programming

RECENT POSTS

Why Programming Teaches So Much More Than Technical Skills

May 23, 2013 | 7:00 AM | By
Kids-computers-620x412

TB

If your local school system offers computer science courses, chances are those courses are electives that won’t count toward core science or mathematics credit. The implicit message is that, while those skills may prove important for some students’ futures, they aren’t as transferable to a wide range of occupations as, say, Algebra 2 or Biology.

But students like Sam Blazes and Wilfried Hounyo, two winners in the 2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge, say they see their passion for computer programming is potentially leading them into a wide range of future professions.

“There’s no specific place you can plan on going because there are so many different things you can do with programming,” Blazes told an audience during a panel discussion at The Atlantic magazine’s Technologies in Education Forum earlier this month. “You can do pretty much anything with it that you can program.”

That’s because computer programming is a study of languages more than of technology or mechanics. And command of those languages allows programmers to control the functionality of anything that is driven by a computer.

For example, Blazes and Hounyo, both now high school students in the Washington, D.C. area, each won acclaim for helping to design educational video games. But they both said they initially Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Teaching Strategies, programming

Coding, Making, and the Arts: Essential Tools for Students

February 27, 2013 | 11:26 AM | By

Some of the most important subject areas and activities we want students to learn are the very ones that are left out of many schools: the arts, computer programming, and learning to making things by hand.

We know that arts integration can open all kinds of opportunities for learning and fostering creativity. We’re learning why computer science is an essential skill for every student to thrive in the digital world. And we’re understanding how allowing kids to get their hands on do-it-yourself projects shows them the value of designing, creating, and the process of making.

Until such time that schools provide these essential skills to all students, certain individuals and organizations are stepping in to fill the void. We met a few of these changemakers who are bringing these essential tools to students recently at the Big Ideas Fest in Half Moon Bay. Here are their stories. Perhaps their work and influence will make progress towards bringing these skills from outside the school system to where it belongs.

 

SMARTHISTORY: Making High Art Accessible

Steven Zucker and Beth Harris, the creators of Smarthistory, a huge collection of videos that take you inside the most important museums in the world, talk about how their explanations of significant art work make otherwise abstract or hard-to-understand concepts more accessible to students.

 

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Digital Tools, Teaching Strategies, Black Girls Code, Caine's Arcade, DIY, maker movement, programming, SmartHistory, Startup Weekend EDU

Top 10 Posts of 2012: Deep, Meaningful and Creative Learning

December 26, 2012 | 8:00 AM | By

Flickr: CriCristina

It may come as no surprise that the ideas that are top-of-mind for educators, parents, and policymakers are the very topics conveyed in the most popular MindShift posts this year. Giving kids the tools to create, teachers the freedom to innovate, making students’ work relevant in the real world, giving them access to valuable technology. These are the aspirations that have resonated most with MindShift readers this year. Here are the top 10 posts from 2012.

 

  1. 1. EASY WAYS TO INTRODUCE PROGRAMMING TO KIDS.

  2. Being able to use the Internet and operate computers is one thing, but it may be just as valuable to teach students how to code. Giving students an introduction to programming helps peel back the layers of what happens inside computers and how computers communicate with one another online. Programming knowledge, even at a very basic level, makes technology seem less magical and more manageable. Programming also teaches other important skills, including math and logic.

  3. 2. 10 THINGS IN SCHOOL THAT SHOULD BE OBSOLETE.

  4. So much about how and where kids learn has changed over the years, but the physical structure of schools has not. Looking around most school facilities — even those that aren’t old and crumbling –  it’s obvious that so much of it is obsolete today, and yet still in wide use. Continue reading →
FILED UNDER: Big Ideas, Culture, Digital Tools, Teaching Strategies, bring your own device, BYOD, collaborative learning, creativity, deeper learning, Mobile Learning, programming

Save or Save As: Teaching Kids Where Their Work Lives Inside Computers

December 4, 2012 | 8:00 AM | By

TB

By Sheena Vaidyanathan

The third grade class is busy working in the computer lab when the teacher reminds everyone to save their files.

“Save or Save As?” someone asks.

No one has ever explained the difference to these students and no one will have the time to explain it. With a frown on their faces, students tentatively enter file names, agonizing on simple things like, “Is there an upper case in the name, how about the space, and did I check the folder?”

Young computer users vary in their file-saving styles. A few panic with the saving process; something can go wrong and a teacher should personally check the file names before they click Save. These students worry that their project may disappear in a world of files, folders and servers.

At a time when education technology is getting a lot of attention, there is no class time allocated to technology education.

Another kind of student completely trusts in the magic of computers. They click Exit, hit Okay on the Save dialog box and leave happily. Some of these students then wonder why they cannot find their files; they accuse the computer of eating up the work they saved.They wonder why their file has to be found by a desperate computer teacher and is titled ‘Untitled’ and is sitting in an unknown folder. In most cases, students do not know what happens in the strange underworld of computer files. They just hope their work will be found again when needed.

Dealing with files is usually learned in the process of working with the application that matters – Word, iMovie, Photoshop for example. Most adults have worked long enough with files that they can save, backup, rename, import, export, upload, download, search and organize files without fear. They know that occasionally one must check file types, dates or file sizes. The third grader has to master this while also learning how to write a book report. No one will give them a lesson on Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Digital Tools, coding, computer science, programming, STEM

Should Kids Learn to Code in Grade School?

September 26, 2012 | 10:40 AM | By

TB

By Sheena Vaidyanathan

Deep into the digital age, the need for everyone to understand and learn programming is becoming more and more apparent. Codecademy, Coursera and other education start-ups are stepping in to fill the much-needed gap to teach adults to code. For kids, non-profits like CodeNow are raising funds to run summer programming camps for minority high school students, while other organizations like Girls Who Code are working on getting middle and high school girls interested in computer science.

While these are all worthwhile endeavors, each is working to fix what’s broken – teaching an essential skill that’s not taught in most schools. Learning to program has been relegated to summer camps and through programs that exist because of fundraising. But there’s a case to be made about using school time, school computers, and school funding to teach programming to every student. And to start early: Programming is just writing in the language of computers, so why not teach kids to code like we teach them to write?

It’s already being done, and not surprisingly, in Silicon Valley. Last school year, two very different public schools introduced programming to elementary age students. In the high-performing affluent Los Altos School District, all sixth graders (approximately 500 students) learned to code in a required weekly class. Student feedback showed that girls were just as interested in Continue reading →
FILED UNDER: Digital Tools, programming

What’s Inside Your Computer? These 6th-Graders Can Tell you

April 4, 2012 | 11:09 AM | By

A 6th-grade student's rendering of what's inside the computer.

By Sheena Vaidyanathan

Have you ever looked inside a laptop? Have you ever held a CPU or studied the components on a computer motherboard? Though we use computers everyday, many of us know little about the fascinating world inside.

RELATED READING:

In the spirit of tech innovation that’s defined Silicon Valley, every sixth grader in the Los Altos School District will be able to describe what goes on inside a computer. Students spend several classes studying a computer motherboard, drawing it in their notebooks and creating a 3D model of the computer on the computer. This hardware lesson is part of a required weekly class in a program that teaches science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) with a focus on creativity, collaboration and computer science.

Along with computer hardware, students learn the art of drawing from observation; the ability to simplify what is complex. Students use their pencil drawings to create a 3D model on the computer using Google SketchUp, a free application. Using the tool is not exactly new to these students — they used it to create 3D models of houses in a digital design class in the fifth grade.

Students are encouraged to use their own interpretation and creativity in designing the 3D model. They don’t have to make it look exactly like the original, and can create their own work style. Some quickly make blocks and label them; others go back several times to the physical motherboard in the classroom to re-check the drawing and count out the exact number of components and relative sizes. The completed models are colored, labeled and then exported to a 2D image so they can be added to the student’s Google site as part of their e-Portfolio for the class. (Check out their samples here.)

Besides this computer hardware lesson, students learn vector graphics, binary numbers, computer programming, and how to post onto their Google sites. They work in teams to create video games using Scratch, a programming language from MIT.

But these students are not just learning about technology; they’re learning computational thinking skills, a problem-solving process that includes the ability to formulate problems so a computer can solve them. Some consider computational thinking one of the key skills in the digital age.

This class, along with the fifth-grade computer programming class, the implementation of the Khan Academy and collaborative online homework, is part of the school district’s aim to teach Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Digital Tools, computer science, Google SketchUp, javascript:;, programming