The response was swift and utterly devastating for those laggards who want to hold back progress. The AI guy said:

Books will soon be obsolete in schools. Scholars will be instructed through AI. It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with AI. Our school system will be completely changed inside of ten years.

We have been working for some time on educational AI. It proves conclusively the worth of AI in chemistry, physics and other branches of study, making the scientific truths, difficult to understand from text books, plain and clear to children.

That's it. We can throw away all those outdated paper books. Children will learn directly from an AI which, coincidentally, is sold by the company. We can trust their studies on such matters and be assured that they have no ulterior motive.

But, ah my friends, I have told a slight untruth. I didn't ask that question. Frederick James Smith asked the question to Thomas Edison in 1913. The question was about the new and exciting world of motion pictures.

You can read the full exchange from The New York Dramatic Mirror.

A hundred-plus years since the great and humble Edison made his prediction and… books are still used in schools! Those of us of a certain age remember a TV occasionally being wheeled in for one lesson or another. Today's kids watch more video content than ever - of mixed quality - but still rely on books and teachers.

Videos are good for some aspects of learning, but woefully inadequate for others.

I'm not trying to say that just because one technology failed, so will all others. But it is amazing how AI-proponents are recycling the same arguments with basically the same timescale. Will AI be part of education? Sure! Just like videos, pocket computers, the Metaverse, and performance enhancing drugs.

Will it be the only tool ever needed for education? I doubt it. Will vested interests and uncritical journalists continue to boost it? You don't need to have read many history books to work out the answer.

Further reading: In the Future All Food Will Be Cooked in a Microwave, and if You Can’t Deal With That Then You Need to Get Out of the Kitchen

I've been doing some light digging into the security of UK Schools' websites. As I've written about ad nauseum, the Government takes almost no interest in the way some of its official websites are managed. The Department for Education is particularly inept when it comes to technology which - given that our country's future relies on technological progress - is more than a little depressing.

The UK has a specific second-level domain for schools: .sch.uk. While not all schools use this (more on that later) it provides a handy starting point when looking for hacked websites.

I've been working with journalists from Infosecurity Magazine - let's take a look at what we found.

Pornography

Several schools have been hacked to hide pornographic content on their websites. Two particularly egregious examples are:

The Churchfield CE Primary School which contains hidden pages directing users to extreme content (I've pixelated the rather graphic image). In this case, the sexual content is linked to from the front page of the website:

Portal House School is a small Special School for pupils who experience Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties. Hidden within its pages are reams of sexually explicit content. The hackers are linking to externally hosted sites which then receive an SEO boost when search engines crawl a "trusted" .sch.uk domain.

Drugs

Bishop Challoner is a Catholic Federation of Schools. Several pages on their Tower Hamlets' website have been redirected to online pharmacies. Spam filters are reluctant to block messages which seem to link to legitimate pages. These hacked school sites are an unwitting pawn in the war between pill-pushers and spam software.

Gambling

Notton House is a Residential Special School. Its website is infested with gambling advertising.

Redland Primary School is an otherwise charming educational establishment - which appears to be promoting a variety of gambling activity to its visitors.

Counterfeit Goods

Bristol Metropolitan Academy has a WordPress site which has been severely compromised and now displays links to all manner of fake goods.

Essay Writers

While I hope children at Gosfield Primary are being intellectually stretched, offering them essay writing services may be a little extreme!

Over the last few weeks, journalists from Infosecurity Magazine have attempted to contact all the schools mentioned. Very few of them responded, and the majority of sites are still compromised.

How Endemic Is The Problem?

The Department for Education have a database called EduBase which lists details about every school under its purview. In a wonderful display of Open Data, anyone can download the database (a 36MB CSV) to investigate.

The data aren't all of great quality - there appears to be a lot of duplication, missing or corrupt entries, and some which are simply wrong.

That said, the headline figures are:

• 43,866 schools.
• 25,251 websites.
• 11,249 using .sch.uk.

Over half of schools with a website don't use .sch.uk - instead they're using .eu, .org.uk, .cc etc.

It's simply not possible for any individual to monitor all those domains. Indeed, schools quite often don't have the requisite skills to maintain and protect their websites. The majority of broken sites I've checked have been run by the private sector - who are apparently not paid enough to secure the sites.

As I've said repeatedly, this sort of security needs to be handled centrally. It should be the job of the Local Education Authority to set minimum standards for website security (and usability, reliability, all the ilities!). If individual schools are unable to meet those standards, then the LEA must intervene and directly manage the website. If the LEA is incapable or underfunded, the DfE should ensure that UK schools' websites are not a total embarrassment.

Many thanks to Dan Raywood from Infosecurity Magazine for all his help with this post.

With the current "fad" of encouraging children to learn to code, I thought I would be worth looking at the difference between coding and computer science.

History

I learned the infamous Logo Turtle at school and BBC BASIC at home. That is learning to code. I followed instructions, copy-typed from books, and made minor adjustments to "personalise" my programs.

At A-Level I started studying "Decision Mathematics". Rather than esoteric calculus, and prosaic formulas, it looks at how to solve problems logically. It was the perfect primer for learning how to become a programmer and I firmly believe that no conversation about teaching coding in schools is complete without a theoretical understanding of the science behind the code.

An Example

This is an exercise I run through with people wanting to understand the basics of computer science:

Sort the following numbers:

7, 8, 1, 3, 2, 7, 6

Easy enough to do in your head, no?

Ok - explain to me how you did it?

We then talk through what we think the problem is - in what way do we want the numbers sorted? High to low? Low to high? Alphabetical? What, in fact, do we want to do with the sorted numbers?

What series of very simple instructions could we give to an absolute idiot such that they could follow them and get the right answer?

Where are the "gotchas"? If two numbers are the same, how should they be sorted? Does it matter?

Are there more or less efficient ways to sort numbers? Are there times when less efficiency is good?

Hey presto - we've begun to explore Computer Science. We can craft algorithms, learn how and why they are important, write out pseudo-code, hunt for bugs.

Learning To Code

The above is a great introduction to Computer Science. Now let's look at what learning to code teaches people.

sort([7, 8, 1, 3, 2, 7, 6]);

Or, perhaps

var numbers = [7, 8, 1, 3, 2, 7, 6];
numbers.sort();

What has that taught anyone? Merely syntax.

I learned the BASIC and Pascal languages at school. Who uses those now? No one. Learning to code an iPhone or Android app is great fun - but in 10 years time when those children are adults, the world will have moved on and Objective C will be yet another obsolete language.

Yes, learning the rudiments of one language can be helpful in picking up another - but it's no substitute for understanding the fundamentals of why you are doing something.

That's why I'm a big supporter of the Apps For Good initiative. Rather than just teaching kids how to build an Android app, it takes them through the process of design, user research, competitor analysis, testing, monetizing, building a team, and legal / social ramifications of releasing an app. All of which are vital tools to any would-be programmer.

It's not just about learning which buttons to press in order to make an app - it's about a deeper understanding.

if ($thou >= $summers_day) {$darling_buds.winds($rough, $shake);}

Let's put it in language the humanities graduates can understand.

Learning to code is merely teaching people to spell.

Computer Science is about what makes a poem beautiful, why alliteration is alluring, how iambic pentameter unlocks the secrets of Shakespeare.

That is what I think we need to be teaching.

I think it's time for all of us in the technology industry to encourage young people to explore the fascinating world of computers. Our lives are dominated by computers - and knowing how to program them is as essential as knowing how to start a fire was to our ancestors.

Computers aren't televisions. They are not passive entertainment devices. They are not appliances which can only perform the functions set by their creators. They are the very embodiment of our age - electronic servants which, with the right coaxing, will do our bidding and help us change the world.

That's why I'm investing my time in helping kickstart kids on their journey to hackerdom.

Here are the two projects with which I am involved.

Apps For Good

I've spent the last year working with the CDI AppsForGood team. They run programs in secondary schools which get kids to design and build Android apps which will be useful to them and their peers.

Sadly, I was rather dismissive of the idea when I first heard about it - but I have since seen the error of my ways.

So, I've spent the last year Skyping into schools and - Dragons' Den style - hearing pitches from teenagers, and giving them feedback.

It has been immensely fun! Some of the app ideas have been really inventive - apps to help prevent anorexia and bullying, apps to help you with your bad hair day, apps to help you with dyslexia, and apps to help you find books your friends like - I've taken great delight in explaining how do do a basic customer survey, how to create a minimum-viable-product, what common pitfalls to avoid. The kids seem to really enjoy having an industry expert take their questions.

You should become an AppsForGood Expert. Seriously, whether you're a coder, a designer, a product manager, CEO, StartUp Founder, or UI expert - you'll find it incredibly rewarding.

It's really simple to participate - Skype sessions are 45 minutes and really easy to fit around your day. Become an AppsForGood Expert today!

Code Club

As I mentioned a few days ago - I've helped start a CodeClub at my local library. I signed up with CodeClub, downloaded their excellent lesson plans and, yesterday, taught my first class.

I was really nervous. I taught kids at drama lessons many years ago, but this was my first time in years facing a hostile audience of savage youths! We had eight kids turn up - including two girls (no doubt future LadyGeeks).

After a quick intro from me, the kids tore through the worksheets - while I ran around answering their questions and fixing their problems. I was ably assisted by librarians from Woking Library.

What surprised me most was how willing the kids were to diverge from the worksheets and go off on their own flights of fancy.

I thought the class went really well - and hopefully we'll run some more in the new year - but I'll leave the final verdict up to the kids.

Your Move

So, what are you doing to spark wonder and delight in young people?

This is the blog version of the discussion I lead.

Kids And Phones

Kids love their phones. Can we use that love to encourage them to learn how to code?

Here's a great stat about teens and mobile phone ownership:

Two-thirds (65%) of children aged 8-15 own a mobile phone

• 49% of 8-11s
• 82% of 12-15s.

Pretty stunning stuff, I'm sure you'll agree. The only problem is, those statistics are from 2006!

Ofcom has been commissioning studies into phone ownership for several years. They give us a great insight into phone usage among kids.

For example, more recently, we see this gem of a stat.

The correlation between age and mobile phone use is particularly strong, with the proportion of children using a mobile almost doubling between the age of 9 (52%) and 15 (95%).

[...] children are acquiring mobiles at a younger age and using them more.

Again, wow! 95% of kids have a mobile. Oh, that stat is from 2008!

Let's go bang up to date with the most recent Ofcom study.

Smartphone ownership in 2010 comprised

• 3% of 5-7s,
• 13% of 8-11s,
• 35% of 12-15s.

A third of kids have smartphones. I'm not sure that we need a whole bunch more statistics to tell us that mobile phones - especially smartphones - are highly desirable to kids. Both boys and girls.

Click to Embiggen.

Social Exclusion

PC ownership isn't as rare as it once was - but it's still a pretty big barrier to entry. Especially if you have to fight parents and siblings for time on a shared computer.

Phone ownership is fairly wide across all levels of society. As this report shows. Click to embiggen.

Which Phone?

Before running off into discussions about what should be taught - let's take a look at which platform is the best for kids.

Taking into account kids' smartphone ownership rates, we get a chart like this. While BlackBerry is very popular at the moment, Android has already started to eclipse it.

The rise of Android is unstoppable when you consider how cheap the phones are getting.

This is the Huawei Ideos:

The Ideos currently retails for US $80 in Kenya. Eighty bucks for an Android 2.2 smartphone. With 3G, Wifi, GPS, touchscreen, and all the other fun stuff the more expensive phones have.

Here in the UK, we're seeing more handsets come in at the sub £100 mark. There are going to be a lot of these cheap but capable smartphones in Christmas Stockings this year.

However, even at £100, that's still too expensive for many students. But I don't think it's too expensive for schools.

Back in the mists of time, when I was a child, our family was lucky enough to own a BBC Micro. This was one of the first mass-produced computers intended for educational user. Most schools had at least one kicking around. But they weren't cheap.

In 1981, the BBC Micro Model A cost £235. The B Model cost £335. (Source: Wikipedia's BBC Micro Page

Adjusted for inflation, that's £750 and £1,050 respectively. A huge quantity of money.

At £80 per phone, a school could quite easily buy a couple of Android handsets to go in each computer lab - and, perhaps, let them be loaned out to students.

Android Advantage

There are two other app development platforms worth considering; BlackBerry and iPhone.

While BlackBerry is popular (for now) it is an absolute pig to program for. It has a level of complexity that is just painful. Added to the problem is its ridiculous signing requirements and you end up with a platform with is quite unusable for kids.

iPhone is the darling of the industry - and very easy to code for - but has three very serious drawbacks.

1. Expensive. iPhone ownership is low because the hardware costs are so high.
2. Limited platform. You can only create iPhone apps on a Mac. If your school has a few hundred Windows XP computers - you'd have to replace them all with expensive Macs.
3. Hard to distribute. If you've written an iPhone app, it is relatively hard to put it on a dozen iPhones - unless you want to get it certified by Apple, which could take a while!

So, Android has the upper hand.

1. The development kits is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and will run on very modest computers.
2. Android programming is done in Java. Lots of free tutorials out there.
3. 3D programming is available with OpenGL.
4. There are no distribution restrictions. If a kid has written a fart app - they can spread it round the school to their heart's content, using nothing but BlueTooth if they wanted.
5. Opportunity to make money. If you want to distribute or sell your app through the Android Marketplace, the registration fee is only $25. A school or club could easily register and get all their kids work up on the global stage.

So, how do we capitalise on that and get them interested in coding?

I think that, rather than getting kids to program big boxy computers - where they can only make use of their creations in the computer lab, or a PC they share at home - we should get them writing apps.

Not Angry Birds (although that's great from a physics & mechanics perspective), and not FourSquare clones (although, again, great for geography course work), and not InstaGram filters (could be useful in an art class, I guess), and certainly nothing like Rosetta Stone (may be useful if they're learning a foreign language, perhaps)...

Ahh.... you see, apps can be useful in most classes. Not just for an optional "programming" module.

More than that, they're cool. I don't know if kids still say "cool" - but apps have a high social cachet. "What's that app you're using?" "Oh, just something I wrote!".

Yes, we can start off on "Hello World", then fairly trivially move on to inputs, then conditional statements, then reading sensors, then drawing graphics...

Before you know it, kids have built an app which plays a Justin Beiber clip every time they answer a question correctly in a history test - but only while they're in the playground.

Isn't Someone Already Doing This?

Indeed they are! The CDI AppsForGood team go in to inner city schools and get kids to design apps which will be useful to them and their peers.

I was rather dismissive of the idea when I first heard about it - but I have since seen the error of my ways.

So, my CodingForKids pledge is two-fold

1. Work with AppsForGood to help them achieve their aims. Be an expert advisor to their students. Involve the companies I work for with the project.
2. Find and promote Android programming resources specifically designed for kids. Promote apps which have been built by young students.

We Need You!

If you want to get involved, please visit the CodingForKids Wiki and see how you can help.