[Farmer John]

I went to the library to change my books, they also lent me a little plastic envelope with a little circuit board and some other bits and pieces in it. This is part of the BBC micro:bits initiative, designed to get each and every student started with programming (coding) at a very early age. My knowledge of computers is fairly wide, I was quite pleased to see that a number of "languages" can be used before sending your finished opus to the little clicky board, where it can live until you power it up and run the code you have written. I think this is pretty laudable, but I do feel that one possibility will be that a smallish number of whizzy kids will go on, and the rest will flounder around in a mire of incomprehension, joined by a a good number of staff who will have gone through (very) sketchy training.

Anyone else got any thoughts on this? One of the languages that can be used is "Python", which I have encountered being used as a way of writing add-ons to the GIS software I have used, and skill in that would be interesting.

I am in two minds about this. I think installing a sound basis of logic (which underlies all computer programming) as a separate thing is a skill that has application throughout life and one that is not always mastered. I refer you to the outbreak of flat-earth mania that has broken out here and in The Other Place.

Hmm.