Cracking the Code

George Rebane

[This is the transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 14 March 13, 2014.]

It’s TechTest season again.  On April 5th some of Nevada County’s brightest students heading for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math or STEM careers will be competing in a grueling four-hour merit scholarship exam that has become a springtime rite of passage for our high school juniors and seniors.  The test is sponsored by the Sierra Economics and Science Foundation with scholarship contributions coming from a variety of local individuals and organizations.  If you know of a young person who should compete with the elite this year, please contact Mr John McDaniel at Nevada Union High School where the test will be given.

This brings me to the topic of how education is changing to meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s job markets.  In these commentaries I have talked about the related topics of widespread innumeracy and the growth of systemic unemployment in these pre-Singularity years, when accelerating technology is producing machines that will soon be smarter than humans.

Most economists and students of the human condition agree that technical literacy of workers will be the common denominator in all wealth creating jobs.  Even if you are not a STEM worker, you will be required to understand enough about STEM subjects in order to work with or manage such people.  The fundamental requirement and stepping stone to that ability is being numerate, and the most important aspect of numeracy is the ability to think logically and algorithmically – to be able to understand systematic processes and conceive of reliable procedures that accomplish a given goal.

It turns out that to acquire this ability, learning to program computers to various levels is the most effective and useful skill.  Universities, public schools, and private enterprises have launched a two-pronged approach to teach how to write computer code, and about what computer programming entails, especially as it used on the internet and working with large databases, or simply ‘big data’.

More and more kids in the early grades are being offered programming classes, workshops, and bootcamps to introduce them to basic concepts of creating programs that can display web pages and handle numbers.  Several easy to learn programming languages have been developed to allow students to write code, and then immediately see their work on the web.  In these environments young people enthusiastically embrace such challenges where they learn how the familiar world around them happens.

By the fifth grade 10-year-olds can enroll in formal courses offered by a variety of organizations that teach web programming.  And this activity is not only a draw for STEM oriented students.  The fundamental principle at work here is that “coding is important because it teaches a different way of thinking.  Programming teaches logic, higher-level math and learning concepts that make you smarter and useful no matter what.” (more here)  In short, understanding programming basics should be an arrow in all of our quivers.  It then follows that concerned parents should find out whether their children go to a school that offers programming classes?

These same learning concepts are being pursued by adults.  Workers from diverse fields are signing up for web and data programming classes, paying over $10,000 for courses lasting several weeks.  Showing such STEM capabilities on their resumes makes them very desirable to a variety of employers, besides giving credence that such workers can reason and think logically.

Finally, today mid- and top-level managers are taking programming courses designed for them. And this not for the purpose of their being able to create a website, but to be able to manage information technology workers and projects, because they need to know what is involved in such undertakings.

So we should all take a moment to consider what will be required of us to understand today’s world, to speak about it reasonably, and perhaps to even contribute to the building of a better tomorrow.

My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on NCTV and georgerebane.com where the transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively.  However my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.

Comments

[Russ Steele]

My youngest daughter taught herself HTML while she was in High School. She worked as a volunteer at the Nevada County Network Community network, participating in the development the non-profit organizations first website. When she was in her second year at CalPoly she was hired to teach HTML, one on one with the college professors, who wanted to develop webpages for class room use. In some cases the professor she was teaching was one that was teaching her class. A real role reversal, a student teaching the professor. This was possible because she taught herself HTML and was very good at developing web pages. Today she is a web development projet leader for a high tech company in San Francisco.

In my view every student graduating from high school should be proficient is one high order languages, HTML, Java, Python, R, Wolfram, Mathematica, Matlab, etc. Many of these languages are available for free, including tutorials and videos that are online. Some of the MOOG Universities offer free beginner courses. There are no reason that a dedicated high school student, cannot leave for University, Community College or into the work force with some code under their belt, or skirt band. Learning a computer language teaches a new way of thinking, a disciplined way of organizing one's thoughts to build something that did not exist before. It is breaking the code of success.

[Walt]

Now I'm not knocking higher learning, but a career in "the trades" isn't bad.
We need more of your youth getting their hands dirty.
I found a new "hero" some years back. Mike Rowe. ( from Dirty jobs fame)
He has started foundation to help those get trained in the construction world.
The Mike Rowe Works foundation is geared for the trades jobs.

" Work hard,,AND smart."

[Russ Steele]

Walt,

My oldest grandson is a freshman in high school and his Geometry Class is building a small house on a flat bed trailer, the house is for homeless or abused women. There is a group of houses at a support facility some where in Roseville. But, I digress. The grandson is learning carpentry and he is also on the wiring team, and is enjoying using his hands to build things and applying geometry in the process.

Making stuff is such a great part of learning. Shop class was my best class in high school. I learned how to use wood working tools in wood shop and welding in metal shop. Those skills have been used through out my life.

[Bonnie McGuire]

Nevada union had a wonderful program for kids learning trades through contractors. One of our grandsons participated. We're considering our youngest grandson learning how to operate our sawmill as his high school project.