More than a Tech Skill: The Value of Coding Education
While we might see coding as a technological skill only valuable in certain fields of work, many argue that teaching children to code allows them to develop other crucial skills.
David Alston, chief innovation officer at Fredericton-based Introhive, is an advocate for teaching kids to code. He explains that many of the methods used for teaching now do not set students up well for further education and, eventually, the workforce.
“All the information you ever need is in your pocket now, for the most part, so to go to school, to memorize facts and figures does not equip you to the level at which you need to be for the ideas economy,” Alston said.
New Brunswick has begun to incorporate coding into schools both in the curriculum and through events meant to spread awareness of the value of coding education. Last year the department of Education and Early Childhood development rewrote middle school technology curriculum to have coding reflected in 10 percent of learning outcomes.
In December, over 400 classes in the province took part in Hour of Code along with participants in over 180 countries around the world. Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science designed to show that coding education is accessible and interesting for nearly everyone.
Alston supports a system that will not only teach students to code, but allow them to learn in a more creative way by coming up with ideas and solutions to problems on their own, rather than being given the answer by a teacher.
Coding is often learned, both in a classroom setting and independently, through a trial-and-error process where the learner has a problem or a goal in mind and is working toward solving it. Alston says that this process develops crucial problem-solving, creative thinking and collaboration skills, along with the coding itself.
“It’s really about ‘how do I look at information, how do I process it and analyze it, mash it together with other information? How do I see gaps, opportunities, problems? How do I compare data from one part of the world to another part of the world to look for new ideas? How do I innovate?’”
Alston believes that allowing students to learn to code in schools in a way that encourages cooperation between learners and trial-and-error methods will help them develop skills that will be valuable well beyond their time as students. He says coding education will help students develop the ability to deal with and overcome failures as well as open their minds up to the endless possibilities technology offers.
“When you code you have to break things down to sequences of logic and that is something you don’t necessarily run into in other subjects,” he said. “I love the idea of people knowing about coding even if it’s a little bit because then they know about the art of the possible.”
Ed McGinley, CEO at TechImpact, a private sector group made of New Brunswick’s top IT companies, also emphasizes the valuable teamwork skills that learning to code in classes develops. He’s found that it is easier to teach technology later on in life than it is to teach the basic personal skills necessary to work as part of a team.
“It is so clear to us that we don’t even know what the technology is going to be in three years, let alone fifteen years when these kids get out (of school),” he said. “What we do know is they will need problem-solving abilities because the world is faced with all kinds of problems, businesses are faced with tons of problems … you need problem solvers to be able to come in and deliver on these list wishes that companies and customers have.”
McGinley supports an education system that allows students to develop skills crucial for their success later in life by allowing them to be faced with different challenges and asking them to use their creativity to figure out how to overcome them.
“There are teachers out there now who are really bothered by the old prescriptive method,” McGinley said. “We’re trying to fit kids into a box and we’re not allowing kids to be creative. The teachers that are are allowing the kids to do some amazing stuff. It is about how you let the kids learn about the technology that’s there and then they can thread together what they’re passionate about to create solutions.”