{"id":15032,"date":"2014-02-24T01:09:56","date_gmt":"2014-02-24T01:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=15032"},"modified":"2014-02-24T01:09:56","modified_gmt":"2014-02-24T01:09:56","slug":"year-of-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=15032","title":{"rendered":"Year Of Code"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the last couple of weeks, there has been a lot of media coverage concerning the so-called Year of Code<\/a> (YoC) –  an initiative in the UK to promote computing education in our schools. Before I talk about that, let\u2019s just take a small detour.<\/p>\n

Also in the news this week were reports of the passing of Ian McNaught-Davis<\/a>. It\u2019s likely that no one under the age of 30 (possibly even older) would have had a clue who he was, but back in the early 80s he was the presenter of The Computer Programme<\/a>, a BBC series which aimed to teach basic (and BASIC) programming to the masses using the BBC Micro (two more shows followed: Making The Most Of The Micro<\/a> and Micro Live<\/a>). Altogether, this amounted to about 5 full series running between 1982 and 1987.\"The<\/p>\n

To be fair, only the first two series in this run during 1982-83 dealt predominantly with coding, and by the time of Micro Live in late 1983-87 the BBC had already started on its course of diluting technical content. Micro Live was more of an early \u201cgadget show\u201d than a programming one.<\/p>\n

Dumbing down aside, McNaught-Davis effectively helped create the technology we have today. His presentation skills and knowledge spawned a generation of coders who shaped the modern computer world as a direct result of those early TV shows.<\/p>\n

But running in parallel, ever since that early peak in technical TV programming, the UK has been on a gradual downward slope. In many ways, the BBC has been both creator and destroyer \u2013 what it created in 1982, it has been destroying since 1983 with the trend towards consumerism and dumbing everything down. I\u2019ve mentioned before that science shows like Horizon<\/a> have been ruined by the removal of raw technical content, replacing it with pointless topics, childish narrative, annoying sound bites, and repetitive video effects loops. Well, technology programming has been treated in precisely the same way \u2013 all technology coverage nowadays has to be packaged to appeal to the lowest common denominator of viewer. The only way that can be achieved is by broadcasting endless \u201cgadget shows\u201d about mobile phones and mobile phone games.<\/p>\n

Going back to the original topic, YoC has got a hell of a task ahead of it if it wants to turn 30 years of progressive ignorance into technological skill inside a year. So the big question has to be: does it have a chance?<\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s worth taking a look at the bottom of the YoC website to see who the guiding lights of the organisation are. Not specifically their names, but their job titles. To start with, there are 28 of them on the YoC foundation\u2019s board. Over half of those are simply listed as \u201cfounders\u201d of various obscure websites. Several are venture capitalists, several are representatives from companies like British Gas or newspapers like The Guardian. The two leaders \u2013 Chairman and Executive Director (ED) – are listed as \u201centrepreneur in residence\u201d and \u201cfounder, Million Jobs Campaign\u201d. It isn\u2019t exactly a Who\u2019s Who of technology whiz kids.<\/p>\n

The ED is Lottie Dexter. and much has been made in the technology media about an appearance she made<\/a> on BBC\u2019s Newsnight. In it, she said that being able to code was vital to understanding how the world works \u2013 but then admitted she couldn\u2019t code herself. The segment is here:<\/p>\n