Rey Saint-Vil explains how you could be raising your child to develop apps instead of just playing with them.
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I’ve recently been on this self reflecting mode about the future of our education system these past 6 months and believe that coding is going to be a huge part of our children’s’ lives. I say this because, more then ever, the internet and technology has been a huge part of how we learn, gather information, communicate, create a successful business as well as just plainly “show off”. I’m a strong advocate of teaching the youth these things early because in a world of “Internet Entrepreneurs”, this is something children SHOULD learn if we care about their future.
I was first introduced to computers in 3rd grade, and at that time, it was just about learning the basics of how to use the computer and type efficiently on the keyboard. Thanks to my elementary school teachers (and the lovely Mavis Beacon), I was prepared for the world ahead of me that is mostly operated by computers. My generation quickly jumped into a realm filled with Floppy disks (yea, remember those?), power point presentations, Napster and AIM that soon later graduated to, Drop Box, Web designs, Itunes and Twitter. I continued my interest in the subject in high school, where I taught myself how to build my own computer thanks to a lovely site called Google. My interest and studies have continued until this day as I prepare to start my own business. And what I have seen and learned is exciting.
Computer Science is a subject that is constantly expanding and there is so much to learn. We are headed to a direction where technology is meant to be easy, mobile and convenient to our needs. Our young generation of children we have today, in which I like to coin them as “Baby Bots”, are picking up things much faster then did in the past. In fact, they are exposed to this new wave of technology straight out of the womb. We give toddlers things like tablets and smart phones, to keep them occupied for either entertainment or educational purposes. The fact of the matter is, they quickly learn how to use these new technologies faster then you teaching your parents how to set up a voice mail.
So I’m asking parents of young children, “Why not enforce your kids to learn more about computer science since they are already ahead of the curve then most adults?” Sure it’s cool to teach kids how play a game on an app, but what if you can teach a kid how to MAKE a game for an app. See what I’m getting at here? Every day, millions and millions of dollars are being poured into the hands of software/hardware developers who are creating a new ways on how change the world. These Baby Bots can cash in on it.
There are websites such as Code.org, Codeacademy, and One Month Rails, that offers simple minded people a platform on coding solely from the convenience of their homes. That is great but 9 out of 10 schools in the U.S. DO NOT offer computer science classes in their school. Meaning, if you want your child to learn this ever growing subject that can help them for whatever career aspirations they desire, you personally have to go out of your way to do so. We need to encourage our school systems to help advocate computer science participation into the classrooms in our country or else our children will continue to fall behind in the subject. An “Hour of Code”; which is a campaign started by Code.org during Computer Science Week, that helps exercise the minds of our Baby Bots in the classroom, asked teachers across the U.S. to help introduce their students to the basics of computer science through the organization’s coding programs and tutorials for one week.
To break down the “Hour of Code” stats, Code.org tells us that, of the 20 million-plus participating, 83 percent were from the U.S., 74 percent were in grades K-12, 51 percent were girls, 8 percent were African-American and 14 percent were Hispanic. Something to also point out, code.org tells us that “More girls participated in computer science in participating schools in the last two weeks than all students in the history of U.S. public schools combined.” Today, Google, Facebook and many other major companies are giving out scholarships for high school students that are coding at an advanced level. The effect one hour of programming can have on students is something to keep a close eye on.
Now I know I might have bored you with all those stats but believe me when I say, it’s kind of important. Frankly don’t be surprised, 10 years from now, how many parents are going to show up on career day and tell a room full of kids that they are rich and successful because they simply created an app called Angry Birds or Candy Crush or that they blog for a website that they created. It’s going to shape our youth. Whether it is creating idea or developing one; let them seize the opportunity to succeed in this subject. In an economy that is hard to find jobs, people are simply finding out new ways to create a job and that is something that is encouraging moving forward.
Photo: Jim Sneddon/Flickr
This article is disturbing !! While I agree with the premises… The reasons are all wrong. For starters : 5 year olds should learn to play outside and with others, not be “glued” to a “light box” for whatever objective. And “These Baby Bots can cash in on it.” : society puts already far to much pressure on “performance” and “economic capitalisation”, far beyond “human sense”. Though I do agree it would be great if a lot more people would understand more of computers. The world is increasingly “technologised”, so knowing how that works “under the hood” is becoming increasingly… Read more »
Useful information. Fortunate me I discovered your website unintentionally,
and I’m shocked why this twist of fate didn’t happened in advance!
I bookmarked it.
Jules, I’m curious; how many Computer Science classes have you taken? How many lines of code have you written? I have a BS in Computer Science and have written numerous programs and thousands of lines of code. Learn concrete manipulatives in math? Do you know what it takes to write a program? Here’s a hint; to get a degree in CS, one must take multiple Calculus course, multiple Algorithm courses, logic courses, discrete structures, data structures, etc. There’s a reason why students that can’t make it as CS majors often change to Math majors. I’m not sure why you believe… Read more »
Very good points. I can’t speak for the “majority”. LOL I am only one mother with one son and sharing my experience and perspective on education. We are a bilingual household and it take multiple sources of knowledge for him to understand the concepts. To learn coding I look at the process very similar and he would need many different channels to “get it” as well. I understand the concerns of “public schools” or the general school system, however my point was that it’s a given American schools fall short and parents have to do more to account for where… Read more »
Great article! I completely agree that *everyone* needs to learn the basics of coding. You don’t need to pursue it or even like it, but you absolutely have to have a fundamental understanding of it. I’ve started to live-stream my daily coding and entrepreneurship endeavors in an effort to help promote programming: http://bit.ly/1iJZyke. If anyone has lesson requests or anything like that please let me know @ThatCodeBro on Twitter.
I don’t think the blogger was saying all children should ditch books and conventional learning. I do like the message here and read it as parents should encourage and help their children find creative ways to expand their knowledge of the technologies they love and spend time with daily. I don’t see this as a far reach from learning a second language. An hour just a week of learning to code isn’t about your brain melting and spending hours just on a computer. I think it’s more about helping to guide their interests as encouraged in Montessori schools. If your… Read more »
Obviously the author wasn’t talking about ditching books and conventional learning; I did read the article before commenting. And computer science should be looked at being added into our education system but at older ages than 2 and 5. True Montessori would scoff at the idea, since one of their main rules is no screens at all until the age of 6 when the child graduates from the absorbent mind to the reasoning mind. There are concrete reasons for this. Very simply put, it is because the child is not developmentally ready for it. This young age is for exploring… Read more »
Jules, I’m not necessarily going to disagree with your assertions, but I’m not sure that the problems you outline are really the fault of technology. However, I would say that research isn’t the problem with technology in education, but rather the lack of understanding, on the part of educators, to properly integrate it in meaningful ways. I would assert that most of the problems in education are due to the current teaching methods (i.e. teaching to tests) that remove any meaningful interaction between teachers and students. Technology in this environment only compounds that problem in my opinion. I will disagree… Read more »
No!! I’m sorry, but there is a down side to technology. There is no way a five year old should be on computers, period. They need to get a healthy foundation and develop their hands for writing, etc. And learn concrete math with manipulatives before jumping onto the giant screen that offers the answers and doesn’t allow for creative thinking. Yes, technology is everywhere, but if we have our children go straight to it without learning what they need to for their development first we are hurting them. There’s already a social back lash with communication skills and courtesy failing… Read more »
Way to entirely take the article out of context AND (as the author did) mess an even more critical point; critical thinking. The whole “calculators don’t teach math” attitude is beyond outdated. Critical thinking and problem solving skills are as important in life as just about anything else and learning to code is one of the best ways to develop those skills. When i was barely 12 years old, I wanted to build a “3D game” (hint, this was a while ago) so I got my hands on a college algebra book at the library which taught me how to… Read more »
Erin, I would love for my children to go to such a school! I’d love to hear more about it. 🙂
I’ve actually been thinking about this same topic quite a bit lately. My son goes to a unique hybrid school (part homeschool, part at school) that has a scratch club. I am eager for him to join next year (have to be in 2nd grade), but would love some resources on how to get him started earlier. Thanks for a great article!!
Thank, no problem. I do believe it should be an important factor in a child studies. This sort of thing is kinda like learning a new language. The earlier they are taught, the better they will understand. One lesson a day can go a long way, They just have to treat it as if they are playing a game.