Cursos de ciències de la computació per a tots els graus universitaris?

l’Inside Higher Education es preguntava abans d’ahir l’entrada de Robert Sedgewick (Princeton) titulada Should Computer Science Be Required?. Més enllà de si tots els estudiants de grau han de seguir cursos de ciències de la computació o han de poder-ne seguir, m’agrada que distingeixi entre formació en programació (és a dir, una habilitat, entrenament) i ciències de la computació:

Programming is an intellectually satisfying experience, and certainly useful, but computer science is about much more than just programming. The understanding of what we can and cannot do with computation is arguably the most important intellectual achievement of the past century, and it has led directly to the development of the computational infrastructure that surrounds us. The theory and the practice are interrelated in fascinating ways. Whether one thinks that the purpose of a college education is to prepare students for the workplace or to develop foundational knowledge with lifetime benefits (or both), computer science, in the 21st century, is fundamental.

Torna aquest article a adreçar el pensament computacional:

Computer science is also fertile ground for critical thinking. How might a given program or system be improved? Why might one programming language or system be more effective than another for a given application? Is a given approach a feasible way to attempt solving a given problem? Is it even possible to solve a given problem? A course or two in computer science can prepare any student to grapple effectively with such questions.

i esmenta l’Steva Jobs que va dir que “La informàtica és un art liberal“. Per pensar-hi.

A més, organitzar cursos d’informàtica permetria avançar en la transdisciplinarietat:

By putting everyone in the same course, focusing on what is important, teaching programming in the context of interesting and diverse applications across many disciplines, avoiding esoteric language details that can easily be saved for later, and mixing in historical context, theory, simple abstract machines and other material that is new to everyone, we can get all students on more or less the same playing field in one or two courses — pretty much in the same way as we do in other disciplines.