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Zuck, Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey In Short Film To Inspire Kids To Learn How To Code

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Re: Zuck, Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey In Short Film To Inspire Kids To Learn How To Code

#91

Post by patja »

I think the point is there is a huge gap between the supply and demand for programming education, particularly for ages from 8 to 18. It is so easy and rewarding to feed the spark of desire to learn and create among kids of this age range, especially with all of the great free or almost free resources like MIT's Scratch purpose-built to address this need and reduce the barriers to entry.

Schools, teachers, and most parents are not equipped to deliver these experiences today. The superficial "technology programs" at most schools are appallingly shallow, not going much beyond Garage Band and book reports in Powerpoint.

Videos like this help motivate those who have the skills to engage and make a difference. What's not to like? Go out and get involved in volunteering to teach programming to kids. You will love it, and you will make a difference for kids who will go on to be the next generation of software developers.

Re: Zuck, Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey In Short Film To Inspire Kids To Learn How To Code

#92

Post by chaz »

wes-exp wrote: post #33

Personally I think the world is drunk with "code fever". We are creatures of overreaction. Not too long ago it was "no one learn to code! it's all going to be outsourced to India!" Now, "I'm starting a non-profit to spread the gift of coding to children. Coding is our future". Give me a f-ing break.

I'm still all for it. Coding is a lot more than just filling jobs. It opens the door to critical thinking, breaking down complex problems into simple ones, separating correlation and causality, and differentiating between data vs anecdotes. It's essentially applied STEM education, but with very practical, tangible outcomes in equipment that nearly everyone will have access to.

I can't think of a faster, more accessible, more entertaining way to grow these skills.

Re: Zuck, Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey In Short Film To Inspire Kids To Learn How To Code

#93

Post by lifeisstillgood »

aashaykumar92 wrote: post #86
duaneb wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You don't need a CS degree to become a decent programmer. You need one to get a job, though. If not now, in twenty years when you're old in an ageist industry.

If you can learn to program on your own and become proficient in it, build great projects, and keep up to date with the languages, why does it matter what major you are? Granted I'm 20 and still in school, but just being a CS major doesn't make someone a great programmer. I like to think that employers care about projects you've worked on as that is the best way to see a true programmers talents.

Dont take this the wrong way, but if you are a CS major you have an opportunity to be grounded in the basics of the craft . If you are not covering SICP, algorithms and implementing them in C code at your school, demand it or just stay at home and work on those. You have a n opportunity - work it - seriously dont think flash projects will help you here - take the education time to get educated.

Re: Zuck, Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey In Short Film To Inspire Kids To Learn How To Code

#94

Post by mckoss »

When many of us started using computers, all you could do with them was learn to program them. There were relatively few distractions of video games, or the Internet to draw your focus away.

Today's computers are so engaging as a communications and entertainment device, many young people are not exposed to the possibility of using the computer as a creative tool.

Learning to program is just one such activity to get the creative juices flowing in the next generation. Learning to use a computer to write a paper, make a presentation or build a spreadsheet are fine; but the power a computer can unleash has much more potential for creativity and originality when students are taught to instruct the computer directly.

The early learn-to-program sites are focused on learning programming languages. This should evolve into more sophisticated environments where higher level constructs are made readily available (e.g., graphical environments, data storage and communication features).

It's exciting because we can also bring the social element into the equation to create for and with your friends and family.

Re: Zuck, Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey In Short Film To Inspire Kids To Learn How To Code

#95

Post by patja »

MojoJolo wrote: post #20

At first, I dislike teaching programming in schools. It is because the space might then be over populated and finding jobs will be harder. Then I realized math was taught in school, science was taught in school. But most of us students didn't end up as mathematicians or scientists. Programming is much like math and science. It is a technical topic, and not all of us will like it. It can be taught in school as an esse…

Yes, absolutely, let's make it harder for kids to compete with us and put us out of work when we are in our 50's. I don't want them innovating and creating new open source libraries that make us more productive or open up new opportunities we can't even imagine today. Life is a zero sum game after all, right? If they win I lose.

I am being sarcastic.

Re: Zuck, Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey In Short Film To Inspire Kids To Learn How To Code

#96

Post by jschulenklopper »

The pages at http://www.code.org/learn could also include a reference to the Raspberry Pi and the foundation behind it: http://www.raspberrypi.org/about.

> We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming.

It used to be a lot more expensive than $40 to give a child access to a computer that (s)he could program and tinker with...

Re: Zuck, Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey In Short Film To Inspire Kids To Learn How To Code

#97

Post by dreamdu5t »

nickmain wrote: post #37
michaelochurch wrote: post #4

The gap between CS majors and software jobs is misleading. You don't need a CS degree to become a decent programmer. Still, if there's such a shortage of good programmers (and I agree that there probably is) then why aren't we playing this to our advantage? A senior engineer can't afford a house in the Bay Area or New York, and our status is low-- we still work for managers; we're a defeated tribe in this way. Most o…

Maybe we should be talking less about forming "tribes" and more about how to make programming accessible to anyone who needs to solve real problems using computers.

It is accessible to anyone, for free. I learned everything I use in my career for free on the Internet.

Most people have better things to do than programming, and don't want to invest the time to learn just because a news article said they should.

Re: Zuck, Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey In Short Film To Inspire Kids To Learn How To Code

#98

Post by [deleted] »

duaneb wrote: post #84
michaelochurch wrote: post #4

The gap between CS majors and software jobs is misleading. You don't need a CS degree to become a decent programmer. Still, if there's such a shortage of good programmers (and I agree that there probably is) then why aren't we playing this to our advantage? A senior engineer can't afford a house in the Bay Area or New York, and our status is low-- we still work for managers; we're a defeated tribe in this way. Most o…

> You don't need a CS degree to become a decent programmer. You need one to get a job, though. If not now, in twenty years when you're old in an ageist industry.

[deleted]

Re: Zuck, Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey In Short Film To Inspire Kids To Learn How To Code

#99

Post by sp4rki »

mike_herrera wrote: post #35
michaelochurch wrote: post #4

The gap between CS majors and software jobs is misleading. You don't need a CS degree to become a decent programmer. Still, if there's such a shortage of good programmers (and I agree that there probably is) then why aren't we playing this to our advantage? A senior engineer can't afford a house in the Bay Area or New York, and our status is low-- we still work for managers; we're a defeated tribe in this way. Most o…

Autonomy within an organization sounds novel for morale, but it's a major shift from today's business culture. Strategy would also be incredibly difficult to execute. Organizational leaders need to be able to align their people down a common path. If autonomy is the end-goal, start a company or go freelance.

It's a major shift I agree... but it's a great decision if executed correctly.

Every company has a set of main goals that imply that development can't be completely autonomous, but hiring good developers is not just about code it's also about people with a vision and a sense of purpose for your product. Take the way Github works for example: at the end of the day their main goal is an accessible hosted interface to git, to make git version control easier and ubiquitous; nevertheless having that main goal does not stop their developers from creating new features (say for example a desktop client) that make the product better though it may or may not directly translate to their main goal.

If you have a company that develops software and your developers have the autonomy to work on things that they actually believe will further increase the companies value (be it an interface change, bug fixes, or the refactoring of bad code) you will most definitely have a better result than if you make people work on things that might not be their forte or that are uninteresting to them.

Now I don't mean that people should have a complete free reign of the product, as some things are too important to forgo because no one wants to do them, but giving developers the chance to work on things they actually believe in as opposed to things that might not translate to creating value in their minds can go a long way towards good morale and retention, and un-doublty a better product because of it.

Re: Zuck, Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey In Short Film To Inspire Kids To Learn How To Code

#100

Post by acuozzo »

sreyaNotfilc wrote: post #41
steveinator wrote: post #5

I really wish people didn't spread this kind of message. Think job security guys! Come on!

I say "bah-humbug" to job security. That means that you just don't know or care about your craft. If you were really "1337" job security would be the last thing on you mind. You would actually be running the show and working on amazing products/solutions. I'm a senior developer and I teach my methods to my colleagues all the time. It doesn't hurt me, but helps the team and the cause immensely. It makes going to work…

> I say "bah-humbug" to job security. That means that you just don't know or care about your craft.

I'm twenty-five years old. My wife and I have four cats, a home, two cars, and more than six figures of combined student loan debt.

I earn 75% of our total income as a Software Engineer. We can't survive on my wife's income alone and we don't have any family members to fall back on if times get tough.

So you, a senior web developer at JPC, might say "bah-humbug" to job security, but I, for the reasons listed above, do not.

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