time and become passionate about the field then I would never have chosen to study this - secondary schools introduce students to Computer Science in absolutely the wrong way and kill off interest from the high achieving students who take other STEM subjects.
6 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 26.9 ms ] threadFirstly that in order to maintain an acceptable pass rate the requirement standards will be dumbed down.
Secondly that this will then diminish genuine qualifications and interest in the field of Computer Science itself.
We have seen this exact thing happen in the UK, which had an early lead in software thanks to a vibrant microcomputer scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The government made "I.T." a major part of the school curriculum, taught by teachers who had little more I.T. skills than any other member of the general population, and which ended up being all about how to use Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Nett Result: falling Computer Science Rolls in UK Universities - basically they succeeded in largely killing kids interests in computers.