Kind of.
But so is ‘design thinking’ and ‘makerspaces’ and ‘gamification’. Way back when, so were ‘preassessment’, ‘theory of knowledge’ and ‘inquiry-based learning’ and those seem to have stuck around.
Education is supposed to be buzzing. Buzzing with creativity, innovation and ideas of how we can better reach our learners. But we also know that in actuality, the proof is in the pudding. New buzzwords need to prove themselves as beneficial to the teaching and learning cycle.
Technology has made drastic leaps in the last 39 years. (If you’re thinking, “Hang on that’s Iron Man! And his augmented reality is only science fiction.. think again). In this new learning landscape computer programming can help kids develop problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. It also encourages them to be not only consumers of technology but also creators. They are designing the future by having the skills to code.
Coding is so buzzy all the big names in business and tech have made a wee film for us. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, will.i.am, Chris Bosh, Jack Dorsey, Tony Hsieh, Drew Houston, Gabe Newell, Ruchi Sanghvi, Elena Silenok, Vanessa Hurst, and Hadi Partovi unpack their thoughts on teaching coding to kids:
Mitch Resnick from MIT speaks at TEDx about the power of coding and why it is not just hype:
Okay, so- as educators do we need to be programmers in order to teach our learners the basics of systems thinking and coding?
The short answer: no.
But real programmers are smart people and they have developed apps to help kids learn the basics (& they are fun for adults too). Despite not needing to know Java, HTML, Python or C++ we need to provide opportunities for learners to explore, create, fail and try again. We need to be able to play ourselves and take those same risks side by side with our learners so that we can help them develop the critical thinking skills for creative problem solving.
Coding can be used in Maths, Art, Language, and Science. It’s not ‘just another thing’ for the curriculum, but rather a new lens for children to view the world through. Don’t just take our word for it!! Check out these amazing 5 minute films for coding.
Click on the image below to get a comprehensive list of coding apps for kids 6- 15 years of age.
Many of these apps are free for use on the iPad. As always, the digital learning coaches are here and willing to help integrate coding into your PYP units of inquiry, maths or language learning!! Want to chat? Send an email to Tosca or Brian!! We can always start small with hour of code and work our way up to taking over the world with robots!!
