[clug] [OT] Any LA or CLUG reaction to the new ALP Policy

[jm]

I think you managed to say what I was think much better than I did and 
without my cynical tone to boot.

Jeff.

On 19/05/2015 9:00 am, Alex Satrapa wrote:
> 3) The number of jobs where analytical thinking was required was much higher than expected.
>
> People use Excel for problem solving, they need to understand how to design for maintainability, how to debug, and how to protect the program from dodgy inputs.
>
> It doesn’t matter what “programming language” you use, the techniques are still required. It’s basically the scientific method applied to a specific field: Determine what the problem is, devise a possible solution, test that solution, review the results, which alters the definition of the problem.
>
> I’d go further than just teaching programming, and integrate the courses through schools so that there’s a uniting project. One school might be working on solar racing cars, another might try rocketry (e.g.: with solid fuel or room-temperature liquid fuels with relatively low toxicity such as nitric/kerosene), another school might focus on small plot farming, and another might focus on high performance computing and physics simulations.
>
> After all, one of the main concerns of young students through the years has been, “really, when am I ever going to use this knowledge?"
>
> IMHO focussing on “what topics to teach” without thinking about “why to teach them” is a mistake.
>
> Alex
>
>