Terms to Know:
Code Studio: a website with online courses and tutorials to teach coding.
Command: a word or code telling the computer what to do.
Computer Programming: another phrase to describe coding.
Import: to transfer data from one source to another.
Input: an action that tells a program to do something.
Loop: a series of commands repeated a number of times.
Output: the result from an input.
Pixel: a unit of computer measurement; the smallest dot you can see on your computer screen.
Scratch: a computer program that uses blocks to create code.
Coding
What is Coding?
Code is the language that computers speak. People input code to tell computers what to do and how to do it. All computers need to be programmed in some way in order to work. Tutorials all over the web are available to help us learn how to write the language that computers will understand.
Why Should Students Learn to Code?
Like many others, I had no idea that the Web would grow into a defining application for electronic communication. As a global hypertext system, the Web has provided the most convincing evidence of the computer's potential to refashion the practice of writing.
Jay David Bolter, 2001
Coding is viewed as a literacy of the 21st century. Computer technology infiltrates many aspects of our lives in and out of the classroom. By teaching every student how to code we are equipping them with skills to be successful in many different fields and advancing the possibilities that computing can bring. Learning to code provides every student with a baseline understanding that can be further developed throughout their school career.
Are Primary Students Too Young to Learn How to Code?
Anyone can learn how to code - even children as young as four years old! Tutorials have been developed to teach children, even those who are not yet proficient in reading, how to code.
Where Do I Begin As A Teacher?
One of the best ways to learn how to teach code is to try coding yourself! Check out the Code Studio for simple tutorials.
You don't have to be an expert! It is amazing to see how quickly students can catch onto learning code. Using the engaging tutorials created in Code Studio, students can play around with Angry Birds, Minecraft, Frozen, and many other interesting platforms.
Once you and your students have completed courses, check out the tutorials available in Scratch.
