Post Aj3HHxCFPhpSVBaaLg by carbonwoman@norden.social
(DIR) More posts by carbonwoman@norden.social
(DIR) Post #Aj3GARB9xK23DhvrH6 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-18T12:12:30Z
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I’m old enough to remember professors who said learning CS wasn’t a part of a foundational education any more than learning to use a lathe was a part of interior design. I don’t think this is common today, thankfully. But, what aspects of computer science should be integrated into existing subjects (a word processor in English to write a paper) and the degree to which it is an independent subject remain nebulous. Thing is, understanding computers changes the way you think about everything.
(DIR) Post #Aj3GQsWg31iSfWpvmq by ReverendMoose@mas.to
2024-06-18T12:15:28Z
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@futurebird I think they should still teach Elementary School students LOGO.
(DIR) Post #Aj3GcdyXyKAV14TywC by futurebird@sauropods.win
2024-06-18T12:17:34Z
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Worse? It’s possible to use computers for every aspect of your life and not really understand much about them at all. This can lead to category errors (the way people discuss AI) and failures to recognize old con games when dressed up in digital clothes. eg “social media” becomes a novel threat rather than an old problem in a new context. Unscrupulous men are treated like wizards even though we all know magic isn’t real.
(DIR) Post #Aj3Gg3ACmPrm0KYlu4 by grumpasaurus@fosstodon.org
2024-06-18T12:17:41Z
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@futurebird the act of providing explicit instruction is fundamental to everything but is most apparent in computer science. My first summer camp where we mostly played Doom on the lan, the instructor had a student tell someone else to walk around the classroom (we ultimately did logo writer).
(DIR) Post #Aj3GlJg2oJ2QfTxnn6 by Crispius@mstdn.crispius.ca
2024-06-18T12:19:08Z
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@futurebird Absolutely. Learning how to code has taught me to think logically, how to solve problems sequentially, and to clearly define a problem when attempting to implement a solution. All were skills that proved invaluable in my management career.
(DIR) Post #Aj3HHxCFPhpSVBaaLg by carbonwoman@norden.social
2024-06-18T12:25:01Z
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@futurebird Computer science is very important in the context of physics. I like to teach numerical physics, because so few students learn CS at school. (The course is very basic, number respresentation, errors, and basic algorithms important to solve problems in physics)Every now and then I teach quantum information and of course this starts with classical information theory.Though of course I have to say that understanding physics changes the way you think ;)
(DIR) Post #Aj3I5bBdWIEYicyYjI by econads@mendeddrum.org
2024-06-18T12:34:01Z
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@futurebird gonna be one of those people, but as I understood (I don't have a CS degree) that's more about the fancy stuff like sorting algorithms and traveling salesman problems whatever, (not anything I've needed in my 15 years as a developer) so not sure any of it is needed for other degrees.I surely wish most people knew how to properly make a presentation or use a word processor or wiki though. The number of people who can't even use headings seems astronomical.
(DIR) Post #Aj3IHRxBfqOrYertke by kechpaja@social.kechpaja.com
2024-06-18T12:36:10Z
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@futurebird > any more than learning to use a lathe was a part of interior design.You don't have to become a master lathe operator, but I highly suspect that _having used a lathe_ (or at least seen a skilled person use one) would indeed make you a better interior designer. There is an entire world of designs that you will only think of if you have a mental model of how things are made on a (traditional) lathe.
(DIR) Post #Aj3ISl0HBgOPpEhlOC by econads@mendeddrum.org
2024-06-18T12:38:11Z
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@futurebird That's true of many professions, see banking, economics, all the sciences. Any subject beyond a certain level is magic right?
(DIR) Post #Aj3JX4fu5jNJwonYWW by richard_merren@mastodon.social
2024-06-18T12:50:11Z
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@futurebird And should those foundational classes use open source software? Should our schools teach every kid to install and use LibreOffice, so they can do the things they need for free, or should they teach Microsoft Office so they can work in the corporate world? It bugged me that my son's school taught Photoshop instead of Gimp, which every kid could use at home for free--but learning Photoshop is better for kids who might get a job using it.
(DIR) Post #Aj3JaO8MCSwVAQgfpo by brent@thecanadian.social
2024-06-18T12:50:46Z
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@futurebird “we all know”— I don’t wanna burst your bubble… but what is your definition of “magic”? Last I checked, 90% or more people believed in some crazy shit.There’s no easy answer to the question: “What is essential knowledge to live and succeed?” It’s probably more than most people can retain.Most people don’t even know how electricity works. Or where clean water comes from.
(DIR) Post #Aj3MXcYMQrekskDqWu by PeterLG@theblower.au
2024-06-18T13:23:44Z
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@futurebird My eldest grandson told me (I'm kinda his mentor) that he has chosen computer science as his university major. I recommended that he minor in philosophy to give him a more rounded outlook. We'll see.
(DIR) Post #Aj3Tmm6vsYViXzZA36 by chris_radcliff@spaceup.city
2024-06-18T14:45:01Z
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@futurebird 3 things I’d love to add to a liberal arts education are how to design a system out of individual parts, how to break a problem down to individual steps, and how to evaluate whether something does what you think it does. People who do those things seem to be capable of a lot and resistant to a lot more, whether in CS or otherwise.
(DIR) Post #Aj3UJB0KrPwj1IvlBY by Professor_Stevens@mastodon.gamedev.place
2024-06-18T14:50:56Z
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@futurebird I majored in physics in the 70s because my college didn't teach professional skills and that meant no computer science.The physics profs forced us to learn Fortran on our own (which I already knew, but my classmates found challenging). The point was so we could simulate a rock falling from the distance of the moon to the surface of the Earth, and find out that numerical simulations do funny things as the step size changes. All so we would hate computers.It didn't work on me.
(DIR) Post #Aj3ZUb2qskpOjvN9o8 by rik@opalstack.social
2024-06-18T15:49:02Z
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@futurebird I was interviewing at UChicago for a CS job ~1986 and a prof from another department said "oh, is that like PENCIL SCIENCE?"
(DIR) Post #Aj3f03ZRNFjtxTR6jg by JoshuaACNewman@xeno.glyphpress.com
2024-06-18T16:50:41Z
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@futurebird This was much of Seymour Papert’s thinking when he designed LOGO and the One Laptop Per Child project.Significantly, both have been effectively abandoned, and what remains of the OLPC project is in direct opposition to Papert’s thinking, in favor of Google money.
(DIR) Post #Aj4HvE9kUBzXYN6iEi by barrygoldman1@sauropods.win
2024-06-19T00:06:52Z
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@futurebird from logic gates to programming soccer playing robots is the 2nd chapter of my complexity lab manual. so many foundational topics.iteration vs recursionbinary searchtrial and error algorithms data vs algorithmhierarchical architecture vs distrubutedgenetic algorithmsiterating simple algorithm over space like cellular automata leads to complex behaviorwatching how u can build a hierarchy from logic gates to a turing complete processor1/n
(DIR) Post #Aj55S8lURm9W8v5Hea by jfrench@cupoftea.social
2024-06-19T09:21:51Z
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@futurebird "computer science" is a weird branch of abstract maths, it doesn't really help anyone. However learning how to program computers should be taught (even more) at primary school. Scratch is a great start but can get confusing when things get complex.Ideally by the time people get to secondary school a basic grasp of coding should be as common as being able to read, write and add up. Not anything advanced but the idea of variables, loops and conditions should be teachable
(DIR) Post #Aj64yy4XJlq3jw2guO by jon_alper@mastodon.online
2024-06-19T20:51:05Z
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@futurebird @lisamelton It’s funny but when I read this, my first thought was ‘of course an interior designer should have at least a passing familiarity with how a lathe works how else could they understand form, function and enough basics about how things are made to specify them’. This may mean I have insane expectations.