April 12, 2013

Why Every Kid Should Learn How To Code

"Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer...because it teaches you how to think."

Steve Jobs

A question that I struggle with a lot is how do we teach students to "think"?  In the classroom, I did my best to craft opportunities for students to think...but was frustrated when I found that not everyone had the skill.  So how do you fix that?  You can't develop a mini-lesson on thinking.  Essentially, how do you teach students to be students?  It's not really something that is addressed in the curriculum.  The answer is coding.  Coding forces you to think outside of the box, try something and fix fix it, troubleshoot, persist.  It also is great for teaching logic, sequence, cause and effect and foresight.  Today a teacher sent me this video and I think it's worth sharing.  It's called "Why Our Kids Must Learn To Code".



Now What?

Get coding!  There are lots of great free resources out there to help get you going.  I have used Scratch with my students as well as Code Academy and Code Avengers.  There are also a number of great resources out there that you can search.  Have fun!

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