51–60 of 116 posts
Why does he say "infamous" logo turtle? Logo is still the easiest to grasp programming language for young children with the possible exception of Scratch, though I still think Logo is better.
:-)
From my experience, the Logo Turtle is a neat idea - but it often got stuck and couldn't crawl around. When it did work, kids used to draw crude pictures!
I find sorting algorithms a bizarre and damaging introduction to computer science. If, as suggested, you ask an interested teenager how they sort a list of numbers on paper, they can usually give a reasonable algorithmic explanation, e.g. "Find the smallest number in the list, and write that first,..." Then, they have to throw that thought process away, and rote learn some different and esoteric alternative - the A-l…
Or at least that's the thesis of my dissertation.
(1) It is necessary to learn the basics of programming in order to learn computer science.
(2) It is necessary to learn computer science in order to become a proficient programmer.
So my feeling is that, by all means, we should be teaching anyone and everyone how to code, to lay the groundwork for teaching computer science.
Computer science is to programming as physics is to civil engineering.
The thing is, most software jobs today don't require much knowledge of computer science. Mine certainly doesn't. I have a both a bachelors and masters in CS, but I'm no better at my job than my coworker who has no CS education but learned to code on his own. I can't think of one time I've used Machine Learning, AI, advanced Networking concepts, advanced OS concepts, Computer architecture, etc in my day to day work. N…
The basic understanding of how to use a programming language will be of practical use to them, the CS course will let them understand what the programming language is actually doing under the hood.
I teach computer science, and I've always felt the distinction between programming and computer science to be artificial, for the following reasons. (1) It is necessary to learn the basics of programming in order to learn computer science. (2) It is necessary to learn computer science in order to become a proficient programmer. So my feeling is that, by all means, we should be teaching anyone and everyone how to code…
When you're building a skyscraper, you are not going to design every brick. The basis of teaching children how to code is making them learn how to use code as a problem-solving tool. Like this, the sorting will not be important by itself, but as means to an end. As a way to achieve greater objectives. And besides this reasoning, we have another: in CS, something is generally built on top of others. If you write a hea…
While it may be perfectly acceptable to ignore the lower-level details when first learning some new technology, or even when using it for personal use only, that sort of ignorance is not acceptable when working on systems that are meant to be used seriously. At that point, you need to have at least a high-level understanding of each and every layer that you're building upon. If you don't, then it will come back to ha…
I'm a self-taught web developer. While I have probably picked up some programming fundamentals/best practices through experience I have very little interest in computer science or learning the low-level details of every technology I use.
I probably couldn't get a job at most SV/SF startups, but I run several WordPress sites that have millions of monthly visitors and that have traffic spikes of 100,000+ visits in 2-3 hours at least a few times each month. I'm paid very well and I don't need to apply rocket science to do a good job.
Meanwhile I have friends with CS degrees at hot VC backed startups using all sorts of crazy technologies and advanced programming techniques for sites that get maybe 100,000 visits a month.
If you ask me, ignorance is premature optimization, overengineering and hiring expensive people to apply skills you're nowhere close to needing.
When you're building a skyscraper, you are not going to design every brick. The basis of teaching children how to code is making them learn how to use code as a problem-solving tool. Like this, the sorting will not be important by itself, but as means to an end. As a way to achieve greater objectives. And besides this reasoning, we have another: in CS, something is generally built on top of others. If you write a hea…
"When I write my HTTP Applications I don't need to understand all the Network Layers beneath it." If you want your HTTP application to perform well, be secure, be scalable, work with a multitude of browsers in unusual conditions, and be able to troubleshoot weird errors, then yes, you will at some point need to know something about TLS and TCP and IP (v4 and v6) and even Ethernet and Wifi. Similarly, architects and e…