[Edu-sig] discrete math vs digital math (does it matter?)

[kirby urner]

Per the log entry below, I've been rubbing elbows
with Portlandia's "intelligencia" again (comic
book allusion), thanks to Chairman Steve (and
Elizabeth).

Steve is walking towards my place as I write this,
having just met with the latter, the event organizer.

Methinks "digital math" is gaining on "discrete
math" as what to decry as not being taught
(the ongoing media campaign I've been
updating y'all about).

The latter has the disadvantage of sounding like
"discreet", whereas "digital" has these nice
reverberations with "analog" -- and that's precisely
the distinction "discrete" was trying to make
in keeping it quantized, as in "not continuous".

People already know "analog vs digital" from
popular media.  HDTV is digital.  Shows like
'The X-Files' get recorded as files, on magnetized
disks keeping ones and zeros, or in flash drives.
Analog records still sound good though; worth
keeping a turntable and watching video clips
about how they work.

However, the reason this is probably not an
important argument is zip codes (e.g. 97214)
are free to vary as to what they adopt (or don't)
in terms of nomenclature.

We might tell parents: "the Silicon Forest is
amazed and agog at how plugged up the
STEM pipeline has become, like why won't
schools share more digital math?", whereas in
a neighboring state we might say something
about how the lack of "computational thinking"
is quite stunning (and stunting).

Why Johnny Can't Code is still a classic, though
I don't know why the author bothered to take an
ill-informed swipe at Python.  Someone's partisan
agenda I suppose **.

http://radar.oreilly.com/2007/01/why-johnny-cant-program.html

There's no need to standardize on "the one right
way to talk" -- a sure way to get bogged down in
nonsensical little arguments.

OK, back to mathfuture.

Oh yes, and the log entry:
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2011/02/open-secrets.html

Steve will be joining you at Pycon soon.  I'm
too booked up this year.  I forget if Michelle will
be going, I think she said yes.

Ah, Steve is here,

Kirby Urner
4dsolutions.net


Martian Math
Digital Math
Pythonic Math
"Gnu" Math

**
"The "scripting" languages that serve as entry-level
tools for today's aspiring programmers -- like Perl
and Python -- don't make this experience accessible
to students in the same way. BASIC was close enough
to the algorithm that you could actually follow the
reasoning of the machine as it made choices and
followed logical pathways. Repeating this point
for emphasis: You could even do it all yourself,
following along on paper, for a few iterations,
verifying that the dot on the screen was moving
by the sheer power of mathematics, alone. Wow!"

... sounds to me like this author doesn't have
clear concepts, is getting this fed to him 2nd hand,
not through personal experience.  Since when is
Python "entry level" (compared to what? -- every
language has its newbies) and since when did we
stop "following along on paper, for a few iterations"?
OK, maybe not literal paper.
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