Apple’s Approach to Education Only Goes So Far
• Tim Cook has been on a European tour to promote Apple’s coding courses in education. “Apple’s Tim Cook talks education, says he wouldn’t want his nephew using social media.” He had some interesting things to say about both education and social media that got me thinking.
IBM ‘s Watson partners with Apple in education. Image credit: IBM
It’s true that learning to code can be an essential career skill for many. But coding alone, and immersion in social media alone, seem to be missing some important elements in the formation of the maturing and educated mind. It could be why we’re seeing an unprecedented embrace of uncritical thinking, be it climate change or the purchase of raw water.
That’s a much bigger problem to tackle, and, as Tim Cook said, no amount of technology can provide that. I think Cook senses the basic problem.
Several stories this week seem relevant.
• Bloomberg has a related story in my view. “How a 22-Year-Old Discovered the Worst Chip Flaws in History.” It’s the story about Jann Horn…
… a 22-year-old Google cybersecurity researcher, he was first to report the biggest chip vulnerabilities ever discovered. The industry is still reeling from his findings, and processors will be designed differently from now on.
This is, of course, referring to the Meltdown and Spectre flaws. One has to ask how our modern education systems can, from the basics of computer science, create kids with this kind of mastery and insight. Or will this kind of human ability forever be the result of random chance and genetics? Will our experience with AIs teaching AIs extend to AIs teaching humans?
• In turn, one of the answers may be found in how people elect to spend their time. By that, I mean, the more time people spend engaging in certain technologies that make money for the developer, the less time the customer spends developing their own minds. Here’s once aspect of that puzzle. “Alexa, We’re Still Trying to Figure Out What to Do With You.”
Immersion. But in What?
Coming full circle, perhaps one element of eduction is not only reason and skill building but time allocation. Everything in technology nowadays seems intended to immerse the user in an activity that’s psychologically pleasing, but not fundamentally productive. Let alone service oriented. Building real skills is time consuming and painful. I see that in my wife’s students all the time.
Finally, with all that in mind, what should Apple’s approach be to foster better education? Apple has certainly played a role in giving us great development tools. And lots of cool activities to mess around with on iPhones, indeed, millions of apps. However, it remains up to the user to decide how to manage money and time.
That’s not taught in grade and high school. And its the reason so many college freshman students flounder and fail their first year. If any educators out there are working on this, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
This week’s edition of Particle Debris is one page.
Particle Debris is a generally a mix of John Martellaro’s observations and opinions about a standout event or article of the week (preamble on page one) followed on page two by a discussion of articles that didn’t make the TMO headlines, the technical news debris. The column is published most every Friday except for holiday weeks.
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