[Year 12 IT Apps] Year 12 Info Tech

[Royce Williams]

I am on his side


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On 07/12/2011, at 9:27 PM, Andrew Shortell <shortell at get2me.net> wrote:

> In many ways this encapsulates my worries.
> 
> I learnt programming at Uni in 1977. We used assembler and MONECS fortran and used punch cards. 
> 
> BUT (BIG BUT) I still use the concepts now as I teach the LOGIC of programming, the logic of problem solving.
> 
> Design, logic, planning etc is in Computer Science  the use of non-humans to do the tedious bulk work so that we can do the thinking.
> In Computer Science we use machines at the moment.
> To paraphrase M.Smart : nano-computers and molecular computers are “that close”.
> 
> What are we doing to enthuse students about possibilities with thinking and with using other things to do bulk repetitive tedious crunching to get out the things that we find interesting?
> In the old days very few humans could do enough number crunching etc to be able to come up with “unusual or left field ideas”
> Now thanks to computers many more people are able to process the sort of data that can lead to great ideas.
> 
> Are we ENTHUSING them to do so? Are we giving them the thinking tools?
> 
> In mY opinion in VCE IT apps we are NOT. So why do we do it?
> 
> Teaching kids history is not meant to prepare them to work in an office doing word processing. It is meant to make them think.
> 
> Teaching microsloth old fashioned pathetic software prepares them to work in an office. It does NOT make them think
> 
> If we want to prepare them for industry, to work in a business office then let us make this a VET subject and call it office skills/ business skills.
> 
> And then lets get back to computer science and call it a science
> 
> So , off my soap box.
> This might be a rant but I feel that I want to teach computing : thinking advancing, not office skills.
> 
> Andrew
> 
> -- 
> Andrew Shortell
> 
> mailto:shortell at get2me.net 
> Leaving the 
> Heidelberg Teaching Unit at the end of 2011
> Ph 9470 3403
> Fax  9470 3215
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 7/12/11 1:17 PM, "Roland Gesthuizen" <rgesthuizen at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Here is a good link to a UK Observer article via @lindymac that resonated with me and my thoughts about boosting the profile of computational thinking in our schools.
> 
> Programming and Computational Thinking should take pride of place in our schools
> http://www.diigo.com/annotated/18e448bc88f295a362bf5967726506b9 (to my Diigo annotated version)
> 
> Curious what others think of this comment about the government:
> 
> ".. they're making the same mistake as those who saw ICT as a way of preparing kids for the world of work by training them to use Microsoft Office – ie designing a curriculum by looking into a rear-view mirror. What we ought to be doing is giving the kids the ability to operate in – and perhaps help to create – industries that nobody has even dreamed of yet."
> 
> Regards Roland
> 
> On 7 December 2011 13:12, Donna Benjamin <donna at cc.com.au> wrote:
> On Tue, 2011-12-06 at 22:42 +0000, Anderson, Stuart L wrote:
> > I think it'd be impossible to separate the two areas because they have
> > grown together. There wouldn't be so many people using ICT if not for
> > business (and marketing!). They are not mutually exclusive and can't
> > be separated from each other.
> 
> Computing serves purposes other than business though...
> 
> eg. scientific research often has no commercial application - but serve
> medicine, population modelling - computing has even lead to outright
> disruption of business models...
> 
> Then again, I could be thinking of 'business' too narrowly.
> 
> :)
> 
> --
> Donna Benjamin - Executive Director
> Creative Contingencies - http://cc.com.au
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