Australia is about to introduce a code literacy movement, to introduce all school children to the learn to code, starting from the primary school. Malcolm Turnbull’s first words as the newly elected leader echo that:
“The Australia of the future has to be a nation that is agile, that is innovative, that is creative.”
In 2012 Estonia launched “Proge Tiiger” as a framework to teach children in grades 1 to 12 computer programming. Last year UK followed suit and in some pockets of US this was seen to pick up. Large organizations such as Google and Microsoft showed their support in advocating learn to code movements.
Apart from few “code clubs” or enthusiast parents there is a lot more that is required in the New Zealand schools starting at the Primary school level. Learning to code is not about becoming programmers in ICT industry, it is like learning a new language with its own grammar. Today’s generation is well versed with use of technology, swiping a screen is their second nature, Compare it to speaking a language. What is missing is “I made this”, which is the written language part and requires more emphasis.
Scratch, code.org are a few examples that have gained a lot of momentum. Bring along a Raspberry pi, Arduino and then possibilities are infinite. I always hear that we don’t want to make all children programmers at age 7. I don’t understand that, these same children study Art, they all do not become artists, they all study science, they all do not become scientists. It is about appreciating what coding can achieve and how it enables technology and our future. Technology is in every field – medicine, art, music, building and you name it. It is universal now and there is no reason why children should not be exposed to the how’s and why’s of technology instead of swiping some screens of clicking some buttons.
Wake up New Zealand, our ICT curriculum needs to focus on creating ICT as well and not just using ICT as a tool for learning. The argument against has always been cost of laptops per child (well I know schools order large amount Apple devices). As enforced by the philosophy of #CSUnplugged programme by University of Canterbury one does not need a computer to understand the concepts of computing. I wish we were taught the concepts of binary numbers this way:
I don’t see why teachers and educators cannot tap onto a plethora of global resources and shape the future. Although I specifically mentioned New Zealand, this is true for every nation that has not adopted a curriculum to teach computing languages.
