Video Learn About The Technology Education And Literacy in Schools Program (Video) 17
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The Technology Education And Literacy in Schools program (TEALS to its friends) started with one volunteer, a Berkeley CS grad named Kevin Wang who taught high school for a while, then went to Microsoft for a much higher salary than he got from teaching. But before long, he was getting up early and teaching a first period computer science class at a Seattle-area high school that was (sort of) on his way to work. Then some other local high schools came to him and wanted similar programs. Kevin's a smart guy, but not smart enough to be in four places at once, so he recruited coworkers to join him as volunteer computer science educators. Today (as this is being written) TEALS is in 130 high schools and has 475 volunteers in multiple states. Kevin works full time on the program, sponsored by Microsoft, but 78% of the volunteers now come from other companies.
TEALS has stuck with Kevin's original 1st period (usually somewhere between 7:30 and 9:30) schedule not just because it's convenient for many of the volunteers, but because (contrary to teen-nerd stereotypes) 60% of their students are in after-school sports and 20% are in band. The program is growing steadily and they're looking for more volunteers. We'll have another video with Kevin tomorrow, and that's when the transcript of both videos will appear. Meanwhile, you can read the TEALS FAQ and see how you might fit in with this group or one of many other similar ones either as a volunteer, as a student or as a teacher or school administrator interested in giving your students at least a basic grounding in Computer Science. (Coincidentally, today's 'Ask Slashdot' is about tech skills for HS students -- an unintentional but excellent tie-in.)
TEALS has stuck with Kevin's original 1st period (usually somewhere between 7:30 and 9:30) schedule not just because it's convenient for many of the volunteers, but because (contrary to teen-nerd stereotypes) 60% of their students are in after-school sports and 20% are in band. The program is growing steadily and they're looking for more volunteers. We'll have another video with Kevin tomorrow, and that's when the transcript of both videos will appear. Meanwhile, you can read the TEALS FAQ and see how you might fit in with this group or one of many other similar ones either as a volunteer, as a student or as a teacher or school administrator interested in giving your students at least a basic grounding in Computer Science. (Coincidentally, today's 'Ask Slashdot' is about tech skills for HS students -- an unintentional but excellent tie-in.)
NTY - You aren't gonna like this. (Score:4, Insightful)
While I appreciate the gesture, I don't agree that high school students should be doing anything more than using technology. There is an immense amount of knowledge they are missing out on because people are pushing tech down their throats.
Here are a couple examples: How many kids today can communicate effectively to an audience outside of their friends? Not too many, because we no longer teach people how to write and communicate. How many kids can tell fact from opinion? Again, not too many because we no longer teach people to investigate and question. We teach them that if a person in authority said it, it has to be true.
So if I teach Bill and Mary how to code in 6th grade, what can they code? Not too much, because they don't have the other knowledge to make good use of programming. The few kids in high school with enough math skills to be performing calculus based physics are not justification for everyone to be learning them.
The push is to industrialize coding so that we have good little workers that know enough to program what someone tells them to program. This in turn keeps the rich rich, and everyone else gets screwed.
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Teaching everyone coding basics doesn't imply that they will become coders as adults.
This is true but useless. Furthermore, it doesn't address the argument that technology is being pushed down kids' throats to the detriment of other more valuable skills.
I think in our technology focused world, coding is simply becoming another basic skill like reading and math.
That is an opinion, not a fact. And here is a prime example of a skill not being thought, separating opinions from facts.
And let's suppose for the sake of arguments that this is true. At least in this country, we are doing a shit-piss-poor jobs at teaching reading and basic mathematics to the general population. It doesn't matter squat if
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they're talking about high schools, not 6th grade.
The guy teaching programming at my old high school didn't know jack shit. Well okay he knew enough to explain the elementary concepts in the book but he was far, far far from an expert in CS. Usually the job falls on math teachers or science teachers because generally speaking the number of CS grads from a reputable school (not ITT tech) available to teach high school is zero.
Having math teachers teach programming might be OK for getting the kids' feet wet a
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Or get someone else to do it, then steal it.
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The push is to industrialize coding so that we have good little workers
That's like saying Little League baseball is...I don't know. Your comment makes no sense.
The push is to enlighten the next generation that you can control a computer, not just depend on "an app for that" which someone else wrote.
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If you can not make sense of the comments (yes, it is plural) that is because you are choosing to comprehend only the parts of the writing you like. That is exactly what I am referring to where people can not communicate effectively by the way. If you want a Baseball analogy, here ya go. You don't teach a kid to run the bases for a home run without teaching how to bat, and you don't teach kids to just yell "You're Out!", you teach them to catch, throw, and rules of the game.
Programming without the abilit
Video articles suck (Score:2, Insightful)
It's like Fark.TV, with sweat and dead man's balls.
I can read much faster than you can speak, and not everyone has broadband. Videos are about the presenter, not the material.
How About... (Score:3)
...We first teach them basic reading, writing, math, history, and critical-thinking/problem-solving skills that are sorely lacking among HS grads?
Oh wait, can't have that! The little bastards might figure out how screwed they are by the crony-capitalist fascist oligarchy and actually be able to change the status-quot!
Strat
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While I don't think programming should be a core subject, I do think it would be good for schools to teach a "technology class" in let's say 6th grade. Maybe about 45 days of 45 minute classes covering... Keyboarding Navigating various operating systems. How to install various operating systems. Office software Networking Programming (one week only), perhaps using QBasic. Hardware (taking apart a computer, learning about various parts) Perhaps a quick intro to LaTeX over a week. Etc.
What would be more important perhaps is to have a logic course at some point. The kind of intro to logic you'd get in college.
LaTeX? You are batshit crazy. And I say this as a person who loves LaTeX and has used it for actual projects several times.