In my last post, I mentioned Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) and how digital writing can be incorporated into a program such as this. Now I would like to suggest that a technological literacy — which can include a foundation in computer science, but may also include learning programming languages, web development, etc. — should also be a focus of 21st-century learning, and should be incorporated into learning at an early stage and in a cross-curricular manner.
In the essay “Why We Teach Writing in the First Place,” Toby Fulwiler writes:
“Schools exist to teach people to think in some systematic way. At the early grades ‘reading’ and 'writing’ and 'arithmetic’ are called basic — what they are basic to, is thinking. … But the basics which the public always want to "get back to” are really the primary language skills which make systematic articulate thought possible. Reading provides us access to information and ideas. Writing and arithmetic provide general tools for manipulating and expressing ideas and information.“
Although the computer sciences are a relatively young field, I would like to argue that engaging with technology in a deep manner (that is, in understanding algorithms and working out new ones) is an extension of these basic skills.
As Fulwiler continues, "writing is basic to thinking about, and learning knowledge in all fields as well as to communicating that knowledge,” and similarly knowing how to effectively deliver instructions to computers, or at least the thought process behind that, can enable students to think critically about interacting with machines and other humans, as well as communicating with people on a truly global scale.
Too often, as in writing classes, technology or computer classes are tedious and are more concerned with using Microsoft Word (in both cases!) than actually engaging and challenging students.
Certainly, learning to work effectively with program suites such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite is useful, as is developing the ability to navigate social media platforms, but we can give students more.
Jaron Lanier, a writer and computer scientist, explains in a video that “in a world created by hackers those who can’t hack are the underclass,” and believes that a literacy in computer science is probably on par with the fundamentals that Fulwiler mentions. A general computer science course “would empower a lot of people because then you’re sort of learning all the programming languages at once and you can learn to think like the people who made them up.” This, he thinks, would offer the most opportunity as new programming languages are frequently replacing older ones. This is also particularly astute for our present moment of increasingly superior hardware being under-utilized by current programming languages or the methods we are using.
However, I believe there is something to be said for learning computer science by getting your hands dirty in code. If students can learn the underlying theory and logic behind a programming language that is interesting to them, they should be able to transfer that foundational knowledge to learn new programming languages in the future.
Douglas Rushkoff, a writer and digital thinker, does think that learning specifically to program will be good for individuals and for society as a whole. In an article he explains that in a world filled with text (road signs, newspapers, etc.) no one questions why children should learn to read, and now that we are increasingly surrounded by technology such as apps, we should also be seeking out literacy in programming. He likens the free Codeacademy tutorials to Gutenberg’s printing press, and writes that by learning to code, “[y]ou will understand more about how the world works, and become a participating member in the digital society unfolding before us.”
Learning the fundamentals of computer science is in-line with the “access to information and ideas” that Fulwiler states that reading is, and learning programming is learning to “manipulate and express ideas and information” (like writing and arithmetic). Coding is a form of writing, too, and is a means to communicate directly with a machine so that that machine, and the network it is connected to, may proliferate your ideas to many other people. We need to think about technology in the classroom in bigger ways than just enrolling students in MOOC courses and scanning their papers through plagiarism software. We need to support them in critical thinking and a digital writing that can include coding.
Technology Across the Curriculum
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Oleh
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