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Show HN: Nickelodeon joins the effort to teach kids to code
11–20 of 25 posts
Re: Show HN: Nickelodeon joins the effort to teach kids to code
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Technical literacy is not a meme, it's a skill that becomes more essential as technology further permeates society and its jobs. The goal isn't to make everyone want to become a programmer as a career, but for more careers to better integrate modern technology.
But programming isn't necessarily synonymous with technology, it's only one relatively minor subset. Hence the confusion about why we're encouraging interest in programming rather than an overall interest in STEM fields.
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Re: Show HN: Nickelodeon joins the effort to teach kids to code
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Technical literacy is not a meme, it's a skill that becomes more essential as technology further permeates society and its jobs. The goal isn't to make everyone want to become a programmer as a career, but for more careers to better integrate modern technology.
But programming isn't necessarily synonymous with technology, it's only one relatively minor subset. Hence the confusion about why we're encouraging interest in programming rather than an overall interest in STEM fields.
> programming isn't necessarily synonymous with technology
Programming is the applied knowledge of technology. Everything else is just learning - and being restricted to - someone else's idea of how you're supposed to operate that technology.
Re: Show HN: Nickelodeon joins the effort to teach kids to code
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
But programming isn't necessarily synonymous with technology, it's only one relatively minor subset. Hence the confusion about why we're encouraging interest in programming rather than an overall interest in STEM fields.
> programming isn't necessarily synonymous with technology Programming is the applied knowledge of technology. Everything else is just learning - and being restricted to - someone else's idea of how you're supposed to operate that technology.
> Programming is the applied knowledge of technology. Everything else is just learning - and being restricted to - someone else's idea of how you're supposed to operate that technology.
All of engineering that isn't programming disagrees with you, for starters.
Programming is one kind of application of knowledge of one specific area of technology. But so are lots of other things.
Re: Show HN: Nickelodeon joins the effort to teach kids to code
#15[deleted]
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Re: Show HN: Nickelodeon joins the effort to teach kids to code
#16[deleted]
That's already the goal of children's television programming. Shows like Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood are prime examples.
If a narrative were introduced to this program as robmcm suggests it could even accomplish both goals, just as those television programs can teach both basic literacy and ethical values.
Re: Show HN: Nickelodeon joins the effort to teach kids to code
#17Geraldine Laybourne, who built/ran Nickelodeon for 15+ years, recently joined BetaWorks' board [1]. She also started Kandu, which is an iPad app that helps students learn to make games [2].
Not sure if there's a direction connection to the Nick.co.uk efforts, but definitely interesting.
[1] http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/05/media-queen-gerry-laybourne... [2] http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/18/kandu-is-an-ipad-app-that-t...
Re: Show HN: Nickelodeon joins the effort to teach kids to code
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
But programming isn't necessarily synonymous with technology, it's only one relatively minor subset. Hence the confusion about why we're encouraging interest in programming rather than an overall interest in STEM fields.
> programming isn't necessarily synonymous with technology Programming is the applied knowledge of technology. Everything else is just learning - and being restricted to - someone else's idea of how you're supposed to operate that technology.
>Everything else is just learning - and being restricted to - someone else's idea of how you're supposed to operate that technology.
So programmers aren't restricted to Computer Engineer's ideas of how to operate technology?
Re: Show HN: Nickelodeon joins the effort to teach kids to code
#19[deleted]
That's already the goal of children's television programming. Shows like Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood are prime examples. If a narrative were introduced to this program as robmcm suggests it could even accomplish both goals, just as those television programs can teach both basic literacy and ethical values.
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Re: Show HN: Nickelodeon joins the effort to teach kids to code
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's already the goal of children's television programming. Shows like Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood are prime examples. If a narrative were introduced to this program as robmcm suggests it could even accomplish both goals, just as those television programs can teach both basic literacy and ethical values.
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The existence of hypothetical counter examples to ethical life lessons does not invalidate those lessons. Ethics aren't the means to an end, they are the practice of respecting people and treating them with dignity. Insofar as teaching ethics is even barely relevant to a discussion about teaching programming to children, the value of women beyond their physical attributes is even less so and suggests you're trying to shoehorn an agenda into the discussion.
The examples I gave are entirely relevant, regardless of whether new episodes are being produced or even re-run. They exemplify the purpose, and clearly and undeniably represent the goal of teaching kindness (and more) to children, regardless of the existence or even abundance of examples to the contrary.
There may be a lot of noise in that market, but that doesn't mean there aren't people out there already putting a great deal of effort into doing the right thing.