I like this initiative. For some reason it brings up a lot of cynical responses, but if you really think about it, it's a pretty good thing to encourage young students to learn at least some coding.
I don't think this will result in a flood of for-reals programmers any more than math or writing courses result in tons of mathematicians or writers. What it could/should result in is a future generation of people who even if they don't seriously pursue programming are at least able to hack together scripts to automate tasks that are important to them, just like they are now (hopefully) able to do enough math to get by or enough writing to communicate ideas in whatever field.
So I'm in support of the idea fully, though like barbs I think the video is fluff marketing bullshit that paints an inaccurate picture of most software development.
There is quite a bit of focus on the jobs aspect here, which will inevitably push people towards the business.
When I was a student, there was a similar push for teachers (a field also having a shortage of people at the time). The result is that I have several friends who are fully qualified to be teachers that haven't been able to find work in the industry for many years now.
I agree that simply having programming in school isn't going to see everyone becoming programmers. Programming has been offered in the schools here since at least my father's time – though there does seem to be a disproportionate number of programmers come from my region, for what it is worth. However, code.org specifically does seem to come with the purpose of trying to bring more people into the industry.
I think it's a good initiative as well, but the video over-glamourises it a bit I think. Particularly the bit about how awesome the offices are. That's not what the typical programming job is like, that's what working for Dropbox is like. Plus the wishy-washy metaphor of a blank wall and opening doors, comparing it to sport, NBA players and Will.I.Am promoting it...it downplays the technical skill requirement ("you don't need to be a genius"), and emphasizes too much the creative aspect of it.
As elitist as it sounds, there are lots of people who simply just can't program [1], and promoting programming as this lucrative, creative endeavour that doesn't require much skill might misguide people into career paths that don't suit their skill set. Not to mention introducing a bunch of terrible programmers into the workforce.
While I agree with your point, Code.org could make a lot of strides with a group you did not acknowledge in your comments: those who could be programmers if they were shown the interesting parts of the field and industry, not the overly-academic side.
For as many people that might be brought into programming who can't actually do the work, the goal should be to bring in just as many if not more people who never realized they could do the work and enjoy it.
America has a problem where if students were taught about proper financial management and making proper financial decisions the college system would fall apart, because students are expected to commit to huge debts that are often very questionable decisions. The system relies on students never understanding the magnitude of the debt they're committing to, spend 10 minutes reading the personal finance subreddits and it's shocking to see the $200,000 commitments 18 year olds were allowed to make for fluff degrees.
England lacks proper financial education too, it wasn't until I was 18 that I found out how taxes worked, up until 18 I thought the taxes paid were flat rate (eg: 20% on everything or 40% on everything, vs. 20% on the first x...). Recently the company I work for offered me a pension plan, after talking to a financial advisor I discovered just how valuable starting a pension young is, up until that day I thought a pension shouldn't be a consideration when young. Super simple and super important things, completely ignored by education.
Thankfully for England there is a really great consumer rights person called Martin Lewis that does a bunch of consumer finance things and recently he's been pressuring the government to introduced compulsory financial education to schools and it very recently was confirmed there will now be compulsory financial education in British schools: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/family/2013/02/financi...
I don't think the college system will "fall apart". Great universities existed in the US even before the recent education bubble.
I do hope more young Americans realize the magnitude of obligations that they commit themselves into though. I've heard many stories of students enrolling in an expensive arts degree and then dropping out later as they realized just how much they would owe at the end of 4 years.
I don't even think the system would fall apart as is. We'd just see people looking more seriously at community colleges and other options that have better value for cost.
Or at least they'd be looking at different ways of financing college that didn't leave you with an incredible debt burden that prevents you from establishing a reasonable rate of savings.
"Great universities existed in the US even before the recent education bubble."
Great universities are a tiny minority, and you're right -- they'll likely be fine. Likewise the local community colleges that focus on teaching and job skills.
The Southeast Directional States, on the other hand, are in big trouble.
The Balanced Money Formula they present in the book is the most realistic and least gimmicky financial management system I've ever encountered. The book is a quick read -- I finished in a few hours -- and when I was done I had a very clear picture of what things were putting my finances out-of-balance and what I needed to do about it.
For me, the answer was to pursue better paid work in a more affordable city. I have since achieved those goals, and as of last October I am pretty well in balance -- I still have some debt, but there is enough room in my monthly budget to both pay it down and save for the future, while at the same time having enough money for my must-have expenditures and a healthy budget for "wants". IMO the wants budget is one of the best parts of the Balanced Money Formula -- Warren and Tyagi assert that financial asceticism is counterproductive and that everyone deserves to have a wants budget, no matter their income.
There are a handful of books I've read that I consider to have changed my life, this one is ranked #2 or #3 in that list.
It's not financial management that is the core problem. It is the notion that money is just an inconvenient formality that comes with getting whatever one is told one wants by relentless corporate pressure. It's a positive feedback loop that pushes prices higher and higher as demand is pumped harder and harder which makes people take up more and more debt to keep up.
What needs to be taught is delayed gratification, not needing everything and anything that will just get discarded or disregarded five seconds later. That, that right there, is corporate America's nightmare, Americans that stop squandering their money on inconsequential things. Could you imagine what would happen if Americans even started..... dare I say it.... save money.
Most challenges faced across the global are cultural and linguistic in nature. The heavy dependence on English is a huge barrier to most children and young adults out there. All my attempts to introduce young cousins and nephews to coding failed because they are at the stage where anything not in their own tongue is unfathomable. I looked into making a small ny-own-dialect-based mini language but it seemed that a better approach is to simply translate existing well designed and well maintained efforts such as Alice. Any idea on how to begin doing that or whether a similar translation project is underway?
> All my attempts to introduce young cousins and nephews to coding failed because they are at the stage where anything not in their own tongue is unfathomable. I looked into making a small ny-own-dialect-based mini language but it seemed that a better approach is to simply translate existing well designed and well maintained efforts such as Alice.
If they are young, its the optimum time for language acquisition. So, it may be easier (and have more side benefits) to teach them English and then programming rather than creating a customized programming environment catering to their native language to use to teach them programming.
Logo is one of the few programming languages that has been translated into other languages, you might look for a dialect in whatever your native language is.
Just having the documentation translated might be enough. I remember using MS QBasic very early on; the language itself had English keywords and function names, but the online help was translated into German.
While it's certainly possible to learn programming without knowing English (millions of programmers have done it!), if your cousins don't speak English or another foreign language then you should probably consider that a priority, instead of programming.
My grandfather took the time to teach me some BASIC back when I was around 7 years old, and it led to my career. I've been working at teaching programming to my kids as well, but the video here inspired me to give the same chance to other kids...
I contacted the principal at my kids elementary school and offered to use my expertise to help any way I could. We get so caught up in what we're doing, it's easy to forget that just a small bit of effort can have a significant impact on peoples lives.
I'm making www.codehs.com which is one of the sites featured in the video (the one with the dog). It would be awesome to get some feedback on what people think of it if you get a chance to try it out.
We're focusing on making it really fun and accessible to learn to make really cool programs really quickly while learning the fundamentals and getting a strong programming foundation.
One of the keys to our site is that tutors look at and give feedback on all the code thats's submitted by students, so if you're interested in helping kids out, it would be awesome if you wanted to help tutor.
We're currently testing out and building lots more tutor features, so your feedback and ideas would be greatly appreciated. Go to http://codehs.com/tutors/ to sign up if that interests you at all.
I see you guys are charging students a monthly fee for "unlimited help" from the tutors, but I can't find any info on your site about how much the tutors will be making from that income stream for the value they're providing to your site and the students. Can you elaborate?
Yeah, we're still working on exactly how tutors get paid. For now, it's still in beta, so we're just asking for volunteers and getting feedback and figuring out a fair way to pay people.
One thing we are planning to do (in addition to just paying cash) is to give students credits to continue learning and getting help from tutors when they help students who are further behind than they are. That way, students can help each other.
That's a neat idea. Just please be aware of the danger of extrinsic motivation crowding out intrinsic motivation. People help each other on the internet all the time without any reward apart from doing The Right Thing.
Giving credits for getting more advanced help sounds like a good idea, though.
To be honest I really don't see much value add from these online teaching centers. All that's needed is the desire to learn to code, once someone has that, I think it's pretty easy to get the help and info you need (for free) already.
you'd be shocked at how many ways people who don't code can get stuck when trying to learn.
Many times, they can't even form their question any better than "My code is broken. What do I do?"
Having someone human there both gives them the answer much better than they can find themselves and gives them the knowledge that someone is there to help them, so they don't give up.
Yes, some people will be able to figure things out themselves, but having someone to help the rest of the people can be invaluable.
I've taught intro CS for three years at Stanford, and even there, most students get stuck and need help to get through the intro class. The reason they have been able to (the intro CS class is the most popular class at the school. About 90% of all students take it) is that there is an extensive support network of student TAs that are there to help them.
We're replicating this online for all the "normal" kids who can't just "figure it out" themselves without any direction.
> Having someone human there both gives them the answer much better than they can find themselves and gives them the knowledge that someone is there to help them, so they don't give up.
Yes. Even if the human doesn't actually give you the direct solution to your problem, but just reassures you that you are on the right path and with a bit more thinkingn you will overcome the current obstacle. (Or points out to you when you are blatantly wrong.)
Having confidence that there is a solution is often half the battle to finding one.
I am mostly self-taught, but I benefitted massively from having some programming friends when I was in my initial stages of learning.
Later I had been on the other side, too, having acted as a mentor for some learners. There is value added in connecting people. Just instilling the right values, and culture, and giving people pointer to the right resources. (E.g. friends don't let friends start off with PHP.)
Thanks! yeah, we're hoping that professional software developers will help out just to feel good and help people. The extrinsic motivation is more for the students who can either learn more by helping others or make some money as a high schooler working flexible hours from anywhere.
I looked at the video; did not register for it. I've been working for a while at a very similar idea (basically porting rur-ple, another Karel clone which I wrote 8 years ago, to the web) ... but I intend for it to be free. Kudos for you to want to create a business out of it, but my aim is simply altruistic.
Could you tell us more about your business model?
Because I don't like this very much: http://codehs.com/pricing
What do you think about the Khan Academy CS stuff?
It is a tricky business you are in, but could work out very well if you can harness the power of community. You should focus on this idea "give students credits when they help students who are further behind than they are".
I would suggest a slight change in the term "credits" to distance yourself from the money=knowledge associations. Think more "pay it forward" economy where you earn points by helping others. Seeding the economy with a bunch of paid Tutors could get the economy started.
Tutors will just earn "help points" in the system like all other students but they will sell them to you.
To get an exchange economy going you will probably need to move away from the crippleware approach(http://codehs.com/pricing). You should offer the real service (answering questions when you are stuck), and after users use up their free points ask them to help others.
Yeah, we are definitely planning to switch to more of that system for a pricing model, and we are not happy with our current pricing. It was kind of an MVP for pricing to get something up there that is fairly reasonable as we're getting going. Thanks for the ideas!
In terms of the Khan CS stuff, I think their editor is really really cool. They have a lot of cool real time features and number scrubbers and color pickers. I think it's just a very different approach to teaching than we have, where theirs is very much based on tinkering, which I, personally, don't think is as good. Definitely a really cool tool though. We've gotten a lot of ideas from it for how to improve our editor.
Where's the group pushing "everyone should learn to": be an accountant, doctor, engineer, electrician or a plumber. And on and on and on.
Not everyone needs to learn to code. I agree that exposure to it and a basic understanding of it is good, just like other disciplines. But this is already happening! I learnt LOGO in primary school and then mindstorms, VB and HTML in high school. And so did everyone else, they weren't electives.
First, that's not nationwide in the US. I'm not aware of it being nationwide anywhere. In my school, there was a computer programming course on the list of choices. It disappeared when the time to actually register arrived. There was a web design course. We used dreamweaver. No one knew HTML. I spent the majority of my time in the class helping the other students do things they couldn't do in dreamweaver. The situation is less than ideal. In fact, I once presented a slideshow describing various programming languages. When I finished, my teacher asked if there were any questions. A handful of people knew programming was used to make games. Everyone else had blank looks. One girl actually said "I didn't even know this existed" with a look of shock.
Second, learning to program doesn't have to be the same as learning to be a software engineer. It's vaguely akin to basic repair skills. Knowing how to automate aspects of your work on a computer is extremely useful. Programming is applicable to almost every remotely technical career path.
Also in the 7-10 high school syllabus there are options for projects that include: AI simulation and modelling, multimedia authoring, database design, website development, networking, robotics and software development and programming. http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_sc/pdf_doc/inf...
In years 7-10 I found myself helping other students in the class just like yourself. Even though our teacher had formerly held a programming position. That doesn't validate the need for it though. That just shows that it is a very alien topic to most people and that you can't have a single teacher give personalised help to a class of 30 kids.
We don't have nationwide standards for curriculum in the US.. shocking, I know. Most schools do similar things, but there's a wide variety of quality and content of education.
Then you're lucky. Not everyone has that opportunity. Everyone uses computers pretty much every day. Knowing a little bit about how computers work can make it 1000x easier to use computers. If you believe it's all magic, you can't properly figure out problems by yourself.
Accountant/engineers/electricians: Maths
Doctors: Biology
Chemists: Chemistry
Programmer: Erm... ICT where you can learn how to use word and publisher.
It's just not the same. There is no base subject to springboard into the rest of the subject like other subjects do.
I think teaching students to program is a wonderful idea. Most people use computers every day-- be it work or leisure. Knowing how to automate your workflow in whatever career you choose would be a wonderful asset.
However, I'm concerned that this isn't the goal. Lots of the video refers to a great need for programmers. It sounds like lots of the interested people are more interested in preparing students for a career in software engineering,
"It sounds like lots of the interested people are more interested in preparing students for a career in software engineering"
That could be the case. Programmers are expensive because there isn't enough to meet demand. If you can get a lot more people interested and entering into the market, the cost will go down. I would imagine an employer would prefer programmer's salary to be more in line with what a typical employee's salary is. If there is an end goal, it would probably be to make programming an expected skill set in addition to a specialty, rather than a specialty in of its own.
I love the addition of Chris Bosh! After coding being hard, in general, I believe that our industry's biggest challenge is it becoming "sexy" or having role models that a vast amount of people can connect with!
Honestly, this was the first place I went when I started out (about 4 years ago). There werent many good sites out for learning to code back then. It was w3schools and lynda.com that really helped me get started.
We should also encourage HCI and usability design sensibilities as a technical vocation kids can pursue if optimizing sorting algorithms and the like isn't for them. Making things easier to use, why things are a pleasure to use and why things aren't is a stimulating field that is very applicable to a computerized future.
100% agree. There is a lot of value in understanding usability design that I wish I had been presented with younger. I really wish I had the opportunity to choose some form of technical skillset as an elective in high school. I was only offered a choice of visual arts (photography, art, and ceramics).
I like this because instead of saying "everyone must code" it says "everyone should have the opportunity to learn to code".
There are always going to be those that are not interested in coding. Forcing anyone to learn something they aren't interested in is just a waste of everyone's time.
If you give kids the resources they need to get started and a good environment to experiment in they will take care of the rest.
What's the difference between Code.org and Codecademy.com ? Are they trying to achieve the same thing but in a different perspective? It looks like a lot more celebrities are on Code.org making it an enticing place to be.
Code.org seeks to 'change the wind', so to say, of programming education, to help motivate individuals to learn more about coding. Codecademy.com is one form of online education to help satisfy the needs of those who became interested in programming, such as via Code.org and the many educators and decision makers who inspire non-coders to, well, code.
This is a great initiative. The video is powerful, but they forgot to include a link to the donate area right there in the video. I'd love to add my little startup to the list of places teaching how to program.
In my professional life I haven't found spreadsheets to be a "gateway drug" to programming for people I work with. Spreadsheets are generally used to get something done and then take on a life of their own until they are so critical to a business that their failure can cost enough money to materially damage a business. However, there does seem to be something accessible spreadsheets that perhaps can be used in a slightly modified way to get more people excited about learning to code in a structured programming language.
IMO make learning programing (fun) a path to learning math (not fun). Once you understand mathematic fundamentals, understanding finance - and other such disciplines - comes naturally. You soon realize that most of (consumer) finance out there are marketing flush revolving around a few formulas.
Why is learning math not fun? For me, learning math (fun) was a path to learning programming (not fun). Even as someone who 'enjoys' programming as a hobby, I hate the actual coding part. The math is the fun part. And that rush of power you feel where the computer obeys your every wim is a nice bonus (more of a reason to learn bash et el.).
you're right, the fun factor is very subjective. However, wouldn't you agree that those who enjoy maths from the get-go will generally be successful in most modern education systems? The same is not true for those who have difficulties in maths but were never given a early-enough introduction to coding.
I just wish someone had edited Will.i.am's quote though... I think he thinks 'reading code' is like reading music or something...
“Here we are, 2013, we ALL depend on technology to communicate, to bank, and none of us know how to read and write code. It's important for these kids, right now, starting at 8 years old, to read and write code.“
I am generally enthusiastic about teaching people to code. That said, I am ambivalent about the backing organization, "Code.org":
Every single person on their advisory board (http://www.code.org/about) has a vested interest in there being more programmers competing for jobs.
I feel like they are misrepresenting the nature of most programming jobs to the general public.
They prey upon people's fear of unemployment and cite numbers about there being fewer programmers than jobs. Nearly every single person in that video has explicitly said they only hire the very best. My guess is that we'd still end up with legions of unemployed people that happen to be mediocre-to-awful at programming.
They're backed by software people, because most software people think coding is awesome and want more people to do it. Also, it's really hard to find good programmers, so they want more people to start doing it, yes.... but teaching 10 year olds to code isn't going to get them any benefit for at least 12 years. I highly doubt they're thinking that far ahead.
I think it's much more likely exactly what you see - they want more people to code because they believe everyone should code, and many people will like it once exposed to it.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 215 ms ] threadI like this initiative. For some reason it brings up a lot of cynical responses, but if you really think about it, it's a pretty good thing to encourage young students to learn at least some coding.
So I'm in support of the idea fully, though like barbs I think the video is fluff marketing bullshit that paints an inaccurate picture of most software development.
When I was a student, there was a similar push for teachers (a field also having a shortage of people at the time). The result is that I have several friends who are fully qualified to be teachers that haven't been able to find work in the industry for many years now.
I agree that simply having programming in school isn't going to see everyone becoming programmers. Programming has been offered in the schools here since at least my father's time – though there does seem to be a disproportionate number of programmers come from my region, for what it is worth. However, code.org specifically does seem to come with the purpose of trying to bring more people into the industry.
As elitist as it sounds, there are lots of people who simply just can't program [1], and promoting programming as this lucrative, creative endeavour that doesn't require much skill might misguide people into career paths that don't suit their skill set. Not to mention introducing a bunch of terrible programmers into the workforce.
[1] http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/07/separating-programm...
For as many people that might be brought into programming who can't actually do the work, the goal should be to bring in just as many if not more people who never realized they could do the work and enjoy it.
England lacks proper financial education too, it wasn't until I was 18 that I found out how taxes worked, up until 18 I thought the taxes paid were flat rate (eg: 20% on everything or 40% on everything, vs. 20% on the first x...). Recently the company I work for offered me a pension plan, after talking to a financial advisor I discovered just how valuable starting a pension young is, up until that day I thought a pension shouldn't be a consideration when young. Super simple and super important things, completely ignored by education.
Thankfully for England there is a really great consumer rights person called Martin Lewis that does a bunch of consumer finance things and recently he's been pressuring the government to introduced compulsory financial education to schools and it very recently was confirmed there will now be compulsory financial education in British schools: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/family/2013/02/financi...
I do hope more young Americans realize the magnitude of obligations that they commit themselves into though. I've heard many stories of students enrolling in an expensive arts degree and then dropping out later as they realized just how much they would owe at the end of 4 years.
Or at least they'd be looking at different ways of financing college that didn't leave you with an incredible debt burden that prevents you from establishing a reasonable rate of savings.
Great universities are a tiny minority, and you're right -- they'll likely be fine. Likewise the local community colleges that focus on teaching and job skills.
The Southeast Directional States, on the other hand, are in big trouble.
(Yes, that's Senator Elizabeth Warren.)
The Balanced Money Formula they present in the book is the most realistic and least gimmicky financial management system I've ever encountered. The book is a quick read -- I finished in a few hours -- and when I was done I had a very clear picture of what things were putting my finances out-of-balance and what I needed to do about it.
For me, the answer was to pursue better paid work in a more affordable city. I have since achieved those goals, and as of last October I am pretty well in balance -- I still have some debt, but there is enough room in my monthly budget to both pay it down and save for the future, while at the same time having enough money for my must-have expenditures and a healthy budget for "wants". IMO the wants budget is one of the best parts of the Balanced Money Formula -- Warren and Tyagi assert that financial asceticism is counterproductive and that everyone deserves to have a wants budget, no matter their income.
There are a handful of books I've read that I consider to have changed my life, this one is ranked #2 or #3 in that list.
What needs to be taught is delayed gratification, not needing everything and anything that will just get discarded or disregarded five seconds later. That, that right there, is corporate America's nightmare, Americans that stop squandering their money on inconsequential things. Could you imagine what would happen if Americans even started..... dare I say it.... save money.
If they are young, its the optimum time for language acquisition. So, it may be easier (and have more side benefits) to teach them English and then programming rather than creating a customized programming environment catering to their native language to use to teach them programming.
I contacted the principal at my kids elementary school and offered to use my expertise to help any way I could. We get so caught up in what we're doing, it's easy to forget that just a small bit of effort can have a significant impact on peoples lives.
We're focusing on making it really fun and accessible to learn to make really cool programs really quickly while learning the fundamentals and getting a strong programming foundation.
One of the keys to our site is that tutors look at and give feedback on all the code thats's submitted by students, so if you're interested in helping kids out, it would be awesome if you wanted to help tutor.
We're currently testing out and building lots more tutor features, so your feedback and ideas would be greatly appreciated. Go to http://codehs.com/tutors/ to sign up if that interests you at all.
One thing we are planning to do (in addition to just paying cash) is to give students credits to continue learning and getting help from tutors when they help students who are further behind than they are. That way, students can help each other.
Giving credits for getting more advanced help sounds like a good idea, though.
Many times, they can't even form their question any better than "My code is broken. What do I do?"
Having someone human there both gives them the answer much better than they can find themselves and gives them the knowledge that someone is there to help them, so they don't give up.
Yes, some people will be able to figure things out themselves, but having someone to help the rest of the people can be invaluable.
I've taught intro CS for three years at Stanford, and even there, most students get stuck and need help to get through the intro class. The reason they have been able to (the intro CS class is the most popular class at the school. About 90% of all students take it) is that there is an extensive support network of student TAs that are there to help them.
We're replicating this online for all the "normal" kids who can't just "figure it out" themselves without any direction.
Yes. Even if the human doesn't actually give you the direct solution to your problem, but just reassures you that you are on the right path and with a bit more thinkingn you will overcome the current obstacle. (Or points out to you when you are blatantly wrong.)
Having confidence that there is a solution is often half the battle to finding one.
Don't underestimate the utility of a teacher.
Later I had been on the other side, too, having acted as a mentor for some learners. There is value added in connecting people. Just instilling the right values, and culture, and giving people pointer to the right resources. (E.g. friends don't let friends start off with PHP.)
What do you think about the Khan Academy CS stuff?
It is a tricky business you are in, but could work out very well if you can harness the power of community. You should focus on this idea "give students credits when they help students who are further behind than they are".
I would suggest a slight change in the term "credits" to distance yourself from the money=knowledge associations. Think more "pay it forward" economy where you earn points by helping others. Seeding the economy with a bunch of paid Tutors could get the economy started. Tutors will just earn "help points" in the system like all other students but they will sell them to you.
To get an exchange economy going you will probably need to move away from the crippleware approach(http://codehs.com/pricing). You should offer the real service (answering questions when you are stuck), and after users use up their free points ask them to help others.
In terms of the Khan CS stuff, I think their editor is really really cool. They have a lot of cool real time features and number scrubbers and color pickers. I think it's just a very different approach to teaching than we have, where theirs is very much based on tinkering, which I, personally, don't think is as good. Definitely a really cool tool though. We've gotten a lot of ideas from it for how to improve our editor.
Not everyone needs to learn to code. I agree that exposure to it and a basic understanding of it is good, just like other disciplines. But this is already happening! I learnt LOGO in primary school and then mindstorms, VB and HTML in high school. And so did everyone else, they weren't electives.
Second, learning to program doesn't have to be the same as learning to be a software engineer. It's vaguely akin to basic repair skills. Knowing how to automate aspects of your work on a computer is extremely useful. Programming is applicable to almost every remotely technical career path.
Also in the 7-10 high school syllabus there are options for projects that include: AI simulation and modelling, multimedia authoring, database design, website development, networking, robotics and software development and programming. http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_sc/pdf_doc/inf...
In years 7-10 I found myself helping other students in the class just like yourself. Even though our teacher had formerly held a programming position. That doesn't validate the need for it though. That just shows that it is a very alien topic to most people and that you can't have a single teacher give personalised help to a class of 30 kids.
It's just not the same. There is no base subject to springboard into the rest of the subject like other subjects do.
However, I'm concerned that this isn't the goal. Lots of the video refers to a great need for programmers. It sounds like lots of the interested people are more interested in preparing students for a career in software engineering,
That could be the case. Programmers are expensive because there isn't enough to meet demand. If you can get a lot more people interested and entering into the market, the cost will go down. I would imagine an employer would prefer programmer's salary to be more in line with what a typical employee's salary is. If there is an end goal, it would probably be to make programming an expected skill set in addition to a specialty, rather than a specialty in of its own.
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/lebron-asks
WAT
There are always going to be those that are not interested in coding. Forcing anyone to learn something they aren't interested in is just a waste of everyone's time.
If you give kids the resources they need to get started and a good environment to experiment in they will take care of the rest.
http://www.code.org/learn/codecademy
I just wish someone had edited Will.i.am's quote though... I think he thinks 'reading code' is like reading music or something...
“Here we are, 2013, we ALL depend on technology to communicate, to bank, and none of us know how to read and write code. It's important for these kids, right now, starting at 8 years old, to read and write code.“
Every single person on their advisory board (http://www.code.org/about) has a vested interest in there being more programmers competing for jobs.
I feel like they are misrepresenting the nature of most programming jobs to the general public.
They prey upon people's fear of unemployment and cite numbers about there being fewer programmers than jobs. Nearly every single person in that video has explicitly said they only hire the very best. My guess is that we'd still end up with legions of unemployed people that happen to be mediocre-to-awful at programming.
I think it's much more likely exactly what you see - they want more people to code because they believe everyone should code, and many people will like it once exposed to it.
FWIW I'd expect many of the featured people to be thinking much further ahead than 12 years.
Probably true. For all the hype around the job market today, generally speaking only talented developers find employment.
The rest tend to end up in other fields or unemployed. I can only imagine what the market will look like when the talent pool expands.
I feel that.