At the start of the year, the government launched the ‘Year of Code’ with funding to train teachers in coding, ahead of the launch of a new computing curriculum in September. Will this initiative generate and promote more interest in coding?
A new way of thinking
Dr Dan Crow, chief technology officer of Songkick, is an adviser to the Year of Code and is insistent that the initiative runs much deeper than equipping the next generation to work as coders. ‘It is about promoting computational thinking, which combines mathematics, logic and algorithms, and teaches people a new way of thinking about the world.
‘Computational thinking teaches you how to tackle larger problems by breaking them down into a sequence of smaller, more manageable problems. It helps you go from specific solutions to general ones,’ Dr Crow adds.
And this is a common bugbear coders have with non-techies – that they can’t understand how a project has been delivered, because they are do not possess the same ‘mindset’ as the coder. If everyone learned coding, surely that would help with an understanding between coders and ‘non-techies’?
‘Computational thinking is a skill that everyone should learn,’ Dr Crow says. ‘Even if you never become a professional software engineer, you will benefit from knowing how to think this way. It will help you understand and master technology of all sorts and solve problems in almost any discipline.’
Too little, too late?
‘The funding is just £500,000 and Year of Code director Lottie Dexter does not instil me with any confidence,’ says senior developer Ralph. He cites Ms Dexter’s February 2014 appearance on Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman where she revealed that she did not code and was committed to learn it this year. ‘Considering she said in the same interview that teachers could “pick it up in a day”… well, need I say any more?
‘It should be a serious initiative and the Year of Code advisory board only has three actual techies and the rest are just corporate or PR types. So it needs much more financial and techie muscle before I believe it is a serious coding initiative,’ Ralph adds.
Kim, a senior coder with a shipping company, is more optimistic. ‘Any move on coding is to be applauded. The UK has a great computing tradition – Alan Turing’s ideas about how computers work is still visible in everything today, the UK led the 1980s home computing boom and Sir Tim Berners-Lee created the world wide web.
‘When I entered the world of coding in the 1990s, it felt like that was history and the UK was being outstripped by overseas competitors,’ adds Kim. ‘Now some companies outsource coding work, but considering the pool of talent [and potential talent] we have here as well, that seems a great pity. Such an initiative should be welcomed to help the UK retain its cutting edge in this field.’
Another view
‘This totally baffles me,’ says project manager Derek. ‘The fact is that not everyone can code. This is just another example of a policy that denigrates the computing and IT field.’
Derek recalls his time at college in the 1990s. ‘During my computer science degree, nearly three-quarters of my year failed the first programming course. Many people just cannot learn to code, the same as I [and I really tried!] could never learn to speak French.
‘The skills needed to write extendable and usable code are specific, and some of the most intelligent people can struggle with it,’ Derek adds. ‘More money should be spent – and much more than the derisory £500k the government has given to Year of Code – on encouraging those in computer sciences to blossom, and that does not necessarily mean in coding. It should be across the board.
‘I love coding, but even with pretty bad school teaching I managed to teach myself the basics because I had an aptitude and desire to do it. Coding cannot be enforced,’ he concludes.
