Coding is the 21st century global literacy

 

“To thrive in tomorrow’s society, young people must learn to design, create and express themselves with digital technologies,” says Mitchel Resnick, professor at the MIT Media Lab.

It's one thing for a child to play a computer game; it's another thing altogether for a child to build his or her own game. They are learning a core 21st century language for life.

 

We live in an increasingly digital world. Education is no longer about learning facts. Facts are at our fingertips at all times. Learning is now about quickly sourcing reliable information, creative problem solving, logical thinking, self-management and mental flexibility.

 

 

Benefits of programming for young children

 

Coding has the ability to facilitate and extend children's awesome natural ability and drive to construct, hypothesize, explore, experiment, evaluate, draw conclusions -- in short to learn -- all by themselves. Coding grants them both fun and knowledge

 

Coding is beyond logical thinking. Brian Heese (2014) writes: ‘when you learn computer programming you learn how to check your work for details, how to apply logic and how to persist at a task. You also learn how to ask a good question, often in written form. Finally you learn how to collaborate because much programming today is accomplished in teams. These timeless skills and learning behaviors will endure far longer than any programming language.

 

Being able to follow programming logic trains the mind to think in more analytical ways. The ability to debug a program leads to better problem solving skills. The logical thought process, the ability to spot mistakes, and a willingness to solve a problem that comes from learning to code.