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Being originally from Broward County, it was great to see this! I wish these kind of programs weren’t limited to private schools - my own high school (https://

Being originally from Broward County, it was great to see this! I wish these kind of programs weren’t limited to private schools - my own high school (https://www.browardschools.com/dillardhigh https://www.browardschools.com/dillardhigh) had a great technology program. While it helped build my career, it struggled to get investment and was the only public school in the county with these courses. I would have expected for it to be replicated.

0xbadcafebee 5y ago
I went to four different Broward County high schools: McFatter Tech, Fort Lauderdale Preparatory, Western, and Sagemont. No idea what they're like now, but 20 years ago it was like something out of a bad movie. First a network administrator frames the kid and gets him expelled, claiming that the slow, buggy Mac network is due to the kid hacking it with AOL Punters. Next school, the computer teacher has no idea how to even write HTML, and tells the kid to write the school's website and a calendar app for the teachers (for no pay of course, that would be child labor!). The kid removes viruses and fixes incorrect proxy settings in school computers, and is subsequently banned from the computer labs. Any computer issue is blamed on the kid, because his permanent record says he was expelled for hacking. Finally he's sent to a private school where everyone gets a laptop, and proceeds to learn how to scam ad companies, write networked programs to remotely share the homework answers with all the kids (p2p), and in his spare time builds parallel computing clusters and router linux distros that fit on floppies. After 9th grade he drops out, because clearly he wasn't learning anything! Maybe we shouldn't even teach advanced computer classes, and instead just let the kids go wild. Maybe having a set curriculum takes away from them learning how to teach themselves and pick their own interests.
smtibor 5y ago
I feel the same way. One of the limiting factors in the growth of these programs is not just the funding for hardware and software, it's the lack of qualified teachers that can effectively develop and run the programs. Fortunately, there are some State of Florida programs that will help fund teacher training for STEM subjects, especially computer science. (https://www.fldoe.org/academics/standards/subject-areas/computer-science/ https://www.fldoe.org/academics/standards/subject-areas/comp...) Finally, one of the reasons we started the podcast (and our school has been VERY supportive) is to share as much as we can about our experiences to help support and inspire other teachers. We're lucky that we could learn and work together. Many computer science teachers don't have any peers in their subject area. We wanted to make a podcast that allowed them to be the third person in the room as we talked through the challenges, successes, and lessons learned from our teaching experience. It's been an extremely rewarding journey so far.

0xbadcafebee 5y ago

I went to four different Broward County high schools: McFatter Tech, Fort Lauderdale Preparatory, Western, and Sagemont. No idea what they're like now, but 20 years ago it was like something out of a bad movie. First a network administrator frames the kid and gets him expelled, claiming that the slow, buggy Mac network is due to the kid hacking it with AOL Punters. Next school, the computer teacher has no idea how to even write HTML, and tells the kid to write the school's website and a calendar app for the teachers (for no pay of course, that would be child labor!). The kid removes viruses and fixes incorrect proxy settings in school computers, and is subsequently banned from the computer labs. Any computer issue is blamed on the kid, because his permanent record says he was expelled for hacking. Finally he's sent to a private school where everyone gets a laptop, and proceeds to learn how to scam ad companies, write networked programs to remotely share the homework answers with all the kids (p2p), and in his spare time builds parallel computing clusters and router linux distros that fit on floppies. After 9th grade he drops out, because clearly he wasn't learning anything! Maybe we shouldn't even teach advanced computer classes, and instead just let the kids go wild. Maybe having a set curriculum takes away from them learning how to teach themselves and pick their own interests.

smtibor 5y ago

I feel the same way. One of the limiting factors in the growth of these programs is not just the funding for hardware and software, it's the lack of qualified teachers that can effectively develop and run the programs. Fortunately, there are some State of Florida programs that will help fund teacher training for STEM subjects, especially computer science. (https://www.fldoe.org/academics/standards/subject-areas/computer-science/ https://www.fldoe.org/academics/standards/subject-areas/comp...) Finally, one of the reasons we started the podcast (and our school has been VERY supportive) is to share as much as we can about our experiences to help support and inspire other teachers. We're lucky that we could learn and work together. Many computer science teachers don't have any peers in their subject area. We wanted to make a podcast that allowed them to be the third person in the room as we talked through the challenges, successes, and lessons learned from our teaching experience. It's been an extremely rewarding journey so far.