Coding - Why Teach It?

So why teach coding?  Coding is a word we hear lots in schools and is one part of the revised New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). When using the term "coding" teachers are referring to computational thinking (CT) and designing and developing digital outcomes (DDDO).

The NZC says " It's important that students have opportunities to be innovative designers and creators of digital solutions – moving beyond solely being users and consumers of digital technologies." NZC

Here is my take on why we should teach these...

1. Coding is another language. Language is about communication. Giving and receiving directions teaches communication and logical thinking. Students have to plan and organise thought then communicate them.

2. Coding teaches problem solving. This is where they go into the learning pit and not only are debugging or solving a myriad of problems, they are also learning to be resilient and to be persistent in their endeavours - see #7!

3. Coding fosters creativity. This is the gold! Students are not following a formula. They have opportunities to experiment, make mistakes, remake, add on to an original idea. 

4. Coding and maths go hand in hand. Think of Scratch and the x and y axis. Think of Scratch Jnr and using the grid to code precise movements for sprites. Think about abstract ideas and visualising. 

5. Coding assists academic performance. Students have to plan and organise their thoughts

6. It's in the New Zealand Curriculum. Was meant to be incorporated into the school's curriculum in 2020. So we should see it happening now.

7. Teachers can't smooth the path to success! Many times in classes I have seen students having to problem solve and debug, and because the teachers have very few skills if any in this area and are not able to code, teachers cannot jump in and do it for their students. I think that sometimes when coding this is the first really hard task students have had to do without teacher intervention or over-scaffolding. 

Research & Development - is it meant to be fun?

 I have been developing my Gamefroot game and aiming to be one page ahead of the students. I am still in the learning pit and have been fortunate to have some students teach me how to extend my coding. And what fun it has been!

Here it is...>

Kumara to the Marae by Cheryl Torrie / Full screen / Remix in Gamefroot

DFI Day #8 - Computational Thinking

Another full day of Learn Create Share.
Computational Thinking is such an interesting area and the resources that are available are amazing.
In the past DFI's I have explored Lightbot and Flappy Bird (which was highly addictive!). So today I thought I better get stuck in and try Scratch Jnr.

I am in 7 junior classes this year so I would like to open the world of coding to them and as they all have iPads this is the ideal place to start. I like the way you can test the code and adjust as you go - is that called debugging? I managed to add my face to the girl character which will be fun for learners. Next bit of leanring for me will be to add sound bytes to characters rather than having words popping up.

I can see me exploring this further and probably losing a few hours in doing so. All in the name of "work". And...we are having our 2 young grandsons for the holidays - this could be a saviour on a cold, wet winter's day.

Here is a screen recording of my first project...

Gamefroot was another fun thing we did and used the Mihi Maker. Last time I used this it didn't work that well. And it is still not embedding correctly so I fall off the end of the world part way through even thought the preview went well.

Digital Fluency Intensive Day 6 - Computational Thinking

Fun! Fun! Fun!
Who said learning wasn't fun?
Loved the day and loved the mixture of listening and doing with Shannon, Emily and Mac at Tōnui Collab (ex Mind Lab) here in GTown.

What a beautiful facility and the view is stunning on this sunny Gizzy day. It really made us realise that Spring is here. Sharyn talked about being away last week at a conference and hearing a speaker talk about bringing "joy" back into teaching. So I would call today as one filled with joy!

Apart from the setting and the Tōnui Collab hospitality, the content of today's DFI was engaging and motivating. I have heard of lots of this "stuff" but not had any opportunity to use it in a classroom apart from being with students when they have come to Mind Lab for sessions. 

Computational Thinking needs to not be pigeon-holed - as all learning areas of the NZC. I wonder what is happening in schools in terms of the PLD offered for this revised curriculum and what teachers are being told. Anyway - the unplugged session was a great way to introduce this concept. All teachers can do this and have engaging and motivating entryways into computational thinking. Teachers also need to join the dots with this curriculum and other leanring areas. Patterning is algebra and is computational thinking and new entrants do this when threading beads onto a string.  I could rant on about this all day...

I liked the models used today especially when working in groups and pairs throughout the day. This warms the cockles of my cooperative learning heart. I know this how Tōnui Collab work all the time with learners and love the model it shows teachers that teams/pairs can work on devices and share thinking. All teachers should be using social learning: aka cooperative learning, Tuakana-Teina or whatever model is used. Engaging students in leanring in small groups develops a whole lot of key competencies or "soft skills".  Once again, I could rant about this all day... or you could read my blog post about this here

The last part of the day was working in CoSpaces. Here is the animation Perky and I made. Now this was fun of the highest order! Am I a nerd?

Feeling joyful after this full day of learning and am looking forward to reading the other blogs about today.