[Gllug] App development for children

[JLMS]

On 17 May 2011 09:48, John Hearns <hearnsj at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Yesterday's Evening Standard carried an article on Nick Cleggs speech
> at the Google conference.
> All schoolchildren are to be trained in how to develop 'apps' for
> iPhone and Blackberry.
>
> Does this fill you with depression also?

No.

> Teaching the next generation
> to parrot the developments of this generation,
> because its successful, innit?

So should they be taught non marketable skills? Or should we contact a
medium to forsee the technologies that will be useful in the future? I
for once declare my crystal ball needs an upgrade of OS.

>
> Why not give the children the 20 quid development boards that the
> Register has recently been talking about?
> Sure, 99% of them will be never used or underused. But that 1% will
> result in at least some pupils taking up engineering as a career,
> and maybe in the next wave of innovations.

You answered your own question right there. There is no justification
for such waste.

>
> And is not not odd that a story on a Google conference mentions IOS
> and Blachberry apps but not Android?

Yes, but that speaks well about Google.


Some people in the list come from such niche areas in computing that
after reading the list   sometimes I begin to believe pigs may fly if
only they were taught  assembly language :-P
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