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On 24/05/2018 09:47, Tom via list wrote:
I'm not a coder, but I work in IT infrastructure, self-employed, and have a general interest in tinkering. My thoughts on this is that the importance is in generating interest in Technology (whether it be via learning how to do trivial tasks with not necessarily the best tools, or by crossing the bridge between causing a physical action via an electronic manipulation of a variable or vice versa).On 24/05/18 09:14, Gordon Henderson wrote:Up to that point I would agree with you. My daughters are being 'taught' IT by someone who knows nothing about it. I've spoken to several teachers and all they seem to be able to share is their fear of it. I spoke to a teacher involved in coordinating code teaching and the basic problem is none of the teachers have any IT experience. Kids ask them questions they cannot answer. As for universities - I've mentored someone with a 2.1 in computer science from a red brick uni who didn't know how to debug a program!Not really interested anymore.Mostly because the stuff I do for real (and get paid good money for) are miles apart from the things the 'dojo wants to be involved with.E.g. Arduino - I do not use c++ for real-time embedded applcations. The Arduino platform is, frankly, an abomination and does not encourage good programming (or hardware!) skills whatsoever.I do use the Arduino hardware platform, but usually for prototyping - I then go on to develop my own hardware, or at least my own shields for the Arduino where appropriate.The bbc microbit is too closely linked to Microsoft and Python too.So my view is that things like the dojo ought to be viewed as a nice little club, but leave the real world teaching to schools and universities.It needs people with experience in there. Tom te tom te tom
By starting off with a large pool of users, then sure, while that pool may decrease in size over time, those left will continue to explore the technology available to them, learn to google for answers, learn to ask questions etc...
The appeal of Pi and Arduino is the cost - Arduino is almost within pocket money reach for some teenagers, Pi perhaps not as much so, but both are certainly within close family birthday/christmas present zone, and many schools can assist to fund this access to technology.
Back in the early 90s there was this guy called Linus who didn't like the restrictions that minix put on his hardware, and he wanted to explore the multitasking capabilities of the 386 PC processor, the rest is history.
The fact that the toolset is substandard shouldn't get in the way of proclaiming the hardware as useless.
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