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Amazon Accelerating Effort To Bring CS To More Than 133,000 US Schools
theodp writes: In addition to a monetary commitment of $10 million in cash and donations to Code.org, Amazon reports it's also accelerating the effort to bring computer science to all U.S. high schools by having employees spend time at Code.org, while maintaining employment at Amazon. According to the company's Day One blog, Amazon has lent its employees to help the tech-bankrolled nonprofit "gather data about computer science programs, or lack thereof, at every single school across the country." (There are over 133,000 schools in the United States.) Amazon added: "Putting this data on a map and combining it with what we know about the school's population, lets us see whether access to computer science courses are concentrated in wealthier schools or schools that are less diverse, and will help us bring access to the schools that need it most. [...] It will also ultimately support the much-needed pipeline for workers who are well versed in computer science."
Earlier, Code.org noted it was compiling the national database for use by the nonprofit and the CS community to "make our shared vision [for every school to teach computer science] a reality," but didn't note the involvement of Amazon, which committed $50 million last fall to the White House's new computer science push (part of a larger $300 million tech sector commitment). Execs from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Infosys occupy four of Code.org's nine board seats and have contributed $33+ million to the nonprofit (Facebook has kicked in another $10+ million). Hey, it's what parents want!
Earlier, Code.org noted it was compiling the national database for use by the nonprofit and the CS community to "make our shared vision [for every school to teach computer science] a reality," but didn't note the involvement of Amazon, which committed $50 million last fall to the White House's new computer science push (part of a larger $300 million tech sector commitment). Execs from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Infosys occupy four of Code.org's nine board seats and have contributed $33+ million to the nonprofit (Facebook has kicked in another $10+ million). Hey, it's what parents want!
You can lead a horse to water....
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Amazon exam question #1: Who invented cloud computing?
Answer: Jeff Bezos
Good job driving down developer salaries. Having one trillion dollars just isn't enough!!
They just threw money at it. That doesn't mean anything is actually happening.
Amazon is worth $1 Trillion. That's like me tossing a Washington in the Salvation Army kettle.
This may seem to be a "get off my lawn" rant but back when I studied CS it was hard. Like engineering was hard. The result, most of my contemporaries had no interest in the workload to get a degree. Maybe this new generation is more dedicated and willing to sacrifice their time.
Can you even learn CompSci with just HTML/CSS/JS.
You definitely can make web pages with them, but you really can't do much more.
The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
There are still no jobs for CS grads, or coders, or anyone with any tech skills. Companies still post fake jobs, still lobby for more H1B. The entire tech industry is built on investment fraud.
Teaching CS will accomplish one thing only: producing large numbers of angry bitter unemployed people. But hey, fraud is profitable for corporate scammers who never hire anyone and never pay any taxes.
And the purpose is, as always, to flood the market and drive wages down.
Got to have an insurance policy, in case something crazy happens like we stop importing so many from low wage countries.
Churning out code monkeys is not helping anyone...
hey, I hate kids as much as the next guy, but I think tear gassing every school is a bit extreme, Amazon!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
But I'd like to add that I was over-qualified for most of my jobs. The only time my CS training did me any good was at IBM when I worked on OS/2 Warp for PPC. And it was a help because I was able to follow along with discussions about concepts. My actual course practical training did me no good - it didn't apply to MACH.
The other times? Just programming knowledge and fundamental data structures was more than enough.
And I think that's the point of these classes. See, all you really need is one CS/Engineer to be the architect to guide the coders. That will really reduce the dev team costs and boost productivity. When you have one guy doing the thinking and the rest doing what they are told, things move much faster.
I know because that's what we did - and no h1-bs necessary. One CS from Tech and a few guys from tech school with certs.
We're using something like the medical model: MD in charge, NPs/PAs and nurses doing other stuff.
I swear I thought Amazon was going to install Counter Strike on all schools. Think before using acronyms, people.
We have a catastrophic shortage of telephone sanitizers, I propose we make it mandatory class in all high schools.
CS is a dead-end career (here goes my karma) in 2018 - too easy to outsource to India, too easy to automate or third-party OS all but most in-depth components. Sure, there always going to be shortage of good full-stack architects, like there will always be shortage of NBA superstars. However, going into basketball professionally is a horrible idea for 99.99% of people out there.
The word 'code' is a relic of the telegraph age and WWI encryption efforts and legal documents such as 'building codes'. It is appropriate in programming only in that it is cryptic and unintelligible to anyone other than the coder. It is a poor choice of words to encourage people to learn.
I like 'algorithm'. It reflects the process better than 'code'. It conjures thoughts of creating a path to a desirable destination. Algorithm may be a new word to high schoolers, and not have the baggage of the word code. Used correctly it will give a clear idea of what's being learned along with more attractive connotations.
Beyond computer science, the concept of algorithm is essential to success in life. Everyone faces situations that require making decisions. These decisions should be based upon various facts, weighing various options and working toward an optimal solution. A person with a basic understanding of algorithms will be more successful in life, even if she never codes.
...omphaloskepsis often...
I'm of the opinion that we're in the middle of an inflating Second Dotcom Bubble. Having lived through the First one, I'm seeing similar patterns, one of which is, "We need more computer science students!" I think it would be beneficial for everyone to have a basic understanding of how computers work below the consumer level, especially now that things are so abstract and "Just Work(TM)" But, let's call it what it is...an attempt to push AWS adoption. Big hardware and software companies have done this for years...Sun practically gave away workstations and servers to universities in the hopes that people would buy them in their businesses later. Apple, same thing. And, Microsoft/Google are nearly giving away O365 and GSuite for the same reasons.
I see a lot of comments saying they're trying to drive salaries down by flooding the market. While I'm sure that's true to some extent, offshoring and visa programs have already done this. I also see comments on topics like this that basically treat development as some sort of priesthood that outsiders can't join. Reality is that we're 400 levels abstracted away from real hardware in most cases these days. Especially with "code monkey" type projects like front-end JavaScript or CRUD applications, we're almost at the gluing-Lego-blocks-together level of simplicity. Go beyond that and it's exponentially harder, but these Dotcom Bubble startups and cloud providers don't need CS geniuses for the next round of expansion.
The industry would be better served by teaching some of the basics to get the interested students hooked, publicly state that there are actually long-term opportunities in development and IT that aren't going to end up in India in 5 years, and make available entry-level positions that pay a reasonable starting salary. Students aren't dumb, and especially when they're paying huge sums for a degree, they're going to go with what they perceive as a safe career path. Current students who have IT and developer parents are probably seeing first-hand to some extent the effects of downward pressure on salaries, outsourcing and offshoring. I love my job in systems engineering and am good at it, but I work for a multinational company and know that I'm one MBA's spreadsheet and PowerPoint away from being kicked out when the CIO hires Infosys or similar.
... combining it with what we know about the school's population ...
... they have all that information at hand.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Last I checked the skin color and gender of the coder doesn't make a difference to the computer nor how poor or wealthy the district is. Why not assist without regard to race/gender/sexual preference?
White males are to Academia and the left right now what Jews were to the Nazi party when Hitler used them as a target for resentment to solidify power. I don't care who you are that should alarm you.
Just let them play https://codecombat.com/ If they do well and like it, they may be suited to program. The majority of the population simply cannot think like a programmer. In my anecdotal experience a simple loop confuses over half of the populous. Once you throw in algorithms, data structures and simple recursion you lose 80% of the rest and of what's left only about half have total grasp of the basic concepts; and that is totally fine. As my thermodynamics instructor used to say "Different people are different". We don't mandate that every kid play baseball, yet there are plenty of major league players. The uninterested and bad players self select out early on while the rest get eliminated by more and better competition. The rest keep playing because of the love of the game and because the incentive for success in the field outweighs the investment they put into honing their skills.
We don't need more 3rd string programmers; we need incentives (pay+benefits) to keep starters from switching sports.
How many programming wizards do you know that haven't moved on to another (better pay/benefits) field after a decade or 2?
Amazon Is Hiring More Skilled Immigrant H-1B Workers Than Any Other Tech Company. And it's NOT because the locals couldn't get the job done (we all know that).
So who are they trying to fool here?
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
White males are to Academia and the left right now what Jews were to the Nazi party when Hitler used them as a target for resentment to solidify power. I don't care who you are that should alarm you.
That would alarm me if it were true. Hitler blamed the Jews for secretly eroding society. But white males have been abusing their position of privilege right out in the open where everyone can see that it's actually true. That's fundamentally different.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Making their actual cash cow (e-commerce site) function. Currently searches are finding results but won't display them, regardless of browser, OS or ISP and feedback submissions are failing..
Every school needs customer service.
I'm in my first semester of a program called TEALS, which is a program that helps teachers (math or science) become better Comp Sci teachers at a High school level. It's sponsored by Microsoft Charities. There are 4 of us using a video conferencing website, helping a rural North Dakota High School math teacher (7 years experience teaching, but little programming experience). It's going pretty well so far, a few technical glitches here and there.
Pushing CS in secondary education is all opportunity cost and little to no benefit. They're better off learning more about human languages, mathematics, sciences, arts, and humanities because they're much more useful for most post-secondary education options. Secondary school CS is useless for anything other than post-secondary education CS.
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
"But white males have been abusing their position of privilege right out in the open where everyone can see that it's actually true."
In the distant past sure but people who happen to share a skin color or other bogus characteristic on which imaginary concepts like race born today share those traits as an accident of birth and owe no debt for their actions just as those with other traits are owed no debts. Prejudices against those who happen to be white and male are now being encoded in corporate policies, education availability, legislation, as well as ethical and public sentiment. Those who are privileged are privileged without regard to race or gender with race falling under the "something we made up" category.
This is another example, if by some accident of birth you are lucky enough to born without the wrong skin color Amazon is going to give you a massive advantage. If like most white people you are born in to broken home in a trailer park, public housing, or a community so poor there isn't much difference you are held responsible for everything that goes wrong for literally everyone else... even someone lucky enough to born with a vagina (who are somehow magically excluded despite enjoying the same privilege or lack thereof AND being the majority).
"That would alarm me if it were true. Hitler blamed the Jews for secretly eroding society. But white males have been abusing their position of privilege right out in the open where everyone can see that it's actually true. That's fundamentally different."
Okay, show me all the white males abusing their privilege amongst the poor children in rural midwest and among the white people who constitute most of the staff at walmarts, truck stops, and fast food restaurants across the nation. Remind me again why hiring people of their skin color is beneficial aside from PR and what their kids did wrong and so shouldn't receive equal access to an opportunity in which success should be entirely based on merit, achievement, and colorblind. Remind me again why the ones randomly born with a vagina should be given superior access vs the ones born with a penis? Granted, there are more vaginas than penises born into the world but last I checked there is no evidence to support the idea that a penis is a karmic reward that should be punished.
Right, you will dismiss those individuals because of some other individual who shares a meaningless genetic trait on par with eye color happens to have wealth/power and abuse it. Or because you can name a few hypothetical purpose built scenarios like the viral "step forward if" video with cooked candidate selection.
Sorry, the world is filled with individuals and none of them deserve understanding and opportunity more than others. I will oppose you if you try to create conditions which provide exclusive opportunity to the wealthy (to a point, we do need there to be enough reason that people keep making and doing amazing things trying to achieve that) and I will oppose you if you try to create disproportionate access to opportunities to individuals for reasons that aren't based on merit.
I'm sorry, with regard to race and gender you have no leg to stand on. With regard to class you have to think further... someone facing an abusive family member needs access to outside opportunities as well and someone who isn't cut off from privilege won't need or use them except as evidence of you crying wolf on inequality while demonstrating the same.
There was nothing secret about what Hitler claimed regarding the Jews, he pointed to very visible success among Jewish merchants and bankers and the general tendency to provide opportunities to other Jews as first among equals. There are a lot of Jews in controlling position in Hollywood, there are a lot of Jews in the banking world... but none of it does my buddy Kyle any good nor does the success of some white guy on Wall street doing my buddy Joe a damn bit of good any more than a black guy doing well on Wall street helps my buddy Jamal or some woman CEO helps my friend Susie. But for all of them there are scholarships to help and priority access on SBA loans, there is some access to free healthcare for Susie, and now Amazon education, all but Joe even if Joe is a hard worker born in a ghetto who is crazy creative, learns instantly and connects dots nobody sees to produce results anyone can see and has an IQ of 180.
Instead, Joe should be one of those is afraid to interview Susie alone, can't fire Jamal if he figures out how to hit all the metrics while dodging all the subject things they try to capture, and has to just accept Kyle banging his sister without regard because she is just a Schiksa. Those people somehow inherit the examples of those with arbitrary shared criteria like skin color while Joe is supposed to feel shame and guilt because of all the horrible things his purely random accident of birth gave him alongside a pointless and meaningless physical trait.
You are right, there was actually more of a basis for hating and scapegoating the Jews, grouping together rather than among outsiders is at least a common factor among those of their religion and culture. You do realize the Nazi's would have still been wrong if they'd only created a scholarship fund that excluded Jews for the same reasons as they were wrong to gas them right?
If you really want to make a difference in schools, the first, best way is to get more tech folks to switch careers to teaching STEM subjects!
EnCorps (https://EnCorps.org) is a non-profit committed to precisely this mission. I've been involved with them for a year, and it's been one of the most transformative experiences of my life. So far I've put in over 400 volunteer hours tutoring students in STEM subjects.
I've been an engineer for 30 years. My retirement looks OK, but I can't start taking it for at least another decade. That's enough time for a hell of a teaching career!
#notallwhitemales
Here's something to bend your mind: rich black and Asian women are more privileged than 99% of white males.
No, white males are still benefiting today. I don't expect them to feel bad about being white (I may be clearly Hispanic but hey, I'm white too) but I do expect white males as a group to recognize that position and behave accordingly. In proper teamwork you give a leg up to the less capable members of your team so that they can be useful. I'm way beyond tired of hearing white males whine about programs that seem to favor anyone but them because of how unfair they think they are. That's not how it works; those groups are still behind today because of both historical and ongoing abuse. Minorities are targeted for unfair treatment by authorities because they know they can get away with it, and programs that seek to redress this imbalance are not racist; rather, they are literally the least we can do. If we do any less, the situation tends to explode into racially-charged conflagration, so even if you only care about white people, there's good reason to support those programs.
I'd like to live in a world where everyone is treated equally and programs to help minorities don't make any sense, but ironically we will only get there through programs for minorities. And perhaps chief among them is affirmative action, since it permits racists who would subjugate them to be around them long enough to learn that they are humans, too.
Race is an outmoded concept, but as long as people are targeted for abuse on a racial basis, it makes sense to target people for assistance on the same basis. Racists screaming about how people shouldn't get special treatment because of race should be shouting at themselves.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
"those groups are still behind today"
Because someone is picking an arbitrary physical trait or set of traits which have no importance and pretending they connect people. Grouping people in this manner dehumanizes them. It wrongly ascribes to them blame or credit for actions of other individuals to which they have no significant connection. This is exactly how wars are justified, you group millions of men, women, and children as "them" or "the enemy" rather than realizing each is distinct, human, and without blame or credit for the actions of others.
Grouping people in this manner dehumanizes them.
No, grouping people in that manner and then treating them like objects and not humans dehumanizes them. Grouping people by probability of being abused and needing assistance and then helping them does the opposite. It treats them like humans when we know they are being treated like nonhumans.
This is exactly how wars are justified, you group millions of men, women, and children as "them" or "the enemy"
Yes, that is what racists are doing, very good. But it's not what people trying to help people targeted by racists are doing. The difference is that one group is attacking, and the other group is assisting, and it is substantive. And you are attacking, and dressing it up as defense, which is horse shit.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
"The difference is that one group is attacking, and the other group is assisting, and it is substantive."
Just where is all this attacking? I'm looking around and I don't see it. There are no laws giving someone with white skin an advantage. It certainly isn't a wealth thing, the wealthy don't care about the poor and most white people are poor. There are a couple tiny groups of white supremacists but you aren't likely to actually encounter one in your lifetime. I see things like this story, which are attacking.
Sorry, I can name and already have named a lot of examples of discrimination against white males, systemic in our society, institutional, and even legal. Your point becomes invalidated by even one white child needing help and/or not being an attacker because you've yet to define a reason to justify treating two random white people as having a connection that isn't cosmetic.
It isn't attacking you to want to be given equal access to opportunities without regard for my race and gender. It isn't attacking to suggest a math league should be colorblind and judge according to ability. It isn't attacking to say technology companies, governments, and schools should do the same. Publicly traded companies should not be discriminating to promote diversity for its own sake or inventing an artificial advantage.
You say you are Hispanic. I've known a lot of hispanics. As a young boy I had a good friend named Jose who'd somehow found his way from Puerto Rico to the small mid-western town I lived in. Of course I was 15 and Jose was around 35 but we were good friends for a summer. White certainly doesn't mean in the rest of the US what it means in Puerto Rico at least from the impression I got from Jose, it seemed a trait that was 90% based on ethical behavior and character but when it shifted to that other 10% that was racial within Puerto Rico it seemed extreme. I lived in Miami and encountered many pocket layers of Cubans with different perceptions more sharply divided by class than I've seen elsewhere with the upper classes seeing themselves as from Spain more than anything and many of this culture are extremely racist. When I lived in New Mexico I encountered two other very distinct sets of hispanic cultures, one group spanned many generations and predates the border. The other is an illegal movement that exploits what most don't know, the motor vehicle department outsources driver's license offices in New Mexico and can hand out ID all day long which enables illegal immigrants to vote.
Now, how much of my experience among these others and the negative things they did should I keep in mind if encounter your children and see they have that rare capacity to learn a valuable skill along with the inclination? How much of the positive? Which of these extremely varied groups, which actually contained extremely varied individuals, should I project into assumptions about your child? I'll tell you what I would project, the preponderance of evidence of what I know of a parent for where I have to guess with nothing to go on and otherwise I will do my best to avoid assumptions because their talents or lack thereof will do the talking for them. But right now, the parent of those hypothetical offspring is telling me my son should go to the back of the line because he has light colored skin.