[LINK] Young Aussies losing ground in digital economy

[David Lochrin]

On 2016-01-24 12:48 Bernard Robertson wrote:

> My point is that teaching coding and only coding is short sighted.
> 
> The current obsession with coding at the expense of other subjects suggests that the approach is "we must do something, coding has something to do with computers, lets teach coding and everything will be OK".

Exactly (:-)!

The whole software engineering gamut from problem identification and requirements analysis through software design, coding & testing has to be done well if a system is to work effectively.  Anyone who travels on an airline will certainly be hoping the "coders" understood more than just the language syntax.

I think the key issue is context.  A university SE course should give students an understanding of as wide a context as possible.  The problem with Shorten's call for coding to be taught in schools is that it narrows the context.

Many bad decisions begin with a lack of context - "look at the weather in the U.S. now, you can't tell me there's global warming!" or "why don't we just reuse the copper and save money by not having to run fibre?".

David L.