Computing education that doesn't compute

The current UK debate on Computing in schools is driven by a specific issue: what should form the basis of a modern Computing education. It’s a perfect storm that has been brewing for some time, but the recent comments1 of Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Google, have moved it into the political arena. Currently, the mandatory educational component of Computing (from years 11 to 16) is taught as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) – effectively, Digital Literacy – which sees Computing, in a teleological light, as a tool that drives society. Of course, Digital Literacy is an important topic that’s taught well in the UK and elsewhere. But the other half of the sky – the means of which Computing is an end; the important problems it solves and the nature of its solutions; its science, its technology, its engineering and its real-world relevance – is still needed to inspire a new generation of thinkers and doers. For the future state and sustainability of our discipline, a non-teleological view of Computing completes the whole picture and so is of fundamental importance. A non-teleological view is difficult to reach without a detailed understanding of what the subject is; we posit that it comes from and understanding of, what we will term, the core generative problems that have driven Computing as a discipline.