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Apple TV+ Includes A Muppet Who Codes (deadline.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: While Apple CEO Tim Cook may not be able to force schoolchildren to code, there's no law against Cook and Apple using Sesame Street to make preschoolers want to code. Among the original Apple TV+ shows Cook announced at Apple's March Event was Helpsters, an "incredible new preschool show" about coding from "the peeps at Sesame Workshop and Apple."
In a skit on stage at the Steve Jobs Theater [available on YouTube], a Helpster monster from the new show named "Cody" (get it!) explains to Big Bird, "See, coding fosters collaboration, critical-thinking skills, and is an essential language that every child can learn. By teaching preschoolers about coding, we are giving them the opportunity to change the world."
One site described Cody as "a sociopathic tech recruiter muppet," complaining that "Teaching kids about technology is fine. But this is just creepy." They also objected to the show's targeting of pre-schoolers.
"From a developmental point of view, most experts agree very young children should be working on figuring out how to share their toys, not thinking about how to program them."
In a skit on stage at the Steve Jobs Theater [available on YouTube], a Helpster monster from the new show named "Cody" (get it!) explains to Big Bird, "See, coding fosters collaboration, critical-thinking skills, and is an essential language that every child can learn. By teaching preschoolers about coding, we are giving them the opportunity to change the world."
One site described Cody as "a sociopathic tech recruiter muppet," complaining that "Teaching kids about technology is fine. But this is just creepy." They also objected to the show's targeting of pre-schoolers.
"From a developmental point of view, most experts agree very young children should be working on figuring out how to share their toys, not thinking about how to program them."
In my long career, I've found that most muppets prefer to code in Visual Basic or Perl.
Given the quality of firmware on most TVs, I'm pretty sure they all feature a muppet that codes.
It was written by a muppet, obviously.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
This everybody should code fad is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen.
I don't think it's dumb at all, because the idea is not "everybody SHOULD code", it's "everybody should try to LEARN to code".
Absolutely not everyone is going to be coding. But I feel like a ton of kids that would be good at and enjoy coding miss out because they are never exposed.
Coding in the modern world, being able to manipulate computers is such a valuable skill that feel humanity loses out on a great deal of advancement but not identifying everyone who is skilled at it. Being able to code is a power that amplifies the human mind, yours and those around you.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
...just not fix one. *grumble*
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
This nurse would be so much more efficient if she knew a bit of c++.
Why on earth do you not believe this to be true?
The reality is, wouldn't the nurse be more efficient if she knew how to use computers well?
Have you seriously not seen non-technical people trying to navigate the very byzantine forms that are inevitable for complex internal systems? If she had learned some coding as a kid she might well have a much more intuitive sense for the logic that drove the structure of those screens. If she had done programming maybe she'd have a more innate understanding of "this part is requesting something from the server, which is why it's taking so long, maybe a connectivity error..." instead of just wishing and praying the screen stops being "locked up" for reasons incomprehensible.
Such a nurse could in fact be way, way more helpful in giving technical feedback to the developers of the hospital systems, about why a system does not work in practice - so they could clear up UX issues maybe months earlier than the developers would otherwise trying to glean feedback through a million beuroratic layers. That in turn would mean a better system for EVERY OTHER NURSE.
So in fact, if you cannot fathom the ten billion ways in which the world would be better off by even a single nurse attempting to learn to code and gaining at least computer competence as a result - if you cannot imagine that I would claim it is you that is broken, not the idea of teaching everyone the concepts of how computers work, which is really what you teach them when you try to teach them how to code.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
work out a uniform open coding language which is a logically derivative of English and maths
It is called Perl. It is as expressive as a natural language. And it is problematic as a programming language for exactly that reason. ;)
30 years ago my school system taught programming as an equivalent to foreign language, I was one of a handful of students that went through our high school with a foreign language requirement fulfilled by Pascal (our maths teacher knew it, so that was all that was offered)
At the time I think it was simply a way to enable it to be taught without disrupting a rigid structure of classes which didn't permit free time or flexible schedules... but in time I've decided that it makes sense to teach programming to kids like a foreign language--
French lessons teach you to understand French people -- their language, culture, values, etc...
Programming lessons teach you to understand computers in a similar way. If you truly want to be able to "converse" and live in computer development culture you need to know the languages, syntax, and the motivations.
I don't see any issues at all w/ starting kids on this early in life, just like I don't see any issue with teaching second languages at an early stage. IMO one of the greatest weakness in US education is that in most public schools a second language (and culture) option isn't even usually available until high school.
As with everything in life, moderation is key... as is understanding when a child has an aptitude and when they do not, then adjusting their education plan accordingly to enable them to succeed at what they're good at, while still receiving the basics and a rounded education.
This everybody should code fad is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen.
why stop there? I think teaching reading and writing is a fad.
maths too.
I think what we should do is thoroughly analyze every 4 year old, determine their vocation then train them exclusively for that ignoring everything else.
SJW n. One who posts facts.