I recently saw a celebrity interview ( I am ashamed to admit that I don't remember who) where he said something along the lines of: I think every student should learn coding. It was like typing when I was younger. Everyone thought typing classes were a joke, but now everyone types everything.I agree! I think that in ten years people who code will have a head start on those who don't.
I believe that students and schools are realizing more and more that in addition to learning facts, students need to learn how to use them. In other words, more than learning how something works, they need to figure out how it works by actually making or creating it.
There are lots of websites and apps out there to help people learn how to code. There's a free one going on right now i wanted to share with you from webucator.
- To find it you go to their Self-paced Courses page.
- Browse through the courses to find the course you want to take!
- For coding, webucator suggests Java Training, PHP training or Javascript Training
- Click on the Order Now button next to the course.
- Ignore the prices because I am about to give you a coupon!
- Enter CODE4KIDS for the Coupon Code and click Validate Coupon.
- Agree to the Fine Print
- By using the CODE4KIDS coupon, you certify that you are registering students who are at least 13 years old. NOTE: enter the student's information on the billing and student registration forms. USE A UNIQUE EMAIL ADDRESS FOR EACH STUDENT.
- When signing up you agree that instructor support is limited to content covered in the course.
- Problems? For any registration questions, you can email: code4kids@webucator.com.
There are other sites, so if you dislike that one don't quit on coding! Check out www.codecademy.com http://code.org http://www.codeavengers.com/ This year I plan to take a course and then post an updated blog about how I would use it in the classroom, but for now I am sure you can find tons of information out there to help you:)
Plus, if you have any students who don't do anything in English outside of school, this may be a way that they will spend more reading, which will undoubtedly help their English in your class!
Let me know if any of your students take the course and what they think!
hi
ReplyDeleteit's great you want to get into some coding, however i have not read anywhere a convincing position of why computer science and coding in particular deserves to be privileged in the education of our kids
there are so many other, cheaper, better ways one can help improve the educational system, colour me cynical when all i see are private tech companies leading this coding charge
ta
mura
I will agree that there are many other ways. This class is free, so I am not sure cheaper is possible. However, there are certainly different priorities to keep in mind. Do we do coding instead of art or music? That seems silly/ What about instead of P.E.? My father the P.E. coach would disagree. It is a tricky debate.
DeleteOne decent article i read was here: http://www.motherjones.com/media/2014/06/computer-science-programming-code-diversity-sexism-education
Most of what I read is that it teaches students to do things rather than just memorize. You can't memorize a code you really need to understand HOW to code. If they understand this concept, then it will be easier for them to apply it in different subjects.
As for me? I don't have time to teach coding in my American Literature class. Nevertheless, I will offer this free course to students who may be interested in pursuing it on their own time. Since I teach a lot of ESL students, anything they do in English helps them in my class too!
hi
Deletethanks for that article it led me to the writings of Annette Vee who is an advocate of programming literacy and seems to write intelligently on the issue, certainly the notion of coding literacy is more useful than computational thinking imo
i don't see what's wrong with "just memorizing" as these memorized things are the building blocks for further development, often you don't need to +really+ know how to write your own code you can just often wrangle someone else's code to fit your needs, and as to whether learning code is a transferable general skill is debateable
ta
mura
I think memorizing has a time and a place. Like you say, it is important, for further development. The problem is, for many students, they never hit that further development stage. They memorize, pass tests, and rarely apply.
ReplyDeleteThanks for chiming in :)
Carissa