So – I won an award!!
This year I developed a curriculum to teach coding, or programming to my students aged 5-13 years.
Coding in the classroom is generating a buzz worldwide. As of 2015 Coding will be part of the UK Curriculum. Coding will be an extremely useful skill for students looking to enter the workforce in the future. It is a cutting edge technology still in it’s infancy in education which I feel is incredibly important due to the varied skills it teaches. The skills that come with coding – creativity, divergent thinking and problem solving – are useful to any generation. There are also intrinsic benefits in regards to literacy and numeracy.
Over the 10 week curriculum which I developed, students have designed a variety of apps and games, all supported with complicated code. They have created apps and games similar to Angry Birds, a guide map to the Clare Valley and a timer app for watering their veggie patch amongst others.
Students have learned the skill of writing code in a creative, fun manner. As a school we have seen coding improve students’ maths skills, engagement in learning and divergent thinking. It has also enabled students who previously struggled with mainstream education to find their niche.
Students have experienced creative success, and coding has helped develop student confidence and social skills – as the expert in the classroom they want to come to school, where previously they were dis-engaged. Students have been so inspired by the opportunity to create they have been e-mailing me apps and games they have designed on the weekends and holidays. As a teacher I have never had students email me work in the holidays – this demonstrates just how exciting coding can be.
This coding on the iPad has created a city advantage in a country setting for our students, they are doing the same – and in many cases better – than students at well resourced schools. An iPad and creativity trumping an expensive computer bank or classroom.
We utilised a variety of apps and platforms initially, such as Hopscotch, Scratch and Game Press. In only 2 sessions many children had written code for simple pong style games, flappy bird and were working towards developing their own apps.
In just 10 weeks students wrote code for times tables games, a dice app, even the five-year-olds wrote code to lead a character through a maze they had created on the iPad.
The outcome of teaching students to code has been so worthwhile I am now developing the curriculum further. We are currently workshopping a variety of apps to create for the general public. This real world use of coding is both exciting for students and important educationally as it demonstrates that what they do in the classroom can translate into real life.
One of the most satisfying aspects of this program for me has been the engagement of girls in technology. They have seen themselves as experts in this field, equal creators with boys – coding doesn’t discriminate between age or sex.
The next step in this digital revolution is to encourage students to utilise their coding skills in robotics. To further this goal we are designing robots using 3D printers to be coded using the iPad – very cool for the students, even cooler for me!
I am passionate about the benefits associated with coding and will continue to contribute to this digital revolution. As schools gain a greater awareness of coding I would trust that they adopt this technology and therefore forward Australia’s place in ICT in a global sense. For my work in coding I was lucky enough to win the Award for Women in Innovation and Technology in the area of Education. I am hopeful that it would shine a spotlight onto the importance of digital literacy in education.
FromtheForest 