In an interview to promote Apple’s Hour of Code workshops for kids aged 6 and up, SVP of software engineering Craig Federighi has told the BBC that introducing young children to programming is so important because programming is “the next level of literacy.”
“These devices are so much a part of our lives, we have a computer in some form wherever we go, that the ability to create in that medium is as fundamental as the ability to write,” he said […]
He says programming should be seen as a “language and a way of thinking”. And while many young people have a great facility in using devices, he says being able to programme them is the “next level of literacy”.
Federighi, who first began to experiment with code when he was ten years old, said that Apple also wanted to dispel one of the myths of life as a software engineer …
He said that the geeky image of poorly-dressed programmers in a very solitary occupation was out-dated.
People sometimes have a view of programming that is something solitary and very technical. But programming is among the most creative, expressive and social careers.
It’s an incredibly creative medium, not unlike music, and there’s a tremendous cross-over between people who programme and musicians.
Federighi rejected an OECD claim that the use of technology in education offered no discernable benefit.
There’s no question in my mind of the value in technology in fuelling young minds.
Like any other tool, if you simply throw it in the classroom, and don’t consider how best to take advantage of that tool, and you try the old ways with a new piece of technology on the desk, it’s no panacea.
But the potential of the technology when well applied is phenomenal.
Apple was keen, he said, to use its retail stores more extensively for training and education.
Photo: An Hour of Code workshop in a Shanghai Apple Store last year
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Excellent! I would have to agree.
As a former Programmer by profession, I can honestly opine that it is boring. I do not feel to have gained any personal lasting benefit from my years of doing it. Over the years in various forms I have programmed in Pascal, C, C++, ABAP, Basic, Visual Basic and others.
I used to be a pro programmer for Cap Gemini, the biggest IT firm in Europe (supposedly). No personal benefit gained. Boring.
Why not do something for LIFE itself, like grow fruit and veg? Much more fulfilling than sitting melting your neurones 18 hours a day for $$Apple$$ or some such other crazed social conditioning outfit.
Craig is an awesome guy! His love for programming is true and he practices what he preaches. Apple is very lucky to have him!
Craig receives money for doing it. He is highly paid and highly stressed. Not a natural person. He should take a break and go to Hrishikesh for a couple of months in the Himalayas, followed by 3 months in Vrindavan and 3 months in Jagannath Puri.