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Why Coding Is Not the New Literacy
An anonymous reader writes: There has been a furious effort over the past few years to bring the teaching of programming into the core academic curricula. Enthusiasts have been quick to take up the motto: "Coding is the new literacy!" But long-time developer Chris Granger argues that this is not the case: "When we say that coding is the new literacy, we're arguing that wielding a pencil and paper is the old one. Coding, like writing, is a mechanical act. All we've done is upgrade the storage medium. ... Reading and writing gave us external and distributable storage. Coding gives us external and distributable computation. It allows us to offload the thinking we have to do in order to execute some process. To achieve this, it seems like all we need is to show people how to give the computer instructions, but that's teaching people how to put words on the page. We need the equivalent of composition, the skill that allows us to think about how things are computed."
He further suggests that if anything, the "new" literacy should be modeling — the ability to create a representation of a system that can be explored or used. "Defining a system or process requires breaking it down into pieces and defining those, which can then be broken down further. It is a process that helps acknowledge and remove ambiguity and it is the most important aspect of teaching people to model. In breaking parts down we can take something overwhelmingly complex and frame it in terms that we understand and actions we know how to do."
He further suggests that if anything, the "new" literacy should be modeling — the ability to create a representation of a system that can be explored or used. "Defining a system or process requires breaking it down into pieces and defining those, which can then be broken down further. It is a process that helps acknowledge and remove ambiguity and it is the most important aspect of teaching people to model. In breaking parts down we can take something overwhelmingly complex and frame it in terms that we understand and actions we know how to do."
Get used to being increasingly confused by a world you increasingly will never understand.
Been there, done that. I used to cry myself to sleep and have bizarre dreams because I was wasting my time learning Linux and Internet protocols and running an ISP while my professional peers were out there making six figure salaries exploring the awesome potential of Microsoft Dot Net and making embedded Corporate Widgets that harnessed the power of ten thousand suns, to deliver sleek desktop solutions to a world desperate for answers.
"But it's all gibberish!" I would shout at the angry skies as gale force winds whipped my tattered robe. "It is like living inside a Dilbert cartoon! The buzzwords come in fast and thick but to me it is just Microsoft-centric Vertical Market software of no specific kind, and your market is people who know they need software automation but don't know why!"
"WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW?!?" thundered the sky as a lightning bolt rent the knoll upon which I was standing, sending forth rivers of money that would always be just out of reach. "You are merely a PLUMBER of the Information age. We are the CODERS."
And the storm would part and a rainbow spanned the sky. Bluebirds would appear to help bind the perfect hair of Software Developers into blue and pink ribbons --- and we --- the ones who had bound the Internet together with sticky-tape and protocols and C would for ever gather around their feet like pigeons waiting for crumbs. But yet, at least there was a place for us.
Until the dot com bubbles burst and they migrated outward with their pretty resumes and took over our Network and Sysadmin jobs. And the telecoms swallowed all the regional ISPs to replace them with centralized warrens of cubicles.
Today I am attending a Special Needs class trying to learn Microsoft Dot Net. So far, every app I try to make always turns out to be an ashtray.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>