Coding

Computational Thinking

Computational thinking means getting students to think in the same manner a computer scientist would. As Gretter & Yadav state in Computational Thinking & Media & Information Literacy: An Integrated Approach to Teaching Twenty-First Century Skills, “Computational thinking is composed of concepts fundamental to computer science, along with the intellectual skills that are needed for algorithmic thinking, pattern recognition, abstraction, and decomposition" (Gretter & Yadav, Pp. 511). Computational thinking helps students develop skills associated with literacy.

Algorithmic thinking allows students to analyze and create instructional information, including syntax and sentence construction. This skill helps students understand, critique, and interpret information found in both readings and digital text alike. Pattern recognition allows students to make sense of repeating patterns and helps develop inferencing skills. Abstraction, or the reduction of information, allows students to strengthen their problem solving skills, and decomposition helps students break down information to better understand it. Such skills can be useful in mathematics and language, as well as throughout other disciplines.

Coding

Coding allows students to apply algorithmic thinking. Students create algorithms which piece together information such that a computer program, robot, or device will read the cues and complete the assigned task(s). Learning to code helps students deconstruct information and recompile it in specific and meaningful ways which will achieve a desired effect.

Media and Informational Literacy

Gretter and Yadav explain media and informational literacy as "an umbrella term... that joins media literacy with information literacy while emphasizing the importance of critical analytical skills for media and information consumers" (Gretter & Yadav, Pp 512). Learning these skills will assist students in developing digital literacies which will help promote flow and confidence during web searches, activities, and research. We are already educating students to become literate and physically literate, we should also strive to improve their digital literacy. Through ensuring students have the opportunity to learn these skills in the classroom we can help to limit the digital divide.

Incorporating into Classrooms

As teachers, we are more likely to incorporate technology into our classrooms that we have previously used. After having the privilege to explore technologies that incorporate coding and computational thinking we are more aware of the affordances they offer which we can incorporate into our classrooms. We explored technologies such as code.org, codeacademy.com, scratch, ozobots, and sphere-o as a class. From this experience, it is clear that students of varying ages would be engaged in learning by experimenting with coding through these platforms.

Students would enjoy creating their own code with a real-time pay off, e.g. a robot who spins, speaks and changes colour. These immediate gratification experiences with coding offer a great entry point for learning code without the gruelling task of writing a script before seeing the response. As a class, using code to create an interesting and amusing obstacle course for a robot, could enhance learning and contribute to building community in the classroom.

As teachers, we are charged with the task of moulding and shaping competent, active, informed, and literate digital citizens who can contribute meaningfully to society. Through education on digital literacies we can help narrow the digital divide. We can scaffold and structure activities that capitalize on the affordances of various technologies to help broaden opportunities for our students.

Check out Hour of Code!

Works Cited

Gretter, S., & Yadav, A. (2016). Computational Thinking and Media & Information Literacy: An Integrated Approach to Teaching Twenty-First Century Skills. TechTrends, 60(5), 510-516.

Image retrieved from: http://www.cmslearns.org/coding-gaming/