Enrolment in computer science programs across North America is down, apparently one of the side effects of the dot-bombs.

Prospects for those who work with computers seem so dismal right now that, ironically, Bill Gates, the most famous computer science dropout of them all, recently went on a speaking tour to try to encourage students to finish their computer science degrees.

Many of us have friends or family in the programming business who are out of work or fearful for their jobs.

So, on the surface, this may seem like a foolish time to say we are failing at giving our kids an adequate computer science education. But that’s exactly my position – and it’s the bad reputation that the high-tech sector has today that convinces me this is an urgent matter.

Mike Sturk photos, Business Edge
Glendale pupil Alana Guidry, left, installs wheel on project as Anna Guidry, Courtney Andrews and Douglas Craig look on.

I’m not saying all kids should be computer nerds.

Instead, knowledge of computer architecture is fundamental to modern business life. It’s reality. Computers are getting increasingly user-friendly (especially word processing and Internet surfing, etc.), but this ease of use is masking the growing potential that fast processors and flexible software packages are handing to computer users. Many of us only use a tiny fraction of the features available in MS Word, for example, passing up real opportunities for efficiency improvements that are available with Word’s ‘macros.’

I recently had a talk with Michael Bowling, a researcher and professor in the computing science department at the University of Alberta. He bemoaned the fact that computers are getting too easy to use and are therefore being viewed (wrongly) as just another machine.

And I agree. We’re losing our grasp of what a computer is, namely more like a pet than a car. Properly trained, they can perform any number of tricks. The only way to keep a business (or job) alive long term will be to see this truth.

There is no way that a software developer can dream up all the applications or variations that a specific workplace might need from a program, if only because our times are changing so fast. Great applications are the ones that give users a toolbox full of goodies to manage, control and configure. Robotics aside, Active Server Pages, the database programs MS Access and FileMaker, and voice dictation software such as ViaVoice and Dragon Naturally Speaking are only a few examples (being used in my business right now) of a growing world of possibilities available to computer-savvy businesspeople today.

The more control we each have over our increasingly computerized environment, the better off we’ll be. And attaining that control is really a matter of education. The cost of the hardware is too low to be a factor anymore.



Computer science has become as fundamental a skill as reading, writing and arithmetic. Everyone of us, from lawyers, doctors and store owners to circulation managers, needs to learn the limits and potential of those ubiquitous machines.

We must introduce computer science principles at the earliest grades and integrate them into the standard science curriculum before students get too busy specializing. This is not an option. We need robotics introduced in elementary school; typing, word processing and relational databases in the junior high (middle school), with macros for the keeners; and at least one unit in rudimentary programming in high school science. In universities, a course on networking must become as core a subject as English.

Robotics in elementary school, you ask? Absolutely – Glendale Elementary in Calgary already does so, using Lego robot tools to help students learn about subjects they are studying.

Glendale is one of a handful of schools that can serve as a template. For example, a Grade 6 class was learning about wildfires, and built a robot that could find and extinguish a fire automatically.

Another class built its own Mars Rover, as part of an astronomy unit. Even the kindergarten kids built their own simple robots to illustrate stories they heard in class.

The success of this program reflected one mother’s experience at Glendale. She was having a difficult time getting her son interested and even out of bed to get to school. But when the robotics unit started, she says that her son suddenly was the one dragging her out of bed, eager to get to class.

We need to keep attracting the kids who instinctively know that computer technology is the future. Robotics introduces them to the basics of creating arrays, simple programs, even mechanics.

And such a unit immediately removes the intimidation factor that unfortunately is unnerving so many teachers. As the assistant principal at Glendale, Susan Marinucci, told me, robotics is deeply engaging for almost all students, and it’s a great way to study everything from medieval times to Mars.

Teaching robotics does require some expertise that most teachers are ill-prepared for, unfortunately. But students need it. Computer science is no longer an option for a few select geeks who don’t understand the real world.

Michael Dell (Dell Computers’ mastermind), Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (co-founders of Apple), and Larry Ellison (founder of Oracle) all dropped out of post- secondary institutions.

But before they did, they learned, and needed, the basics of computer science. It’s a skill we all need.