The BBC is giving away mini computers to 1 million year 7 children

Caroline_a

How many coders does the UK need? Or will they have outsourced all the artisan jobs by then to Martians?

Homeownertobe

jaylee3 wrote: »

What a massive waste of money!

And I know I may appear thick, but what is this thing about getting kids into 'computer coding?' Barclays advertise that on the telly.

Why the necessity for children to learn 'coding?' Maybe someone can enlighten me?

Do you want your children to be left out of the global workplace?

If so, then it's a massive waste of money. If not, then perhaps not.

If only someone who knew how to code had built something that you could use to educate yourself about it...

Maybe they could call it 'Google'.:D

Homeownertobe

NICHOLAS wrote: »

Even more glad i never have, and never will, pay the bbc a penny.

I don't have kids, but i do have knowledge about the interwebz and have many websites of my own and am search engine proficient.

Why are people being encouraged to code? coders are ten a penny, maybe more, and in certain parts of the world you can hire skilled people for peanuts.

Over saturated market.

I wish my school taught me more about the internet and websites though, what i know i learned myself off the internet.

I remember my old ICT teacher teaching us how to build a website using notepad, very primitive though and not followed up with further learning meaning you forgot it in 2 seconds.

Will you be boycotting the other corporations paying for this?

uk_american

Good coders will always be in demand.

In addition, I have what I'd term a 'translator' job to sit between off shore coders and local business people. My job is to translate what the business wants/need, to filter it based on what is possible, and then to put it into requirements that the offshore (peanuts earning) coders can understand and do. I then preview their work once done before releasing it to the business for testing.

I wouldn't be good at it if I didn't understand the code or what goes into it. I haven't coded in 15 years but I stay current enough to understand what is possible and have instructed offshore to go and find out how to do something, as I know it's do-able.

This type of job pays well, but you need coding to be able to do it as well as the ability to talk to users. This dual skill is the money maker, not just standard coding.

onomatopoeia99

jaylee3 wrote: »

Why the necessity for children to learn 'coding?' Maybe someone can enlighten me?

It's a good deal more useful than teaching glaciation (Geography). Or the Sino-Japanese wars (History). Or the prologue to the Canterbury Tales (English Literature). Or Music. Or R.E.

Need I continue?

Someone will now come along at say how they frequently refer to the things they were taught about the Sino-Japanese wars when they were 14 and it is an essential to survive in the modern workplace, so all kids should be taught that stuff. Way more important than being able to write a computer program, because no-one need understand computers. They'll never catch on.

onlyroz

NICHOLAS wrote: »

Even more glad i never have, and never will, pay the bbc a penny.

I don't have kids, but i do have knowledge about the interwebz and have many websites of my own and am search engine proficient.

Why are people being encouraged to code? coders are ten a penny, maybe more, and in certain parts of the world you can hire skilled people for peanuts.

Over saturated market.

I wish my school taught me more about the internet and websites though, what i know i learned myself off the internet.

I remember my old ICT teacher teaching us how to build a website using notepad, very primitive though and not followed up with further learning meaning you forgot it in 2 seconds.

We've been trying to recruit some decent people for our graduate program in the last few weeks and most of them are failing the basic coding test and are being sent home before they get to the face-to-face stage of the interview. Coding skills have a wider practical application than many things taught in school and are also great fun to learn too.

As for starting salaries of £40k, not unless you're lucky enough to land a role with a big bank straight out of uni.

squibbs25

I have a daughter currently in year 7. How do I go about getting one for her please

mustbemad

squibbs25 wrote: »

I have a daughter currently in year 7. How do I go about getting one for her please

I don't know why MSE mentioned the current year 7's because the BBC website says its for the year 7's joining in the autumn term.

From the BBC website:
One million Micro Bits - a stripped-down computer similar to a Raspberry Pi - will be given to all pupils starting secondary school in the autumn term.

MBM x

gettingtheresometime

Homeownertobe wrote: »

Will you be boycotting the other corporations paying for this?

Homeownertobe wrote: »

Do you want your children to be left out of the global workplace?

My biggest gripe with this is that a body that continually moans about how much money it hasn't got and is funded by a compulsory tax is funding this hair brained scheme.

If a body, such as Tesco, wanted to fund it then seriously I wouldn't have a problem because I can choose not to go to Tesco if I decide I don't want to support the project.

Homeownertobe

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

My biggest gripe with this is that a body that continually moans about how much money it hasn't got

Please supply the last five instances the BBC has done that. It shouldn't be difficult if they're doing it 'continually'. Should be at least one from today.

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

and is funded by a compulsory tax is funding this hair brained scheme.

But they're not? It's not a tax. The BBC are also not solely funding this, as evidenced by the many corporations also paying for this.

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

If a body, such as Tesco, wanted to fund it then seriously I wouldn't have a problem because I can choose not to go to Tesco if I decide I don't want to support the project.

The BBC is the figurehead because part of its remit is to educate and its reach is greater than the likes of BT, Google and Samsung, hence them all pooling their resources together to educate children in this country.

You can choose not to support this project, but you'll have to give up watching live television. Which you obviously don't as you're so anti-BBC.;)