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Well-Played: Microsoft Parlays NSF Video 'Remake' Into National CS K-12 Crisis
theodp writes: K–12 computer science and information technology teachers head to Grapevine, TX this week for the 2015 CSTA Conference. A glance at the draft agenda shows a remarkable number of presenters employed by or tied to two-year-old Code.org, the tech-bankrolled nonprofit that coincidentally sprung up together with Mark Zuckerberg's FWD.us PAC just months after Microsoft called for the creation of a national K-12 CS and tech immigration crisis to advance its agenda. Code.org's shaping of the nation's CS K-12 education began with the release of its tech-billionaire and celebrity-studded, slickly-produced What Most Schools Don't Teach video, which went viral on YouTube after being promoted by politicians, Facebook, Google, and a Microsoft-sponsored theatrical release, sparking a groundswell of interest in expanding K-12 CS education, succeeding where a similarly-themed-and-messaged but decidedly-amateurish National Science Foundation video of real-but-little-known computer scientists failed just months earlier (YouTube Doubler comparison). (More, below.)
"The time is ripe to seize that opportunity," declared the ACM's and Code.org's Cameron Wilson, describing how Code.org was forming a coalition with Microsoft, Google, NSF, NCWIT, ACM, CSTA, and others with the goal of changing policy to support CS education. Computer science educators literally applauded Code.org's efforts, which have led to funding of a number of new K-12 CS projects, and may soon make No Child Left Behind Act funding available for K-12 CS education. Despite promises of transparency, details of the relationship of the National Science Foundation, now-NSF partner Code.org, the White House, ACM, NCWIT, College Board, and Code.org's corporate and billionaire backers — including Microsoft, Google, and Facebook — have never really been explained.
I'm supposed understand this gibberish mess of links and blabber? I miss you old times
privatize profits/socialize expenses.
it's just as important in today's world as learning algebra, literature, or music
i'd also like to see financial literacy taught as well (but credit card companies would lobby against that)
the rest of the "summary" above is a bunch of stilted hate. we get it: people hate microsoft and facebook. heck, i hate microsoft and facebook
but even hitler liked dogs and believed in a funding national infrastructure. meaning: even someone you hate can be right about something and you can agree on something
if you actually stand against something as fundamental and important as teaching everyone programming because you don't like microsoft or facebook, you're pretty fucking stupid
btw, learning programming in school does not mean everyone should be taken seriously as a programmer: another moronic argument i hear on this topic. every calculus student doesn't become a mathematician nor every high school band member joins an orchestra. the point of education is to produce adults knowledgable enough about the basics of how their world works to be adequately intelligent on various topics. this is what education is suppose to be: prodcuing well-rounded individuals, not narrow technical training. you constantly hear and see slashdot articles lampooning stupid congresspeople who don't know the basic of biology or science when issuing an opinion. good: then you support a well-rounded education
cue the "kids shouldn't learning programming unless they are going to pursue it as a career" slashdot comments followed by "did you hear what that moron said about a series of tubes and the internet? why do idiots who nothing about these topics make decisions about them?" and not make the fucking connection
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
K-12 school made me hate math. It was presented by people that didn't understand it or it's implications. They followed a workbook created by the book industry who's main motivation is profit.
On the flip side, I learned to program in high school through resources on the Internet (late 90's). They were usually created ad-hoc by real programmers and computer scientists. When I got into college and was taught math by professionals, I gained interest, but the damage was already done.
Modern education is a business. Teaching something in K-12 school is pretty much a guarantee it's going to be taught poorly and make students hate it. I'm not sure the alternative, but I do know what the answer isn't.
How else are you going to reduce the cost of programmers if you don't try and make a perceived glut of them.
Interest in programming should absolutely be encouraged, but this idea that everyone can be a programmer is a falsehood.
That's all this about.
Say the american population can't do the job so you need this education upgrade and all the H1B visas you can handle... and then of course fire the existing american labor force that made everything the tech industry has... and possibly have them teach the imports in their final days and then fire them.
The whole thing is sick.
MS just fired something like six thousand engineers etc but they need more? Why?
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean tech execs aren't trying to use their money and "massive distribution channels" for political messages in support of their efforts. :-)
I misread the headline as "Well-Played: Microsoft Parlays NSFW Video 'Remake' Into National CS K-12 Crisis" - which I think would have been faaaar more interesting.
The summary is this:
If a computer scientist makes a low-quality video to push an agenda, it is good.
If billionaires make a high quality video to push the same agenda, it is bad.
I think that's what it says.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
WTF is up with the constant stream of stories from theodp opposing CS education? Please, Slashdot editors, stop posting them!. Yes, I know it's somehow supposed to be a conspiracy by big companies to reshape our educational system (so it's evil!), and supposedly they don't really care about education at all (wait, didn't I just contradict myself?), only immigration policy, and so on. But really, most of these posts contain nothing but insinuations meant to make people think (without giving a good reason for them to think it) that increasing CS education is a bad thing.
"I'm too busy to research this and form an educated opinion, but I do have time to tell everyone my uninformed opinion."
From the video:
"Our policy is literally to hire as many talented engineers as we can find. The whole limit of the system is just that there just aren't enough people who are trained and have these skills today."
- Mark, CREATED facebook
"A lot of the coding that people do is actually fairly simple."
- Makinde, EARLY facebook ENGINEER
I have been a coder for 30 years. I know HTML, Javascript, C, C++, Java, Python, Perl, Ruby, Scala, SQL, etc.
I am currently employed as a software developer.
Facebook has made no discernible effort to find or hire me. I doubt that they would hire me if I approached them.
I will work cheap (six figures plus benefits). I will not move to California.
I have three college-aged children that are modestly talented who would accept $50K + benefits right now. Some would take $20K to work part-time while going to school. Facebook has not hired them.
There are a dozen kids with decent skills at the local high school. Facebook has not offered them anything.
Is Facebook really trying to hire as many talented engineers as they can find? Because I could find at least two in every high school in the U.S. and at least 5 in half the universities in the U.S. Give me $100K per, and I will recruit 500 people a year all by myself. That is, I will travel from school to school and hire 2 people every day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year, all year. And you wouldn't have to pay me. I would pocket whatever is left over from the $50,000,000 after I negotiate the salary of the 500 talented engineers. I will pay my own travel expenses, too.
How many millions is Facebook paying to lobby for more visas? I'm offering my services and 500 talented engineers for $50 million per year. No visas required. No congressman required.
I think I could come up with 10 people who are qualified to spot talented engineers who would be willing to join me. Together, we could recruit 5000 talented engineers per year.
Mark, would you care to qualify your claim? Or are you willing to put your money where your mouth is and hire 5000 talented U.S. engineers this year.
Exactly. Encouraging everyone is fine.
Pretending that there's some national "K-12 Crisis" is straight up disingenuous. Tacking funding for this "crisis" on the idea that kids must be force-fed CS is even worse. And using this completely bullshit train of logic to import more H-1B workers is disgusting. It's no surprise that Microsoft, whose own CEO is imported, has taken the role of championing this...
If my daughter decides she's interested in computing beyond whatever social stuff is popular once she's of an age to start looking at her future... That's fine! I'll support her entirely. I'm just fed up with this constant meme that every child, especially every girl, must be turned into a developer. Nonsense.
You have more patience than I. When I got to the second link I looked ahead. I noticed the rest of the... Umm... Words. I noticed all the other links. I decided I did not care enough to parse it and that I likely could not. I used to post drunk too.
Anyhow, I clicked the comments link and hoped it would be digested for me. You might be the closest so far but I have no idea if you are correct.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
You might be the closest so far but I have no idea if you are correct.
tbh, neither do I :)
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
http://scratched.gse.harvard.e...
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Sure, they have a Gaylord, but, damn, glad I left there a few years ago Grapevine does not have the infrastructure to handle much traffic. And poor Southlake is going to get flooded with even more people who cant judge the space their SUV needs during dinner time.