>It's possible that programming skills could transfer to the real world >too, but it's hard to say how, and possibly harder to claim that it's >more cost-effective to teach programming as a general skill than, say, >algebra, physics or calculus.
OK so programming on it's own perhaps is not such an 'important' skill to have (however who decides what is important and not is another interesting area) We are actually looking at teaching programming through robotics and thus it becomes multi-disciplinary with some physics, design and technology and computer programming. I agree that transfer has never been proved and so much of what we teach can surely be questioned but I feel through context and application perhaps students can learn more. Rather than just programming mortgage calculations they work on a robotic design scenario and then perhaps programming is an important skill and some of the skills involved might transfer... Martyn
