The growing integration of technology in society is evident now more than ever, especially in school classrooms. In fact, technology in schools and learning was generally known to simply consist of the overhead projector or even a standard computer lab or chrome books. However, with the rise of technology in its use and relevance along with changes in some learning strands in the curriculum, students are now being introduced to Coding.
Why?
Coding and the learning process of coding extends further from just a mere requirement for computer programmers. Coding offers students valuable opportunities for building on critical thinking logic and reasoning skills. Similarly, coding teaches students computational thinking. This computational thinking is regarded as a fundamental skill to be developed within complex problem solving. Through coding various strategies are used to develop thorough and complex understanding of issues along with analyzing and identifying solutions.
Coding in some shape or form can be likened to learning math. For instance, learning about the Pythagorean theorem or Algebra can often be deemed by some students as a useless skill that is only taught in school and will never be used in students' future lives. However, the cognitive thought process or mathematical reasoning that takes place in solving or understanding mathematical concepts are fundamental skills that are necessary to support our logical and spatial reasoning and more importantly our ability to problem solve can be applied to every day lives and careers. In other words, math is all around us and will follow throughout our life.
Currently coding is offered in fairly limited amount in school learning as it is optional, like technology however, it is reasonable to expect the prevalence of coding to rise if not more opportunities to facilitate towards building on these fundamental problem-solving skills.
There is a great deal of online resources are available that provide and support coding practice for students from kindergarten through grade 8. Many of which come in the form of popular online games like Minecraft and Roblox. Some that can be accessed include:
https://www.edugains.ca/resourcesTELO/CE/CodingInterface/interface.html
Monica@OTECC-NUO
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