Re: Teaching programming

Craig Nansen (nansen@warp6.cs.misu.NoDak.edu)
Sun, 21 Jul 1996 23:13:42 EDT

J. Fred Schouten, Ed.D. said:
>I'm having a real problem with this thread. We seem to be concentrating on
>what programming language to teach in school (even starting in 2nd grade),
>but we have spent little time discussing whether to teach programming at
>all and for what reason.
>
>What is the outcome of such instruction? Is programming being taught in
>order to help students acquire problem-solving skills? To help them with
>critical thinking skills? Or is it being taught as a vocational course? Or
>-- perhaps -- it is being taught becaus ethe teacher thinks it is a "neat"
>thing to do?
>
>Before I would consider allowing programming to be taught in my school
>system, I would want these basic (pun intended) questions answered!
>

Very good point. Maybe many of us feel it is obvious that we are trying to
teach problem solving and critical thinking skills. That is exactly what we
have developed into our curriculum when we used Logo.

Vocational course - No, not at the k-10 level anyway, and probably not even
at the 11-12 level. Pre comp-sci or engineering maybe.

But also we are teaching life long skills - it is rumored that more VCRs
are programmed by kids than by their parents. If a home has a blinking
12:00 there probably isn't a school age child in the house. Kids pick up
this type of "programming" very quickly - putting phone numbers into
memory, reseting minutes in a cellular phone at the end of the month, etc.

Craig Nansen If learning is an act of exploration,
Technolology Coordinator then technology equips the explorer
Minot Public Schools for the journey of a lifetime.....
Minot, ND 58701
nansen@warp6.cs.misu.NoDak.edu Technology: opening minds with a
minot.com/~nansen/techcoord.html new set of keys