Kenya makes coding part of school curriculum
- Thread starter Ethnic Vagina Finder
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Secure Da Bag
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Are they making computer engineering part of their college curriculum? Do they have any facility that can create a computer?
Be producers, not only consumers.
Be producers, not only consumers.
Bush worthy, possible ban worthy ass comment
Ummm...this isn't how coding works. Complete overkill. Its not, and should not be the end goal. And im saying this as an actual computer engineer. Thats a different industy entirely. Their teaching track is moreso software engineering than computer engineers. And thats perfectly fine.
For example , Oracle produces sht all the time through coding but they don't make computers. Twitter/Facebook make sht all all the time with coding, without making computers (occulus is an exception). Adobe makes sht as a producer all the time and they dont create computers. Electronic Arts and Ubisoft do the same. This is the ideal track for a developing nation.
Arguably, the biggest boon of teaching coding is the ability to build somethjng without having to import parts or have much capital or have to fight export restrictions on your nation. For example , there are huge restrictions on export/production as part of these development grants that african nations have already signed. Similarly , the markets of asia(ACFTA) (TTP), europe and north america(NAFTA) have exclussive trade agreements and tariffs that would make the production/export of hardware impssible. So the barrier to entry in computer manufacturing is too high. Coding (ergo software engineeering) is the perfect fix. You literally exchange your time in order to create intellectual capital without complex inputs or export restrictions. Its almost like how rapping compares to other resource intensive forms of music like rock or symphonic works. And the market for doing this is huge.
This is a brilliant move for a developing nation. Kudos to kenya.
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Secure Da Bag
Veteran
Then you don't understand the history of colonialism, economics, or the programming industry, if you think that.
Secure Da Bag
Veteran
The last sentence I wrote is key. "Be producers, not only consumers." I don't have a particular problem with teaching programming in high school. Good for them. Even though, it's lucrative and one can be very successful, it's still a form of consumption. Africa's history for the last 500 years has been one of mostly consumption. Either colonialists consuming African resource or Africans consuming the goods produced by colonialists. Africa needs to produce not just services but tangible, if not physical, goods.
It's a good 1st step. But I want them to see past that as well.
EDIT: Twitter and Facebook make software almost exclusively. Why can they do that? Because Microsoft, IBM, Dell, HP, and Amazon make the hardware and the server space (ie. cloud) for them to run on. Africa needs that same type of internal diversity when it comes to computers and software.
Kenny West
Veteran
Software is a product.
Do you offer any folks around your way any software workshops or courses?
I hear what you are saying, and yes, it would be cool for an African dell to exist, but the point of my post, was that there were active barriers to entry for hardware, unique to Africa. Telling them to enter that market with those disadvantages, would be like asking a paraplegic to join the US Olympic swim team.
Its unrealistic for this supply chain to begin in africa without outright sponsership by a western state the way taiwan, korea, and japan have enjoyed. This sponsership is needed for Both for trade restrictions and for raw material processing. For example, did you know that the US actively imposes a 25% tariff on non-trade treaty computer imports? Imagine coming from a developing nation, having little to no margins, entering the market with a new product that has no track record no existing consumers, and you must charge 25% more for it and then products which come from privileged trade treaty countries, like Korea, Japan, and taiwan do not due to treaties. And this ignores the high rates africans specifically are charged by seashipping companies before the import tarrifs. And very similar restrictions operate in the exact opposite direction with all the other countries on earth both in the European block as well as the east Asian block because these treaties were born in the very racist 60s-80s to specifically exclude africa. Similary, if you have ever tried to ship sometthing between african nations internally, they impose the same restriction on eachother. Software does not have this drawback for africa.
Additionally, i raised the point of all those companies before because all of them with the exception of microsoft (who makes most money from software, and is actively killing its less profitable hardware divisions) , are bigger than the hardware firms you mentioned. And those software firms have much bigger pull on the social and economic landscape of the planet than dell , hp, ibm, toshiba, etc.
As an analogy, i raised the point of a rapper vs a rockstar to illustrate the barriers to entry. Your suggestion would be the equivalent of telling a young black rapper like tupac or ice cube (both with economic and institutional racist barriers) in the 90s that he is wasting his time and needs to enter the much greater diversity in rock music and that real music is based on purchasing expensive instruments, getting expensive lessons, getting into racist club venues, etc. Such was clearly not true. Just like rap allowed musicians like Drake or JayZ to become exponentially bigger than their rock forbearers, software allows companies to leapfrog their hardware forbearers
See what i mean here? Im not inherently against computer manufacturing, I just think it’s overly idealistic to expect those African nations to do it
And once again, as somebody who is actually in this field as my profession, let me just say, software people are distinct producers too. As one more analogy, I will compare the productive capacity of a software company to an auto maker, like Ford or GM. Your suggestion would be like me, saying Ford and GM aren’t real producers if they don’t go out there and mine their own Colton for batteries, and dig their own oil for theIr vehicles. Clearly this isnt the case.
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Good. Code is the language of the future. The future is controlled by machines. And machines understand code. You speak into a machine and a code within the machine interprets your command and endeavors to have it manifested. Therefore, it is to be reasoned that the more fluent you are in the language of the beast, the quicker you can dominate the virtual land of milk and honey that lies before you.
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not even 2 post in.......
GOOD GAWD! It's like some of you start inching all over your body and feeling uncomfortable when a feel good story comes out of Africa.
Computers are dirt cheap.
Coding, at its core, is learning.
Software can redistributed WITHOUT manufacturing (as @CopiousX was touching on before).
This is a powerful confluence of factors which have the potential to drastically change the quality of people's lives. Its hands down one of the best skill investments I have made.
Coding, at its core, is learning.
Software can redistributed WITHOUT manufacturing (as @CopiousX was touching on before).
This is a powerful confluence of factors which have the potential to drastically change the quality of people's lives. Its hands down one of the best skill investments I have made.
