Even President Obama has advocated for computer science education in America’s high schools. “Don’t just buy a new video game. Make one. Don’t just download the latest app. Help design it. Don’t just play on your phone. Program it,” said the President in his message to promote Computer Science Education Week in 2013.
pcslim wrote:In most schools computers are used as glorified typewriters, slide projectors, or worksheet/test-taking machines. Schools completely miss the boat when it comes to teaching computer science concepts and coding skills. This is one of the areas where schools fail miserably to prepare kids for the future. What's the point of even having computers if all they do is word process, make slide presentations (aka, powerpoint), do tutorial activities, and take tests? Pretending that this is an adequate approach to teaching technology is completely delusional and proves that the people running schools are complete idiots!
desertrat wrote:pcslim wrote:In most schools computers are used as glorified typewriters, slide projectors, or worksheet/test-taking machines. Schools completely miss the boat when it comes to teaching computer science concepts and coding skills. This is one of the areas where schools fail miserably to prepare kids for the future. What's the point of even having computers if all they do is word process, make slide presentations (aka, powerpoint), do tutorial activities, and take tests? Pretending that this is an adequate approach to teaching technology is completely delusional and proves that the people running schools are complete idiots!
I think that most educators aren't aware of anything called coding skills and to the extent that they are aware of the term, they have no clue what it means. To them computers are nothing more than "glorified typewriters, slide projectors, or worksheet/test-taking machines" as you say. That's why it's important to attract people of greater intelligence to the teaching profession. Besides the low pay, it's also the case that it would be difficult for intelligent people to put up with some of the half-assed programs schools constantly involve themselves in. It seems that half this thread has been a discussion of time-wasting programs that do nothing for kids, but which keep school employees in their comfortable little bubbles. A dead giveaway that someone is clueless about technology is when you hear them say "That was an awesome powerpoint presentation" with sincere admiration as if a powerpoint presentation is something worthy of even admiring.
According to the analyst’s Personal Computing in K-12 Q4 2014 Market Track Report, the U.S. education sector recorded a 40.5 per cent growth driven by Common Core, and the movement towards online assessment. In addition Chromebooks are beating iPads, gobbling up 39 percent U.S. market share in 2014 (equating to over three million units), compared with the iPad’s 26 per cent market share.
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