Coding, also known as programming, is giving a computer instructions to follow in a language that it understands. It can be as simple as programming a short sequence of instructions into a robot to make it move, or as complex as creating an app using a language called Objective-C.

Political leaders and technologists believe it is important for the current generation to learn to code, so that in the future we have people with the necessary skills to create the new technologies we will need. This is going to be great for our economy in the future, but there is much more to it than this: it’s also empowering, creative, social and great for developing problem solving skills.

Empowering

Children in the 21st century have grown up surrounded by technology - they are intuitive users of contemporary hardware, such as consoles, PCs, and tablets, and software like word processing packages, apps and games. With advanced design now commonplace, it is no longer easy to see how things are made or how things work. Gone are the days of plugging bits and pieces together to create a functioning computer, or typing in commands to run a game. Children are great consumers of modern seamless technology, but we need to get them thinking about how things work and teach them how to create it. We need to turn them from consumers into creators.

From September 2014, the new computing curriculum comes into force for all schools in England and, as a result, children from Year 1 to Year 9 are to be taught more programming. They will, amongst other things, be taught how computers think, how to control them and how to create programs and debug them. There are a lot of teachers and schools who are ahead of the curve and already doing this extremely well - but the statutory nature of the new curriculum means all children will soon have the opportunity to learn these skills. At the moment, girls take less than 10% of computing A-levels, and women hold less than 20% of technology jobs in the UK. It is hoped that by opening the doors to all at a young age, inequalities like these will be
lessened in the future.

Creative and social

Everyone knows the stereotype of a geeky male programmer hacking away in their bedroom. Part of welcoming everyone to learn coding is to throw this stereotype out of the window. Far from being a solo pursuit for the naturally nerdy, it can be a highly collaborative, creative activity that anyone can have a go at and succeed in. The Key Stage 2 pupils I’ve taught to code have worked in small teams to create amazing games, animations and websites using visual programming languages like Scratch and written languages like HTML.

Often the work we did was related to the topics we were studying - from games about Tudor Britain, to websites about habitats. Far from an expert myself, I’ve gone on the journey with them and learnt a lot as well. After beginning their learning in the classroom, some of them have gone onto extra-curricular activities like Code Club and Young Rewired State. I’m hoping the initial interest generated from classroom activities will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Problem solving skills

Teaching children to code should not be our sole aim. When learning to program, children are picking up crucial skills, the most obvious being those to do with problem solving. When creating a game with Scratch for instance, children need to frequently test their work and fix bugs. This skill is so useful and transferable to all other areas of learning. Dr Tom Crick, a computer scientist and chair of computing at a school in Wales, sums this up nicely when he says:

“Learning how to program is not the endpoint, but part of the journey of equipping children with the necessary digital skills to solve problems. Our high-level aim should be to develop technology-independent skills and techniques, such as data literacy and computational thinking.”

Image Credit: Flickr

How do you feel about coding in the classroom? Let us know in the comments.