An Hour of Code with Young Friends, Part 2: Differentiated Instruction in Real Time

December 14, 2014December 21, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code Coding with Children, gender issues, Hour of Code, programming, ruby, scratch, ways to learn beginner mindset, Code.org, computational thinking, hour of code, learning to code, learning to program, scratch

With one Hour of Code experience under my belt, I invited two more friends to code with me. I had explored only minimally in preparation for my previous experience, and was able to follow and support a fairly open-ended exploration by 10 year old Z. I was feeling much more brave before this second time, and was interested what it would be like to work with two children at the same time.

I invited two siblings, L and Q, to code with me. They both attend a public neighborhood school near their house in the Denver Metro Area. Their school employs a fairly traditional approach to education, incorporating computers and other technology as learning tools, balanced with common methods of teaching al subject matter. Here’s a little bit more about them as individuals:

L is a ten year boy in fourth grade:

He lists his favorite subjects as P.E. and reading.
He is caring, thoughtful, and has been known to win awards at school for character and citizenship.
He is active and loves football.
He loves the rain and Seattle, aspiring to live there when he grows up.
He has a great sense of style, from mohawks to hipster glasses.

Q is an eight year old girl in second grade:

She lists her favorite subjects as reading, math, and art.
She loves all things creative, and is an avid crafter.
Has a natural and powerful connection with animals. She is a loving caretaker to many furry creatures at her home.
Is naturally social and enjoys getting to know all kinds of different people.
Her last two Halloween costumes were “Cleopatra” and “movie star”…with the big personality to pull them off.

Continue reading →

An Hour of Code with Young Friends, Part 1: Hacking and Open Source

December 10, 2014December 10, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code Hour of Code, Java Script, learning to code, programming, scratch, ways to learn hacking, hour of code, JavaScript, open source, scratch

I recently completed with my first Hour of Code experiment with a young friend. I intentionally did not explore too much beforehand, wanting to experience the learning process alongside the girl (I will call her Z). I was curious what I would learn by watching a young digital native engage with coding.

Z is 10 years old, and currently a fourth grader at a Waldorf school. Waldorf schools discourage children’s use of technology at school and home. Her family takes an inspiring approach to this recommendation. They choose to not completely swear off technology, but rather to have regular conversations about when and why technology can be appropriate. Thus, Z does not use computers or watch media at school, but she engages in these things very minimally and very mindfully at home. This provides an interesting context for coding with her: She is technically a digital native, but does not actually engage with digital media herself very often. Here’s a little bit more about her:

She loves animals, and wants to be a vet when she grows up.
She is endlessly creative and self-motivated, loves art, theater and making all different types of things.
She insists on solving real world math problems in her head when they present themselves (before adults can tell her the answer).
She is compassionate and thoughtful. As long as I’ve known her, she has used gift-getting holidays as opportunities to raise money for animal charities.
She loves reading, and has been known to read a novel per day.

We began by watching the Hour of Code Video Introduction together, which got her excited about being one of “10 million” students to try “An Hour of Code” (and the number is currently much higher).

Continue reading →

Should Everyone Learn to Code?

October 28, 2014November 7, 2014 Teacher Learns to Code background, learning theory, programming, teacher education, why coding 21st century skills, brain development, edtech, education trends, hour of code, learning to code, learning to program, programming, programming languages, scratch, Should everyone learn to code?, STEM, teacher education, teaching, techonology

Should everyone learn to code? Maybe, maybe not…but that is not exactly what I aim to debate on this blog (although I welcome the debate if it happens!)

I do, however, believe that every child should have a shot at understanding and learning about coding. Because of that, I’ve come to believe that in the not-too-distant future, teachers will need to know something about computer programming. We should know what code is, know how to write some of it, and know about the types of thinking it takes to successfully write code.

Why?

Because it will make us better teachers! As our world becomes more and more computer-driven, there will be more and more conversations about computer programming. More and more children will want to explore and learn coding. Should all those children be encouraged to become professional computer programmers? Not necessarily, but their natural interests and curiosities around coding and computer programming should be encouraged and supported as they figure out whether or not programming is something they’d like to pursue.

Further, How can teachers support the interests and curiosities if they themselves have no idea what coding is or how it can be used? We can sit children in front of computers with Hour of Code, or a Scratch tutorial, but if we ourselves don’t know what they are doing, how can we help and support them? Are we really being good teachers?

I think much of the debate around “should everyone learn to code?” largely misses the point. Continue reading →