The discussions about the future of computer science and of computer science education are unending. We are seeing huge numbers of layoffs in the tech industry as coders are (attempted to be) replaced by artificial intelligence. Universities and high schools are seeing drops in signups for computer science courses as students don’t see the same economic future in coding that they once did. Some are trying to counter the “CS is dying” narrative. For example, the two opinion pieces linked below.
Much of this is self-inflicted. Far too many people, especially in politics and in school administration roles have pushed computer science as vocational. Dare I say, as JUST vocational. Now in a career technical school that pretty much made sense. For comprehensive schools, I maintain, that it never made sense.
I have been saying for years that we don’t teach physics because we have a shortage of physicists. Nor do we teach biology because we have a shortage of biologists. Rather, we teach those subjects, and many others, to help students to understand the world in which they live. That is the reason why students still need to learn computer science.
We need to change our messaging. No, that’s wrong, I think that computer science educators have always tried all along to promote CS as more than just vocational. That message has just gotten lost in the noise from people with louder platforms. So not “our message” but the message that the wider world is hearing.
Coding is still a language of computer science. It’s not going away. We’re still going to require coding knowledge in the future. It will probably not be the main thing in a job but understanding what AI is doing is going to require some knowledge of the language of computing.
Logic is still important. It turns out that expressing logical expressions in computer languages is still a good way to learn things. Coding is still a good tool in learning about abstraction and breaking a problem down into smaller parts and assembling building blocks of processes. Understanding how computers work and how they communicate and how they tackle problems is still basic computer science. AI does not make the need to understand those concepts go away.
If one thinks of computer science as little more than writing code it is understandable to think that learning CS is less valuable. On the other hand, if one understands that computers are going to be increasing in importance and impact on society AND that CS is about what makes AI work than CS is more important than ever. Students who enter the workforce without an understanding are going to enter it handicapped and limited.
Computer science is alive and growing. It is growing in complexity, in influence, and in the need for people to understand how it works. Students need computer science education.
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