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For choosing a major and career I think step makes sense but I think that is near the end of the pipeline. What about exposure to the field and introducing com

by dpflan 8y ago

For choosing a major and career I think step makes sense but I think that is near the end of the pipeline. What about exposure to the field and introducing computational thinking into earlier pars of the education system? Not necessary making kids program as their first exposure, but exposing them to computational concepts (maybe start with power of twos when learning multiplication, or control-flow-logic for writing a story....).

crististm 8y ago
There are so many hours in a day. Exposure to computation as opposed to not exposing to what? What would you trade this with?
malvosenior 8y ago
I think that's a great idea. Honestly I don't think any culture in the west has ever been truly supportive of becoming a STEM person. Until very recently is was extremely derided in even white American culture as being "for nerds". A more positive exposure to technology at an early age can only be a good thing. I think we'll still find very few people want to become engineers due to the required workload and that will be ok.
jameane 8y ago
I think even more helpful would be framing how this actually translates into the real world - what does this sort of thing enable in the real world. I loved the show Numbers because it was a show about how math helped detectives solve crimes. Way more interesting than just doing algebra about speeding trains. I think sometimes there is an idea that everyone has the same problem and your problem is universal. For example I heard about a hackathon for black and latino kids. And the ideas that came out of it were really different. One app was a social networking platform for private school kids to connect with other black private school kids to talk about their experiences and vent. Another idea was a payment app to send money to Mexico without having to go to Western Union or whatever. There is a startup in Oakland that has an app to help people who are caught up in the criminal justice system to keep track of court appearances and hearings and stuff so they don't need to go to jail for bogus stuff like missing a court appearance. Technology has the opportunity to enable and transform - if we make sure everyone has access.

by dpflan 8y ago

crististm 8y ago

There are so many hours in a day. Exposure to computation as opposed to not exposing to what? What would you trade this with?

malvosenior 8y ago

I think that's a great idea. Honestly I don't think any culture in the west has ever been truly supportive of becoming a STEM person. Until very recently is was extremely derided in even white American culture as being "for nerds". A more positive exposure to technology at an early age can only be a good thing. I think we'll still find very few people want to become engineers due to the required workload and that will be ok.

jameane 8y ago

I think even more helpful would be framing how this actually translates into the real world - what does this sort of thing enable in the real world. I loved the show Numbers because it was a show about how math helped detectives solve crimes. Way more interesting than just doing algebra about speeding trains. I think sometimes there is an idea that everyone has the same problem and your problem is universal. For example I heard about a hackathon for black and latino kids. And the ideas that came out of it were really different. One app was a social networking platform for private school kids to connect with other black private school kids to talk about their experiences and vent. Another idea was a payment app to send money to Mexico without having to go to Western Union or whatever. There is a startup in Oakland that has an app to help people who are caught up in the criminal justice system to keep track of court appearances and hearings and stuff so they don't need to go to jail for bogus stuff like missing a court appearance. Technology has the opportunity to enable and transform - if we make sure everyone has access.