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Education Programming

Tech Giants Support Code.org's Amazon-Bankrolled Java-Based AP CS Curriculum 39

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
theodp writes: Code.org on Wednesday announced that dozens of industry, education, and state leaders are supporting a new Code.org AP CS A Java-focused curriculum for high school students, which will be available at no charge to all schools starting in the 2022-23 school year. "We are proud to have the following companies on our Industry Advisory Panel: Adobe, Amazon, Atlassian, Disney, Epic Games, Goldman Sachs, Google, IBM, Instagram, Microsoft, Riot Games, Roblox, Snapchat, Spotify, Tesla, Unity, Vista Equity," Code.org tweeted. "A big thank you to the following colleges and universities on our Education Advisory Panel: @BowieState @UBuffalo @CarnegieMellon @Harvard @montgomerycoll @NCWIT @thisisUIC @Illinois_Alma @unlv @UNOmaha @SpelmanCollege @UT_Dallas @UW @westminsterpa." In an accompanying Medium post, Code.org explained: "This work is all made possible through a generous [$15 million] gift from Amazon Future Engineer."

Despite having the support of some of the world's richest corporations and individuals whose goals the nonprofit helps advance, recently-released SBA records show that Code.org applied for and was approved for its second forgivable Federal Paycheck Protection Program loan in the amount of $1.9 million dollars on March 25, a month after Amazon and Code.org issued a joint press release announcing their $15 million plan to work on a new AP CS A curriculum and other initiatives. Amazon certainly has ambitious plans for influencing K-12 CS education. Last week, the company announced a 2021 goal to "reach 1.6 million underrepresented students globally through Amazon Future Engineer with real world-inspired virtual and hands-on computer science project learning." And an Amazon Future Engineer job listing for a U.S. Country Senior Manager notes the job will require working "with national and local educational non-profits and governmental entities such as BootUp, Project STEM, Code.org, and the US and State Departments of Education," as well as positioning Amazon "as subject matter experts on US computer science education, as well as the local education systems of our headquarter regions."
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Tech Giants Support Code.org's Amazon-Bankrolled Java-Based AP CS Curriculum More

Tech Giants Support Code.org's Amazon-Bankrolled Java-Based AP CS Curriculum

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  • What about trades? (Score:3)

    by al0ha ( 1262684 ) on Thursday April 22, 2021 @05:25PM (#61302392) Journal
    What about plumbers, electricians and other skilled blue collar jobs? Every one that visits my house said it is becoming extremely difficult to find apprentices.

    Everyone child does not need to code; just like very child did not need to learn Algebra II

    The education in this country is laughable - standards set by greedy corporations only thinking of their own interests; not interests that benefit society.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      What about plumbers, electricians and other skilled blue collar jobs?

      Why would tech companies be interested in investing in that? They all have enormous, powerful Unions that could be putting together education programs to get more people into those trades, but they don't do it. It's always the rampant "whataboutism" whenever something like this comes up and whining about "why won't somebody do the thing I want?!?!".

      What are you doing to get more people into trade apprenticeships?

      Everyone child does not need to code; just like very child did not need to learn Algebra II

      Sure but exposing them to it and providing the opportunity is important.

    • I don't necessarily disagree.
      If learning how to program in Java sparks interest in some kids to learn engineering or go into the sciences, then great, but if all it does is create a group of young low-paid code-monkeys writing webpages for Amazon then I don't see the point, there's already too many people all over the world who are doing that.
      What we do need is more people who actually know how to design and build actual physical things at one level or another. Seems to me we're falling behind the rest of

      • create a group of young low-paid code-monkeys writing webpages

        Both of my kids took AP-CS. There is plenty of theory and design taught. The purpose of the course is to prepare the student for college, not to turn them into code monkeys.

        It is a good course, and I say that as a Java-hater.

        What we do need is more people who actually know how to design and build actual physical things

        There are many, many reasons why those jobs no longer exist. Training more high school students in woodworking with a table saw is not going to make a difference.

        If you look at how wood, plastic, and metal things are designed and manufactured today, much of it is CAD macros, STL, and

        • If you look at how wood, plastic, and metal things are designed and manufactured today, much of it is CAD macros, STL, and G-Code, which is programming.

          Yes it's everywhere across manufacturing, product design, architecture, electrical and plumbing design, structural detailing, simulation, etc... Yet there's still a lot of people with no exposure to these industries that still seem to think that coding is just a thing you do to make web pages.

        • And strangely enough these code monkeys have around zero idea as to why certain types of wood or whatever should be used, its properties etc. just jam it up on the computer and hope.

    • Everyone child does not need to code; just like very child did not need to learn Algebra II

      In high school, I learned calculus and C programming. The programming turned out to be a thousand times more useful.

      Not every child will grow up to be a programmer, but most should learn the basics.

      But TFA is about AP CS, an advanced placement course for college-bound STEM students, not "everyone".

      The education in this country is laughable - standards set by greedy corporations only thinking of their own interests

      On the contrary, the problem with America's education system is our failure to prepare students for the workforce on the silly belief that "everyone should go to college". That is not being pushed by "greedy cor

      • On the contrary, the problem with America's education system is our failure to prepare students for the workforce on the silly belief that "everyone should go to college".

        Everyone should go to college. It's not about increased income, it's about a richer life.

        • In what sense richer? A barista who dropped out of geology? Then thereâ(TM)s the debt to be incurred. Richer... yah no.

          • Seems like he shouldn't have dropped out of geology.

            • If he (or she) dropped out for financial reasons, then "should" is irrelevant. Unless the university provides exemptions for low income students, then they simply can't continue regardless of the future.
        • If we go back to "traditional" universities. But most universities are now all about getting a better job. Certainly plenty of nerds on Slashdot have been outspoken about not wanting to learn things like history or philosophy or anything not related to tech or their tech job.

    • Your final sentence answer this question. The real question is; why are the companies that need those trades no longer training up apprenticeships. Why are the national (internal) corporations the not standing up like tech did here? They expect the government and taxpayers to foot the bill.

    • Nope. They shouldn't stop at Algebra 2. That is only 3 years of math. They should take Calculus as well. Do 4 years of math.
      It isn't like math is in any way hard. They give you all the fancy laws and theorems and make you find a missing number. Not like civics. Which is just one open ended question after another with out any kind of set answer most of the time.

  • I'm so tired of this "just learn to code!" meme. We only need so many coders, just like we only need so many optometrists, baristas, and bud-tenders. It's a BS "solves all lost-my-job-to-China" answer that just isn't true. The suspicious part of me thinks its goal is to create a glut of coders so the big tech companies don't have to pay them anything.

    And- to me Java is a recurring PITA. One old piece of Cisco gear requires an old version of Java, another piece of gear requires a different version... if

    • We only need so many coders, just like we only need so many optometrists, baristas, and bud-tenders.

      That is a poor analogy and likely false. The number of baristas is inherently limited by the potential market for hot drinks. But there is no intrinsic limit to programming jobs.

      The availability of programmers opens up new opportunities and drives additional investment in tech. Salaries and opportunities for programmers are highest where the programming skills are already the most concentrated, which is the opposite of normal jobs.

      • We only need so many coders, just like we only need so many optometrists, baristas, and bud-tenders.

        That is a poor analogy and likely false.

        What do you mean by false? We are pretty much at the point were we don't need any more coders. We have quantity, what we need now is quality.

    • I certainly understand the dislike of Java. It's not going away for one reason: Minecraft was written in Java.

      These days kids start learning to program with Scratch, then move on to Java/Minecraft examples. They are all going to grow up thinking Java is the ideal language.

  • Why are we offering a CSA curriculum? [code.org] "Industry partners indicate to us that students who have CSA experience are more prepared for internships than their peers with CSP experience. This observation has been echoed by partners in Higher Ed regarding student readiness for college level CS courses."

  • Remember when every university in existence was tripping over themselves adding Java courses, and after all that fanfare, only the most boring server projects use Java!

    You don't need lies to sell all this shit - those same shitty Java server apps still need maintainers (and they have more than enough coders willing to take the easy way out, and use Java)

  • Cheaper than moving away from JAVA ... (Score:3)

    by fygment ( 444210 ) on Friday April 23, 2021 @07:03AM (#61304304)

    Amazon plan:

    1) we are heavily invested in JAVA
    2) it will cost a lot if we ever have to change away from JAVA
    3) it will cost almost nothing to train a workforce tailored to maintaining JAVA indefinitely even as legacy (unlike COBOL programmers who are rare)

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