61–70 of 187 posts
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.
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 a…
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 w…
FWIW I'd expect many of the featured people to be thinking much further ahead than 12 years.
The video is worth watching. 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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 i…
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.
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.
"Learn to Make Webpages - W3Schools" WAT
The video is worth watching. 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.
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...
I feel that.