TweetFollow Us on Twitter

Jan 96 Crabbs Apple
Volume Number:12
Issue Number:1
Column Tag:Crabb’s Apple

Tomorrow’s Developers

By Don Crabb

I just spent a surprisingly enjoyable two days as a presenter and keynoter at the 10th Annual Illinois Computing Educators conference in Addison, Illinois, outside Chicago. At this conference, today’s K-12 educators met to discuss the latest computer software and hardware, the lastest trends in computing pedagogy, the latest methods in computer laboratory management, and the lastest methods for moving their kids onto the Internet and the World Wide Web.

I say “surprisingly enjoyable,” because I found myself learning just as much about the state of Illinois K-12 computer education as I taught about the state of current computing technology and programming environments.

I learned that many of today’s kids, especially those in grades 7-12, are chomping at the bit to learn the guts of computing, how and why it works, and not just how much fun it can be. These expectations cut across racial and socioeconomic groups. This information counters the widely-reported stereotype that only nerdy white boys from wealthy suburban families are really interested in learning computer programming, computer architecture, computer networking, and software engineering.

What the thousand or so assembled teachers taught me was to forget that perception as they told me one story after another about inner city African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and other poor minority kids (girls and boys) who stayed after school just to have a bit more time to use meager computer resources. And just how many of these kids were not just computer-doodling, or banging the Internet and WWW for the hell of it. These kids are demanding to be taught how to put computer technology to use for themselves and their families and how to buy into the digital revolution.

And damnit, we’re the folks who ought to be stepping up to the task to make it happen.

Despite the best intentions, programs, and efforts of the teachers I talked with, the minority kids just aren’t getting the programming training they want and need. Despite the best intentions, programs, and efforts of the school administrators I talked with, the inner city kids just aren’t getting the programming training they want and need. Despite the best intentions, programs, and efforts of the corporate donors I talked with, the poor schools just aren’t getting the computer and networking resources they want and need. And despite the best intentions, programs, and efforts of the governmental educational chiefs I talked with, the poor, minority, inner city kids are being overtly and covertly locked out of the digital revolution that is reshaping America.

And damnit, we’re the folks who ought to be stepping up to the task to help fix these problems.

This is no longer just an educational problem. It’s a problem of the future of this country. Computing and digital information processing are the wave of the present and the wave of the future. For as long as any prognosticators can see. And if we don’t start digitally enfranchising all of our kids now, regardless of their race, or how much money their families make, or what school they go to, we’re going to create a caste system worse than any imagined in colonial India under the Raj. We’re going to create a country where the haves and the havenots are not defined so much by bucks as by bytes. The digital literati versus the digitally disadvantaged.

And damnit, we’re the folks who ought to be stepping up to the task of providing the guidance, the resources, and the peoplepower to give our educators the tools and software they need to extend the digital domain to all K-12 students, not just those with the fancy multimedia PowerMac setup in the media room at home.

What I am suggesting here is simple, but executing it will require a real committment on the part of individuals and their companies. Here we go:

1. Mac developers as a group are among the best programmers on the planet. That’s not a boast, it’s a fact. Mac hardware and software companies as a group are among the most innovative corporations you can find. That’s also not a boast, it’s a reality forced on them by a MacOS market that often defies description, and by their primary partner (Apple) that frequently defies logic.

2. Mac developers need a cause to rally around beside defeating Microsoft or learning to be codependent with them.

3. The U.S. is at a crossroads in its ability to provide a proper computing education for all of its schoolage kids.

4. Mac developers and their companies need to get involved supporting K-12 computer education efforts in the U.S., by offering their expertise, pro bono, on how to improve and extend programming and computer engineering curricula; by offering their services, pro bono, at teaching the teachers; by offering their spare time, pro bono, towards creating killer computer pedagocial apps to help the havenots catch up with the haves; and by offering donations of equipment, networking resources, and software to make all of these initiatives work together.

In short, what I am suggesting here is the private equivalent of a Vista or Peace Corps for all American kids revolving around digital technology, with a strong emphasis on programming and software development as keys to understanding how the digital world is working and will work and how to make the most of it. Software and hardware companies would grant paid release time to their developers to work in this program and release time to their managers to establish it, staff it, and get it under way.

Naturally, we’d buttonhole Apple to be the corporate bandwagon upon which we could hitch our pedagocial wagons.

Let’s call this new initiative the Digital Corps of America (the idea makes sense in many other countries, too). If you are interested in discussing this concept and want to help organize it, drop me a line at decc@cs.uchicago.edu. I will try to organize some electronic meeting forum or list to kick things off.

In the long run, with the Digital Corps of America we end up helping to “re-melt the pot” Americans are so fond of thinking represents the American Way, but in a way that makes sense in the Digital Age. And we help firmly establish the very computer markets we are now trying to niche out in our daily struggles by creating a whole new class of computer literate customers. Sounds like a win-win to me.

 

Community Search:
MacTech Search:

Software Updates via MacUpdate

Dropbox 193.4.5594 - Cloud backup and sy...
Dropbox is a file hosting service that provides cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software. It is a modern workspace that allows you to get to all of your files, manage... Read more
Google Chrome 122.0.6261.57 - Modern and...
Google Chrome is a Web browser by Google, created to be a modern platform for Web pages and applications. It utilizes very fast loading of Web pages and has a V8 engine, which is a custom built... Read more
Skype 8.113.0.210 - Voice-over-internet...
Skype is a telecommunications app that provides HD video calls, instant messaging, calling to any phone number or landline, and Skype for Business for productive cooperation on the projects. This... Read more
Tor Browser 13.0.10 - Anonymize Web brow...
Using Tor Browser you can protect yourself against tracking, surveillance, and censorship. Tor was originally designed, implemented, and deployed as a third-generation onion-routing project of the U.... Read more
Deeper 3.0.4 - Enable hidden features in...
Deeper is a personalization utility for macOS which allows you to enable and disable the hidden functions of the Finder, Dock, QuickTime, Safari, iTunes, login window, Spotlight, and many of Apple's... Read more
OnyX 4.5.5 - Maintenance and optimizatio...
OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the startup disk and the structure of its system files, to run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks, to configure parameters in the... Read more
Hopper Disassembler 5.14.1 - Binary disa...
Hopper Disassembler is a binary disassembler, decompiler, and debugger for 32- and 64-bit executables. It will let you disassemble any binary you want, and provide you all the information about its... Read more

Latest Forum Discussions

See All

Zenless Zone Zero opens entries for its...
miHoYo, aka HoYoverse, has become such a big name in mobile gaming that it's hard to believe that arguably their flagship title, Genshin Impact, is only three and a half years old. Now, they continue the road to the next title in their world, with... | Read more »
Live, Playdate, Live! – The TouchArcade...
In this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show we kick things off by talking about all the games I splurged on during the recent Playdate Catalog one-year anniversary sale, including the new Lucas Pope jam Mars After Midnight. We haven’t played any... | Read more »
TouchArcade Game of the Week: ‘Vroomies’
So here’s a thing: Vroomies from developer Alex Taber aka Unordered Games is the Game of the Week! Except… Vroomies came out an entire month ago. It wasn’t on my radar until this week, which is why I included it in our weekly new games round-up, but... | Read more »
SwitchArcade Round-Up: ‘MLB The Show 24’...
Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for March 15th, 2024. We’re closing out the week with a bunch of new games, with Sony’s baseball franchise MLB The Show up to bat yet again. There are several other interesting games to... | Read more »
Steam Deck Weekly: WWE 2K24 and Summerho...
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. The busy season has begun with games we’ve been looking forward to playing including Dragon’s Dogma 2, Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition, and also console exclusives like Rise of the... | Read more »
Steam Spring Sale 2024 – The 10 Best Ste...
The Steam Spring Sale 2024 began last night, and while it isn’t as big of a deal as say the Steam Winter Sale, you may as well take advantage of it to save money on some games you were planning to buy. I obviously recommend checking out your own... | Read more »
New ‘SaGa Emerald Beyond’ Gameplay Showc...
Last month, Square Enix posted a Let’s Play video featuring SaGa Localization Director Neil Broadley who showcased the worlds, companions, and more from the upcoming and highly-anticipated RPG SaGa Emerald Beyond. | Read more »
Choose Your Side in the Latest ‘Marvel S...
Last month, Marvel Snap (Free) held its very first “imbalance" event in honor of Valentine’s Day. For a limited time, certain well-known couples were given special boosts when conditions were right. It must have gone over well, because we’ve got a... | Read more »
Warframe welcomes the arrival of a new s...
As a Warframe player one of the best things about it launching on iOS, despite it being arguably the best way to play the game if you have a controller, is that I can now be paid to talk about it. To whit, we are gearing up to receive the first... | Read more »
Apple Arcade Weekly Round-Up: Updates an...
Following the new releases earlier in the month and April 2024’s games being revealed by Apple, this week has seen some notable game updates and events go live for Apple Arcade. What The Golf? has an April Fool’s Day celebration event going live “... | Read more »

Price Scanner via MacPrices.net

Apple Education is offering $100 discounts on...
If you’re a student, teacher, or staff member at any educational institution, you can use your .edu email address when ordering at Apple Education to take $100 off the price of a new M3 MacBook Air.... Read more
Apple Watch Ultra 2 with Blood Oxygen feature...
Best Buy is offering Apple Watch Ultra 2 models for $50 off MSRP on their online store this week. Sale prices available for online orders only, in-store prices may vary. Order online, and choose... Read more
New promo at Sams Club: Apple HomePods for $2...
Sams Club has Apple HomePods on sale for $259 through March 31, 2024. Their price is $40 off Apple’s MSRP, and both Space Gray and White colors are available. Sale price is for online orders only, in... Read more
Get Apple’s 2nd generation Apple Pencil for $...
Apple’s Pencil (2nd generation) works with the 12″ iPad Pro (3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th generation), 11″ iPad Pro (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation), iPad Air (4th and 5th generation), and iPad mini (... Read more
10th generation Apple iPads on sale for $100...
Best Buy has Apple’s 10th-generation WiFi iPads back on sale for $100 off MSRP on their online store, starting at only $349. With the discount, Best Buy’s prices are the lowest currently available... Read more
iPad Airs on sale again starting at $449 on B...
Best Buy has 10.9″ M1 WiFi iPad Airs on record-low sale prices again for $150 off Apple’s MSRP, starting at $449. Sale prices for online orders only, in-store price may vary. Order online, and choose... Read more
Best Buy is blowing out clearance 13-inch M1...
Best Buy is blowing out clearance Apple 13″ M1 MacBook Airs this weekend for only $649.99, or $350 off Apple’s original MSRP. Sale prices for online orders only, in-store prices may vary. Order... Read more
Low price alert! You can now get a 13-inch M1...
Walmart has, for the first time, begun offering new Apple MacBooks for sale on their online store, albeit clearance previous-generation models. They now have the 13″ M1 MacBook Air (8GB RAM, 256GB... Read more
Best Apple MacBook deal this weekend: Get the...
Apple has 13″ M2 MacBook Airs available for only $849 today in their Certified Refurbished store. These are the cheapest M2-powered MacBooks for sale at Apple. Apple’s one-year warranty is included,... Read more
New 15-inch M3 MacBook Air (Midnight) on sale...
Amazon has the new 15″ M3 MacBook Air (8GB RAM/256GB SSD/Midnight) in stock and on sale today for $1249.99 including free shipping. Their price is $50 off MSRP, and it’s the lowest price currently... Read more

Jobs Board

Early Preschool Teacher - Glenda Drive/ *Appl...
Early Preschool Teacher - Glenda Drive/ Apple ValleyTeacher Share by Email Share on LinkedIn Share on Twitter Read more
Senior Software Engineer - *Apple* Fundamen...
…center of Microsoft's efforts to empower our users to do more. The Apple Fundamentals team focused on defining and improving the end-to-end developer experience in Read more
Relationship Banker *Apple* Valley Main - W...
…Alcohol Policy to learn more. **Company:** WELLS FARGO BANK **Req Number:** R-350696 **Updated:** Mon Mar 11 00:00:00 UTC 2024 **Location:** APPLE VALLEY,California Read more
Medical Assistant - Surgical Oncology- *Apple...
Medical Assistant - Surgical Oncology- Apple Hill WellSpan Medical Group, York, PA | Nursing | Nursing Support | FTE: 1 | Regular | Tracking Code: 200555 Apply Now Read more
Early Preschool Teacher - Glenda Drive/ *Appl...
Early Preschool Teacher - Glenda Drive/ Apple ValleyTeacher Share by Email Share on LinkedIn Share on Twitter Read more
All contents are Copyright 1984-2011 by Xplain Corporation. All rights reserved. Theme designed by Icreon.