It seems to me that with the export of even technical jobs like programming being shipped to India, is it really that important to have the technical skills that were once valued? It seems to me that with millions of untapped brains in the developing world, why would companies bother trying to hire from a dwindling talent pool in the developed world? However, for a superpower like the USA, this is not a good trend as do they really want to have their defence industries staffed by foreigners (the latest terrorist problem in Times Square underscores that). How important is it to know HTML and CSS, let alone Ruby, PHP, Java, C# etc? These are not easy skills to learn. The personal homepage is giving way to the personal blog. Web 2.0 makes creating a blog or wiki site possible without having technical skills. It seems to me that although such new and cool tools like blogs, wikis, and Prezi require considerable technical know-how to bring to market, the users of these tools are the ones driving the technology. Of course, this is nothing new as the same goes for hardware as well (eg the iPad and iPhone).
Now yesterday, I had a rather bad support incidence with tech support. A rather sullen and stoic tech does not give a good face to the technical side of things. Yesterday's episode was worse than usual, so sometimes the tech side just doesn't know how to present a user-friendly face to the users. I can see it from the other side as well because I know it is sometimes taken for granted that things should always work (and that's not necessarily an easy thing to do with limited resources).
Where does that leave the IP teacher (do we teach HTML/CSS?) and CS teacher (how valuable is programming). I know that knowing how to program does save me time as sometimes I can code a custom tool for myself or someone else. But these are 'hard left brain concepts' to learn and therefore, not too popular. It's going to be a tough sell in computer science (as the dwindling enrollment shows).
Also found this from a quick Delicious search today. It's about using Twitter for learning. Might be a good blog to follow
I think pretty often about the value of technical skills. I think there has always been a very small subset of people with strong skills. When I was a high school student, the small group of us who could actually understand a file path in DOS could find things (let alone write basic programs). Now there is a huge group of people who can use the technology without really understanding how it works.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the automobile - you used to start it with a crank, had to repair various parts on the road etc. Now even mechanics can't tell what is wrong with your car's electrical system without using a computer diagnostic.
I think a computer science teacher is actually teaching logical thinking and problem solving. Even my friends who are programmers talk about the pace of change and the fact that the only constant is thinking. I also think that is what creates the best and most elegant code - people who think very well. When I look at the html generated by Dreamweaver I am reminded that what is functional is not always thoughtful.