The good news is that — much as the “maker” set is learning how to build stuff — a grassroots movement is creating tools that let even liberal arts majors hack together a program.
This month’s issue of Wired includes an article (pdf) by Clive Thompson, about the need to teach young people (and adults!) computer programming skills, and the emergence of accessible programming languages such as Processing and Scratch, with which to do that. The article mentions Douglas Rushkoff‘s new book, Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age. Doug has been teaching an online course based on his book, at Maybe Logic Academy, which I would have taken if not for teaching my own online course at the same time.