Gene Pool - Digital Culture

Like grammar, spelling, adding and subtraction are the basic building blocks for general education, should we be equipping school leavers with the fundamentals of computer programming so they can better understand the workings of the digital world around them? We examine and idea whose time has come with Rewired State director, Emma Mulqueeny and Software Developer, Jim Anning. The major wave of UK software developers came out of the first home PC generation, with the accessible BBC micro, Sinclair Spectrum or Apple II computers of the mid-1980's. Accompanied by a manual that gave you permission to tinker and learn how to programme, these machines rewarded learning by running software that you had made yourself. Thirty years on and the larger industry has attempted to lock us out of tinkering with our electronic devices and computers, leaving a void in learning and distancing us from being able to control or influence computer technology. More Info: http://www.digitalmediacentre.org.uk