On Sunday, April 10, 2005, at 10:32 AM, Arthur wrote:
Now that computers have entered the picture, I see them as ubiquitous, and
important to start practicing on early.
That's the standard line of thinking. I know it well. And reject it, hook
line and sinker.
When I attended the TeachScheme! workshop (http://www.teach-scheme.org/) last summer, our presenter started off by saying: "How many of you have taken a class in telescope science? Anybody? How about microscope science? Have you done that?"
Point being, the computer is a tool, and it is absurd to spend time teaching only how to use a tool. The utility of the computer is in making connections to tough concepts such as abstraction, patterns, and modeling. And, even further, intelligence.
My guess is that those are the sorts of basic skills and concepts Kirby's referring to. Regardless, they're the sort *I'm* referring to.
What you are selling as "basic skills" for a 5th grader are not, in my
experience, basic skills required of a professional programmer. That's how
far off we are from one another.
It's possible to be a professional programmer without truly getting some of the concepts I mentioned above. Just not a decent one.
As for students (5th grade or otherwise): each one of those concepts feeds into the metacognitive abilities that help us make sense of new ideas. I see that as a Good Thing.
Now, your choices of physical and conceptual artifacts to study--which ones (lungs, brain, internal combustion engine, traceroutes, loops, etc.), and how much of the role of each, are much harder to decide. I'm perhaps a little less inclined to agree with Hirsch and the like on notions of essential concepts for "cultural literacy", but I'd say it all has to be balanced between school/cultural expectations and teacher/student interests. (As summarized by these questions: What do you have to teach? What do you want to teach? What will they enjoy learning, or how do you connect new material to what they know/enjoy?)
<tangent>
Some of my students have expressed an interest in learning about computer hardware. Right at the moment I really don't want to teach about hardware, but I understand that they want to be able to find resources on putting together computers, so I'll probably prepare a one-week unit on the parts of the machine and how they're related to the programs the students have been using all year. Perhaps in the spirit of simply introducing them to a possible avenue of work and study that many of them haven't seen before.
</tangent>
Idly blathering, jmj
--
The most damaging phrase in the language is, "We've always done it that way."
-- Admiral Grace Hopper
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