The Problem Of Computer Programming Education

My freshman year at Cornell University, I was sitting in a Computer Programming and Meteorology class when Professor Mark Wysocki(the New York State Climatologist) succeeded in attracting me to the study of computer graphic information systems through nothing more than a single sentence. He argued that, when a company adopts computer programming as the chief form of technology, it frees itself to pursue new boundaries, because new computer languages can always be created for each new problem.. I was immediately fascinated by the idea that the computer programming can alter individual lives, affect one's identity, and perhaps even shape national identity.

Computer Science is critical for developing programming knowledge, digital literacy, and improving students’ problem solving skills. Teaching kids how to program exposes them to a field that they otherwise wouldn’t have even considered. The problem with teaching programming in K-12 schools is the lack of faculty. In fact, maybe one in ten American high schools have a Computer Science teacher. The number is even lower for schools serving grades 1-6 (Guzdial 1). The states that already require Computer Science as a high school graduation requirement can complete the class by learning how to use CAD or Photoshop. This is due to teacher not being qualified enough to teach real Computer Science. Raising the standards of preexisting Computer Science classes would be problematic in that sense (Guzdial 1). There is also no set, clear curriculum to teach Computer Science in high school. Because of this, it would be hard to teach it to special needs students (Guzdial 1).

With developments in technology growing exponentially, teachers must show students how to think critically and problem solve, using factual information as a primary resource. By mastering these skills, students become prepared for their college and careers, which will most likely involve some form of technology that has not yet been invented. This will influence many of the decisions I make as a teacher. Instead of assigning a reading passage and then comprehension questions to answer after, I can encourage students to discuss what they read and make connections to their own lives, research a topic for different perspectives or deeper details, or give students opportunities to present what they know to their peers and me in creative ways.

Imagine you are applying for a big job. It is the job you have always wanted, but then you find out that your favorite job requires a partial knowledge of coding. Why were you not taught that in school? There is a big debate going on whether or not coding should be taught in schools. According to the article, Teaching Children to Code: Overview, “Also known as “computer programming,” coding is the process of writing instructions for a computer using a specialized programming language” (Crelin). Kids need this skill, but are not getting exposure to it. Coding should be taught in schools because of the great benefits it has.

I became interested in computers during the early 1990s and it happened right in my house. Within my community no one really knew what a "programmer" was or how to become one. At first, programmers were the engineers the circuits and processors. In April 1990, I volunteered to help my brother, a Computer Information Systems major at UTPA, to program the IBM-1401. I was 13-years old, had graduated from high school five years later, and decided to study the field of computers, specifically information technology (IT). In today’s high-tech world, virtually every business needs computer networking professionals to set up and maintain an in-office network (Irvine, 2011). This includes a variety of tasks such as engineering the network infrastructure, administering Windows systems and maintaining an email system (Irvine, 2011).

“Don’t just play on your phone, program it.” This quote by President Obama, which hung in my AP Computer Science classroom, embodies what it means to be an engineer and

Technology is becoming a bigger part of this world every day, and programmers are needed for every bit of it. Anything that is at all electric involves programming. Someone has to program the street lights to run at certain times. Someone has to program your phone and all of the applications on it. Someone has to program the computer that you’re reading this off of. Programmers are essential to everyday life, and without them, there would be no working technology.

I have always had a passionate interest in technology, from the very first time I was introduced to a rapidly-growing phenomenon called coding. It both fascinated and perplexed me; numbers and letters, pixels on a shiny screen, amalgamating together to produce something awe-inspiring. Therefore, it was perhaps to be expected that I would sign up to be a member of my local Girls Who Code club in the beginning of my eighth grade year.

There were times in elementary school when teachers had to pick me up from my chair to give another student a chance to use the school computer. When I first laid eyes on a computer I was amazed at all the things that it could accomplish but I never really delved the aspects of it. This changed when I took my AP Computer Science course during my junior year, taking the class helped develop my passion for the computer. Taking this course helped me to explore other areas of the computer that I didn’t know existed, because I wanted to learn more about the world of computers I decided to join the cyber security team and the robotics team at my school. By joining the cybersecurity team I was able to augment my knowledge on computers in general,

In this article, Jonathan Lash is informing students to be aware of something that might be an issue for them after they graduate college. The pace of change is accelerating. Amount of new technical informations double every two years, and seventy percent of today’s students will end up in jobs that have not been invented yet. Students will collaborate with others on continents of institutions that do not exist today, so they can solve problems that have not even became a problem yet. The students need more than just narrow job training and efficient information to prepare for the jobs. Jonathan inform readers that students will have to push themselves even harder than they do now, so they can be more creative and the braveness to challenge

In The Mythical Man-Month the author, Frederick P. Brooks, Junior, starts off his tale of software engineering by giving the reader an image of prehistoric creatures—programs—struggling for survival against a tar pit. The fact is that programmers and their tools must be perfect in syntax and in reliability and every day a program is struggling to reach the requirements of today’s standards. He speaks of the skirmishes that surround the creation of a program such as putting forth time and effort only to discover that someone else has created a similar program, the possibility of a program becoming obsolete like that of a dinosaur in a tar pit, and the program’s innards and actions must be perfect. However, Brooks gives the reader a positive insight to programming by comparing it to a child’s imagination. He states, “He [the programmer] builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination.” (7)

Computers are the foundation of instructional technology but despite their many uses and importance in nearly every workplace many schools have poor funding for technology. Kids who are in schools that don’t have adequate tech funding end up behind their peers, and their lack of computer skills can affect everything from their ability to research for academic projects to their ability to enter STEM related jobs and programs.

these robots and/or be the ones coding them in the future (Wohl). Thus, it is becoming

Being proficient in using technology will be a prerequisite for almost any employment for younger students. It is the school’s job to prepare many of these kids for employment, and that is especially true for the lower socioeconomic areas where students with computers at home are rare. Eisenberg and Johnson describe this basic skills education as the “laundry list” approach to computer education. By ‘list” they mean isolated skills, such as word processing, or searching the Internet. “Students need to be able to use computers and other technology flexibly, creatively and purposefully. All learners should be able to recognize what they need to accomplish, determine whether a computer will help them to do so, and then be able to use the computer as part of the process of accomplishing their task.”1

The benefits of computer science can be minor, and it also can be huge. On the minor side, we can search anything on a computer today, without even having to step outside. For example, if we are looking for some resources for our research paper, we can easily check online libraries instead of flipping through pages from different books at a physical library we had to travel to. It seems to have become fashionable nowadays to write naysayer articles about how popular efforts to expand computer science educations are waste of time. [1]. Computer science is the major key for the establishment of data base for most companies now, and even majority of the companies are running based on computer systems. Computer science plays an important role in the field of education as well. Computer Science is much more than learning to code, and its benefits go beyond knowing a particular programming language. [2]. Most