One of the hottest debates in schools around the world isn’t about reading, writing or arithmetic, it’s about code, that’s right, code. 21st century teachers are joining arms and encouraging schools around the world to include basic coding in their curriculums because, as more and more jobs are computer based, any student who graduates high school, without a basic understanding of coding or coding concepts, could find themselves at a disadvantage on the job markets of the future.
A Win-Win Situation
Besides something that gives children advantages in the job market post high school, learning how to code while in school will also pump more money into computer labs and guarantee that a school will have the best computers and technology to use for instructing their children.
Not every computer science teacher is able to sit down with a student and teach them coding from day one because, every student learns how to code differently, that’s why differentiated learning teaching methods are being used to reach children where they are at in life and help them to start learning to code at their own pace and learning style.
As children learn to code, teachers feel that this will increase their computational learning skills and enable them to far surpass the educational milestones that their parents reached while in school 20 or 30 years ago.
The Right Road Map
Before coding can become commonplace in the school system, educators need to agree on the key-concepts that students need to learn and make sure that there is a universal standard of excellence when it comes to teaching children coding around the world. For example: students will need to learn algorithms, iteration and heuristic reasoning before they can started with more complicated coding concepts like cryptography and computational biology so they can understand how online platforms like Netflix or Amazon serve their customers.
