Communications of the ACM
Computer Code Frees S to Think in New Ways
Credit: BBC News
Throughout this past year, U.K. Education Secretary Michael Gove was on a campaign to replace the British schools' ICT curriculum with a computer science program. Although existing ICT courses often focus on teaching specific software packages, Gove’s changes are an attempt to reach a more balanced sense of literacy by teaching students to use technology by being able to write the code for it, writes technologist Tom Armitage.
However, fluency goes beyond reading and writing, and innovators need to understand how to have ideas that can be designed specifically for the internal workings of computers. They also need the ability to express those ideas in computer language. Those are the skills required to innovate and invent with new technology, Armitage says. He writes that the truth is that humans have developed a computer-assisted world in which computers and code are used as prostheses, allowing work to be completed more efficiently.
In order for technology to move forward through innovation, the industry needs new thoughts. Therefore, technology education should be about developing a way of thinking, taught as part of a broad, diverse curriculum, Armitage concludes.
From BBC News
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