Year of Code - being led by a person who cant code...

[ZeroHour]

The UK gov leading the way again appointing a PR person to promote and run the yearofcode campaign without having a clue about coding....

 

Watch from 5:30m

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7x7GYItzS4#t=332

 

Wow, great way to push it into schools, supposedly teachers can learn to teach coding in a day! but she can't learn it before taking the job...

 

Articles about the farce:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/11/coding_in_schools_madness/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26150717

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/02/07/the_u_k_s_year_of_code_director_lottie_dexter_doesn_t_know_how_to_code.html

Edited February 12, 2014 by ZeroHour

[plexer]

Oh my god what a load of tosh yeah teachers can learn in a day and then teach the kids some absolute crap that has no bearing on what they might actually need to learn.

 

Ben

[ZeroHour]

Oh my god what a load of tosh yeah teachers can learn in a day and then teach the kids some absolute crap that has no bearing on what they might actually need to learn.

 

Ben

 

They were going to learn how to make e-cards....

I think giving kids a go of coding early on is not a bad idea as such but getting a PR specialist to run it screams of not taking it seriously, especially when there will be others better qualified.

[TechSupp]

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, (shakes head and walks off), Think I may change career, brain surgery shouldnt take long to learn if I start now, should be ready for September!

[d0pefish]

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, (shakes head and walks off), Think I may change career, brain surgery shouldnt take long to learn if I start now, should be ready for September!

 

September?! How stupid are you! I picked it up on a bus ride to town after reading a wiki-how article. You need to pull your socks up if you're serious about being a brain surgeon!

[LosOjos]

Total shambles. There are organisations out there (such as YRS who I volunteer for) who have been helping kids code for years; surely the government would have been better off providing a pot of funding to these organisations backed by years of experience and hundreds of volunteers? Why re-invent the wheel, especially if you think it's square?

[bladedanny]

With no coding experience, you can build a website (presumably in code) in an hour? OK...

 

Anyone reckon she'll actually learn to code in a year like she says?

[LosOjos]

Anyone reckon she'll actually learn to code in a year like she says?

 

Nobody!

[X-13]

Anyone reckon she'll actually learn to code in a year like she says?

 

I do.

 

But I also think that as soon as she realises how long it'll ACTUALLY take, we'll either have a new government approved meaning for "a year" or "coding".

[d0pefish]

I do.

 

But I also think that as soon as she realises how long it'll ACTUALLY take, we'll either have a new government approved meaning for "a year" or "coding".

 

In all seriousness, the definition of "coding" does need to be clarified for this.

Are we teaching kids to code as in building HTML pages, as I thought that was already partially part of the curriculum (forgive me if I'm wrong, we don't follow the standard curriculum here). So are we now saying instead of using Serif, etc. we will now teach you HTML in notepad? At what stage would that be deemed a success? Surely all it would do is peak the interest of those wanting to look at web development anyway.

Are we saying they will learn another webdev type coding? If so, to what end? Having one years experience (thinned out over X amount of lessons) will not get them a job coding, and I fail to see what skills it will give them for the future.

Or are we saying some sort of desktop language? If so, good luck teaching teachers that in the first place, most struggle with Logo so dropping them in something even like Python would scare most half to death.

 

Surely the better approach would be to teach students the fundamentals of coding....logic, planning, process, fault-finding, etc. so that they can apply these skills in life. Wrap that up in a coding lesson by all means, but don't try sugar-coating it with "teach kids to be programmers."

[X-13]

Surely the better approach would be to teach students the fundamentals of coding....logic, planning, process, fault-finding, etc. so that they can apply these skills in life. Wrap that up in a coding lesson by all means, but don't try sugar-coating it with "teach kids to be programmers."

 

From what I've seen, that IS what they're supposed to be doing. [At least in primary. I haven't looked at Secondary.]

[featured_spectre]

Words can't explain my thoughts...

 

http://static2.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/comments/My+head+is+full+of+caffeine+_208df60afab81b2f40f643ab6a165963.jpg

http://static4.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/comments/3504668+_6d50553cc19970f0365fe4d83e066c66.jpg

[foofighterjim]

Mrs foofighterjim is a primary school teacher and they have not had one ounce of training on this yet. They don't even know what language / environment they will be teaching in! If it is something like Python it will take some training and at that point I would also object to them using the term coding.

[X-13]

Mrs foofighterjim is a primary school teacher and they have not had one ounce of training on this yet. They don't even know what language / environment they will be teaching in! If it is something like Python it will take some training and at that point I would also object to them using the term coding.

 

I just brought this up with our ICT Co-ord.

 

We're using 2DIY [part of the 2Simple software] and espresso coding, apparently. No mention of python or any other proper coding language.

[bondbill2k2]

Diving right in with python here hopefully, all setup for staff to practice and at their request!

[d0pefish]

I still have reservations about what learning any coding will have on their future skills? Unless the lessons are actively engaging, it will be the same as asking a student to type up a word document.

 

As I said earlier, if the focus will be on things like learning how lines of code flow, what to do if something goes wrong, that won't be too bad, as it might give them problem solving and logical thought processes. My bet is more the fact there will be a whole set of teaching resources aimed around "type this up and watch the funny figure dance on the screen" sort of thing. just copy paste exercises. Would be thrilled to be proved wrong