11–20 of 74 posts
My experience with IT education in the UK is genuinely atrocious. During secondary school we made a spreadsheet in Excel and a couple of Word documents. The closest thing to programming was a picture of traffic lights we had to "programmatically" operate. For a single hour lesson. And that is it. We were lucky if our computers even turned on.
Using LOGO in Primary School was far better.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The simplest way would be to shove computing under the maths curriculum. Teach if with guard statements, and skip for, teach recursion. by the time the kids get to sixth form, have a mathmatical computation course where you teach them to apply their knowledge to a language like haskell that mirrors mathmatical notation quite well.
I would probably just go with Python or something. Teach them variables, for loops, if statements, printing stuff to the screen, stuff like that. That way they get a good notion of what programming actually is. I'm only now getting into functional programming. I would not have grokked it very well when I was like 12 years old.
Why is it that coding is such a rare (relatively speaking) skill? Sure, there are some hard concepts in coding, but for loops and conditional statements are hardly more difficult to understand than a lot of the math which gets taught in junior high. Speaking of that, why is it essential for young people to learn algebra but not to learn for and if?
The simplest way would be to shove computing under the maths curriculum. Teach if with guard statements, and skip for, teach recursion. by the time the kids get to sixth form, have a mathmatical computation course where you teach them to apply their knowledge to a language like haskell that mirrors mathmatical notation quite well.
-numeracy: how much is 1 million/1 billion/1 trillion, etc.
-common cognitive biases.
-logical fallacies.
-basic science.
-basic coding.
-De Bono's 6 thinking hats.
-how the brain works.
-meditation (ie not thinking).
-how to learn stuff faster and better.
-how to remember stuff: memory palace and the like.
-etc
I could think up a HUGE list of stuff in this genre that would be very helpful.
My experience with IT education in the UK is genuinely atrocious. During secondary school we made a spreadsheet in Excel and a couple of Word documents. The closest thing to programming was a picture of traffic lights we had to "programmatically" operate. For a single hour lesson. And that is it. We were lucky if our computers even turned on.
My experience with IT education in the UK is genuinely atrocious. During secondary school we made a spreadsheet in Excel and a couple of Word documents. The closest thing to programming was a picture of traffic lights we had to "programmatically" operate. For a single hour lesson. And that is it. We were lucky if our computers even turned on.
The problem is that teachers are often completely computer-illiterate. This is a chicken-and-egg problem; you won't teach proper, interesting computing activities without competent teachers.
That does also require having free time. There's a trend lately towards assuming that any free time students have is wasted time in which they could be learning instead of goofing off, which I'm not sure is the right way to look at it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The simplest way would be to shove computing under the maths curriculum. Teach if with guard statements, and skip for, teach recursion. by the time the kids get to sixth form, have a mathmatical computation course where you teach them to apply their knowledge to a language like haskell that mirrors mathmatical notation quite well.
I would probably create a whole new class called "thinking 101" or something. It should teach: -numeracy: how much is 1 million/1 billion/1 trillion, etc. -common cognitive biases. -logical fallacies. -basic science. -basic coding. -De Bono's 6 thinking hats. -how the brain works. -meditation (ie not thinking). -how to learn stuff faster and better. -how to remember stuff: memory palace and the like. -etc I could thi…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The simplest way would be to shove computing under the maths curriculum. Teach if with guard statements, and skip for, teach recursion. by the time the kids get to sixth form, have a mathmatical computation course where you teach them to apply their knowledge to a language like haskell that mirrors mathmatical notation quite well.
I would probably create a whole new class called "thinking 101" or something. It should teach: -numeracy: how much is 1 million/1 billion/1 trillion, etc. -common cognitive biases. -logical fallacies. -basic science. -basic coding. -De Bono's 6 thinking hats. -how the brain works. -meditation (ie not thinking). -how to learn stuff faster and better. -how to remember stuff: memory palace and the like. -etc I could thi…
The 12 or so hours I spent in those lectures were among the most valuable hours I invested in anything, ever.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would probably just go with Python or something. Teach them variables, for loops, if statements, printing stuff to the screen, stuff like that. That way they get a good notion of what programming actually is. I'm only now getting into functional programming. I would not have grokked it very well when I was like 12 years old.
Maybe functional programming would be easier to grasp had you not learned imperative programming first.
I think the problem is that people are /used/ to imperative programs, and aren't given real practice in functional programming.
There are also FP zealots, some of whom maintain that learning IP first causes damage. I think this attitude is toxic and doesn't actually help their "cause" (as if good tools needed a "cause" -- good tools should just be good tools).
Basic computer skills need to be taught. Coding? It should possibly be a required semester in university for all majors. ...beyond that? Does everyone really need to know about recursion?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would probably create a whole new class called "thinking 101" or something. It should teach: -numeracy: how much is 1 million/1 billion/1 trillion, etc. -common cognitive biases. -logical fallacies. -basic science. -basic coding. -De Bono's 6 thinking hats. -how the brain works. -meditation (ie not thinking). -how to learn stuff faster and better. -how to remember stuff: memory palace and the like. -etc I could thi…
During sixth form college (ages 16-18, in the UK) one of the philosophy lecturers started a course with the same sort of goals. It covered critical thinking, written communication, logic, a bit of psychology etc. The 12 or so hours I spent in those lectures were among the most valuable hours I invested in anything, ever.