“Every other school family in the U.S. has a child that has done the Hour of Code.” – Code.org
Did your child spend time this week learning to write computer code? I’ve had some fun playing with a variety of students. The Virtual Worlds 4th grade classrooms at Baden Academy began programming their ecosystems and unique species in Alice 2. The Scratch the Holidays students meeting online each Friday wrote code in Scratch. Even some of my Duquesne students experimented with different code programs as the created digital artifacts for final presentations.
The high point for me was an hour spent with a mom at Baden Academy. Lori Hunter volunteers with Virtual Worlds, even though her own daughter is in 3rd grade. Class was postponed to resolve some technical issues, but I invited her to some private tutorial time so that she could better help the students. She fell into the Alice programs with the same enthusiasm I’ve watched on the kids faces. There is something about solving a problem that comes to life in a way you designed that lights up a face.
Do we want every child to be a software engineer? No, but knowing the basics of computer code teaches algorithmic thinking, complex systems applications and a technological self-efficacy that will be needed in the coming decades.
