Compulsory Education on Computers

While in class on Wednesday, the topic of compulsory education in computers came up. Most people generally seemed for it, but the question was, to what extent? Many examples were given, with the initial idea of basic coding. We also gave mentions to hardware basics, and I personally gave an example of why it would be useful. Before leaving, someone mentioned the idea of teaching too much, and that specialization in later education is the time for this. I’d like to address these bits, and simply put out my thoughts on them.

So, first: teaching basic coding as a part of compulsory education. This would be an amazingly useful idea at time goes on, but I believe this to be unnecessary. Learning basic coding would allow people to have a general idea of how computers execute their tasks. This would cause less user error and create an easier time for debugging when something does go wrong. Knowing what an execution stack is when an error pops up in your logs, and being able to identify and supply that to the person who made the program, would be an amazing step forward.

The problem with this is time: as they stated, we don’t have enough time to teach this on top of everything else already in our education system. Learning programming requires a fairly wide fundamental sweep of computer knowledge before even attempting it. On top of that, all the problems it would solve could simply be solved by having better coders in the first place. User error can be stopped via proper error checking, debugging can be automated to a single click to send error reports and logs to the creator, and the time spent here could be far more useful elsewhere.

The next point was hardware basics. THIS is where I believe we should spend our time. Learning the basics of hardware include proper understanding of clock speeds, how memory works, how hard-drives work, etc. With this understanding, the terrible markup on most computer systems would decrease - people will have a general idea of what they’re looking for when they walk in to buy one. Also, if someone ever decides to buy a part, learning the basics of how to handle it will also help with the pain of many computer techs everywhere: electrostatic is the stupidest reason to have accidently killed your computer.

Learning the basics of hardware will also help a bit with the debugging I was mentioning before. This is also where my example comes in: I mentioned that people do not understand what the ‘blue screen of death’ on windows actually is, even though it displays the error quite plainly in front of you. It is a memory access error, and understanding hardware basics will let you know what that means. There is your system memory or video memory. For some reason, your computer could not read or write to a location in one. Deductively, that leaves 3 basic probable issues - starting failure of the part (ram/video card), starting failure of the motherboard, and if it’s not a persistent issue (aka it goes away after reboot), terrible programming practices in whatever you were using at the time. Using mainstream software generally makes the 3rd option unlikely - they’d figure that issue out pretty quick.

The other point I made was that people then hold this occurrence against the operating system. They believe this blue screen is a problem with Windows, and use it as an excuse to hop ship to alternatives. Because the error is caused by hardware or software failure (not OS failure), this can happen regardless of what OS you use. In the case of MacOS, the error is simply a sad face stating it had a problem. Due to the reception of this terrible error screen (it doesn’t state there was an issue, and simply asks you to reboot) as a less aggravating practice (for some reason), Windows systems (8+) have also switched to the same type of thing.

While I’m a firm supporter of Unix-like OSs, making a switch to another OS is not something you should base on an error like this. You should be using the system that fits your needs best - each OS does excel in different places. Windows has number crunching efficiency, and in turn, gaming and office programs. Macs have encoding efficiency, and so are generally best for audio/video/picture editing. Linux distros have large-spread control and lightweight server support, and so are best for power users. It’s generally that simple.

While I tangented off there a bit to explain the example I gave in class a bit more, the point still stands. Hardware basics would help give a much broader scope of computer knowledge, and could be very helpful for the amount of time needed to be spent on it. This is where I think we should draw that line and include to in compulsory education. Computers are a part of our lives now, and that’s only going to become the case more often than not. A basic idea of how they work is something everyone should know.