We think that everyday should be code day—at least in today’s K-12 schools. It is, however, Code Day in our hometown of Boston—actually Code Weekend if you want to get official as educators and makers around the area are celebrating the power of coding this Saturday and Sunday. And, good news! We’re celebrating with them thanks to our Code Day Sale!
Tips for Teaching Coding Early On
Coding has traditionally been thought of as something that only the smartest and most skilled professionals get involved with in order to help the government establish the ultimate sense of security or launch the next breakthrough for NASA. Wrong. Coding, while vitally important to future jobs, is not something that you need special skills and advanced training to master. In fact, many early-learning activities encompass basic forms of coding and are easily woven into early elementary curricula on a regular basis. Getting kids started with coding is as easy, a lot of the time, as having them continue to do a lot of the things they are already doing.
Many school systems have already implemented curricula designed to introduce simple forms of advanced technology to students in grades K-2, but now, more is being done to take that approach a step further. Coding, using age-appropriate and specially designed technology, has begun to find a regular place in children’s classrooms as well as in libraries and afterschool makerspaces. Through hands-on design and creation, students are able to get coding almost immediately, which helps them build a true foundation for fine tuning the skills needed to learn a new language—one that is used to operate tablets, computers and other devices they interact with every day. This new literacy is very much believed to be the literacy of the 21st century and hands-on practice in the classroom is the means for today’s students to develop it.
As for how to teach these young children, kindergarteners don’t necessarily need to know how it works in order to build basic coding skills. The ultimate goal is for teachers to provide an active and social opportunity for kids to use language and develop an understanding for the concepts they will need to know. Teachers have demonstrated a belief that students need to be constantly moving in order to fully benefit from their coding introduction and programmable tools, specifically in robotics, help them strike a balance between interactivity and engagement. Kids don’t always need to be using technology to start building coding skills either. It’s all about how they tell things to get from point A to point B—there are tons of creative ways to introduce K-2 students to coding without the need for complex technologies or overwhelming them at all!
Unlocking Coding Skills in the Classroom
Many educators and those in the fastest-growing professional fields are beginning to agree that everyone should have at least basic knowledge of coding by the time they embark on their job search. Coding knowhow does more for graduates than making them more attractive to potential employers, which we shouldn’t understate because it’s crucially important. Knowing how to code generally helps students develop into better-rounded problem solvers and boasting a repertoire of programming skills allows them to create legitimate solutions themselves. It’s not something you can master overnight, but anyone can become a proficient coder and drastically increase their likelihood of real-world success.
Programming knowledge actually has some very specific and incredibly important benefits and kids can start building these skills before they even hit junior high school. A lot of the time, coding entails somebody finding a solution to a problem in the most efficient way possible. Equally important, the steps students take to build the coding knowledge needed to solve these problems consequentially builds a variety of other skills, tangibly highlighting their prowess as 21st century problem solvers. Chances are, if students want one of the better STEM jobs available today, they are going to need to have a decent amount of coding knowledge to be let in the door. Everything in the modern world is about efficiency. Employers will go the most efficient route possible. Someday, this will probably mean automated robots, but right now, people who can code—and code well—offer employers the next best thing.
Aside from creating and editing Web pages, coding knowledge has a slew of practical benefits in the real world, both at home and at work. From maximizing efficient planning of any task to possibly sparking a revolution with an intuitive app, coding abilities produce real, concrete benefits every day. It’s so easy for kids to get started with learning how to code with hundreds of different online programs, but more importantly with the hands-on, age-appropriate technology. Different educational technologies like Raspberry Pi, Ozobot and littleBits are all simple ways to introduce coding in a light but productive way. Kids are amazed when they realize that they can control projects by punching in the code and take a great deal of pride in witnessing how their knowhow can affect an outcome. It’s worth the challenge.
How to Bring More Coding Into Classrooms
Coding in schools is a good thing. It is not all that easy or all that practical, however, for schools and districts to try to weave it into their curricula as a regular part of instruction. For a number of reasons, they always seem to have the right idea that students would greatly benefit from immersive coding classes, but, for one reason or another, it seldom happens in schools. There are ways, however, to avoid any and all of the roadblocks associated with piloting a school or district-wide coding program and you probably guessed we are going to give some suggestions as to how.
It starts with finding those educators who are capable of teaching modern-day coding classes to modern-day students. The problem with that is that there are not many of them. At all. Alas, the Computer Science For All initiative has called for a $4.2 billion investment for teacher training, curriculum development and the overall revitalization of computer science education in K-12 schools. This is a fantastic start and we only wish it could have happened a little sooner. It should, however, directly benefit 21st century students across the country. By doubling or tripling the number of students who have access to coding classes taught by competent educators, everyone winds up better off.
The aim of the Computer Science For All initiative is not only to expose kids to coding but to make it a fundamental part of the curriculum. The best way to pull this off is to begin in the earliest grades and include all children. This will result in the normalization of coding education and, of course, better prepare kids for an automated future. We mentioned that it would include every student. This is important because, with other tech initiatives in the past, children who were less “ready” have been left behind, but now, every student will need to know how to code. By making computer science a requirement for graduation, districts are ensuring that they are doing all they can to shape future-ready students. Let’s just hope it catches on in a more mainstream way.
Could Coding Replace Foreign Languages in 21st Century Schools?
Foreign languages like, Spanish, Latin and French have long been a part of required courses in almost every school across the country. With the emergence of new technologies, including pocket translators and apps that instantly get the point across, many educators are starting to rethink the practicality of teaching foreign languages in schools. That’s not to say they don’t think kids shouldn’t be learning a new language—they just think it’s time for that new language to be coding. Today’s students could go the length of their career without needing to communicate in a foreign tongue, but the likelihood that they will get through it without needing to know how to code is drastically lower.
Coding is a central skill that’s becoming more and more necessary in order for workers to thrive in an increasingly technological era. It’s on its way to (if it has not already) becoming a global language and an undeniable component of global culture. Much more so recently, the enthusiasm about teaching coding in skills has grown in large part to President Obama’s plan for broadening computer science and STEM education. The goal is to make coding a basic skill in all students, but to do that, schools would need to replace a subject these kids are already taking with this new one. Logically, since coding is a language, their foreign language requirement might be the first to go in a lot of cases and that might not be such a bad thing.
Since we consider coding to be a language in itself, revamping what we already teach today’s students to shift the focus to a more modern skill seems like a useful idea. Coding can function as a supplement to today’s math and science courses in a way that both helps strengthen the material previously discussed and allows kids to put their knowledge to use in a hands-on way. Computer languages are used for communication between people and machines—something that today’s students will need to have proficiency in or risk having their careers ended by smarter machines. The language of coding is the great equalizer in sustaining profitable careers and remaining relevant to employers. Can we really risk not exposing all students to the world of coding?
What Do Students Think?
So, you know what we think. Now, it’s time for the increasingly important question of what the students who have been given this opportunity think about coding in the classroom. A lot of parents and teachers know that their children’s futures may very well revolve around coding and they need to quickly start understanding it. Children might not realize its significance at this point in their education, but hopefully someday they will. With all the possibilities that coding classes create—many of which are able to be personalized to each individual student—most kids cannot help but get excited to engage in innovative ways of learning.
Coding immersion can range from simple color coding to writing the code for new computer programs. When it comes to computer programming at elementary school levels, students have shown a genuine interest in the hands-on nature of the lessons. They often leave the classroom still talking about their activity and their brains seem to be continuing to think. Computer programming activities have a great deal of impact on children, especially when they become aware of the power they possess. Other coding activities include a host of Web-based programs that can work with various forms of educational technology and tie in with the established curriculum. Even the youngest of students tend to become hooked right away and are able to build on the skills they already have.
Students can even learn coding by playing with, tinkering and programming robots and robotic devices. Coding is the language in which we communicate with robots and it really is a great way for them to learn. Not only are children immersed in coding, they are also learning the makeup or robots at the same time! Not to mention, kids’ eyes light up when they’re told they get to spend the day learning by playing with robots. Once they’re exposed to interactive coding activities in the classroom, kids will usually insist on doing more. As they get older and more skilled, it’s perfectly okay—in fact, we encourage it—to design classes that focus exclusively on coding for junior high and high school students. It’s way better than reading paragraphs, writing essays and taking tests.
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