CMU’s press release about their new robot language doesn’t make much sense to me.
- The language should be “easy enough for elementary students to use, but powerful enough for college-level engineering courses.” Why? Is it even possible to do that? And why is it desirable?
- It’s based on “industry-standard C programming language”?!? I’ve argued previously that it is probably now criminally negligent to teach C or C++ as a first programming language — there’s enough evidence that it’s too hard for students, and we do know how to do it better.
- “Hundreds of thousands of children gain their first programming experience with robots.” Can that really be right? Only about 16,000 students took the AP CS test last year. Let’s take that as a starting place. There’s a multiple of that actually taking CS classes in high school, but the multiplier is not ten. There’s a lot more CS in high school than elementary school, and relatively few high schools have robots. I don’t buy their numbers — I’d like to see the evidence.
- They argue that it should all be C because it is the language that children “likely will use for years to come” and “will help them transition to those used by professionals.” The key criteria for a children’s programming is that it will help them in transitioning to industry? For 10-15 years later? Do we even know what people will be using in industry in 10-15 years? And should it really be the focus in elementary school to prepare these students for professional software development?
The folks at CMU do terrific work thaI rave about regularly here. I think this one isn’t in the right direction.
Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Academy announces the release of ROBOTC2.0®, a programming language for robots and an accompanying suite of training tools that are easy enough for elementary students to use, but powerful enough for college-level engineering courses.Like the original, this latest version of ROBOTC is an implementation of the industry-standard C programming language and has a modern programming environment that can grow as students move from elementary through college-level robot programming…“Computer programming is not taught at the middle school level, yet hundreds of thousands of children gain their first programming experience with robots,” said Robin Shoop, director of the Robotics Academy. “We introduced ROBOTC four years ago because students working with robots should spend their time learning scientific, mathematical and engineering principles, not learning a different programming language for each robot platform. Also, the programming environment students use should be compatible with a language such as C that they likely will use for years to come and with an interface that will help them transition to those used by professionals.”