Our Instructions were;
- Reflect on whether learning to code is useful for your students and/or you as a teacher. Write a few notes down to share during the Submission process of this quest.
- Go to http://studio.code.org/ and click on the Sign-in link to create an account. (I used my Google account to create my account to avoid having to remember another username and password.)
- Choose Course 2 and complete all 19 stages. You can take this quest again if you decide to complete Courses 3 and 4 later. Note: It is a 20-hour course, but adults should be able to complete it quicker than that.
After taking Course 2, we were to reflect on our relationship with coding in our schooling and in our classroom.
- Was computer programming emphasized during your schooling? Did you learn how to code? What should we be teaching about technology today?
- What did you learn in this course? Would learning to code be useful for your students and/or for you a teacher? Did completing this quest influence your answer? You will share your thoughts in the Comments box when you click the Complete button at the top of this quest.
- While in Code.org click on your name in the upper right hand corner and choose My progress. Take screenshots as proof that you completed all stages of the course. Insert the screenshots in the Comment box.
No coding and computer science were not emphasized when I was in school. I tried to take advantage of what was available to me, so I was on the tech team in middle school and high school where I helped troubleshoot computer issues with a team of students to help fix them. I was also on yearbook in middle school, high school, and in undergraduate at Gonzaga University. While working on these yearbooks, we worked with layouts, Photoshop, and InDesign. When I received my MAT from SPU, I took summer courses through Seattle Central Community College, for intro HTML/CSS and website design. Then when I started teaching at a brand new alternative high school, SLC, I took on the job of Technology Integration Specialist and Webmaster for the school.
For today, we should be teaching the Code.org system but certainly not in ELA/SS class but in Math & Science classes. Today while taking Course 2, I learned and was reminded of the necessity of angels and spacial awareness. Code.org’s Course 2 reminded me of loops and how important debugging is when it comes to coding. I wish it were more realistic as to how real coding looks like at the foundation. Yes, learning to code would be useful for my students, but I do not think it would work in my classes. My classes are already so packed with hitting the CCSS and writing for the SBA that I do not think taking up my precious moments in my class for coding would make sense. This does not mean that I do not encourage my students to work outside the box with some of my projects I offer. I will bring this up again when I blog about my experience with Scratch, but just recently a student turned in one part of an independent reading project as a Scratch game (https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/96723864/). And although this was not required he certainly fulfilled the necessary parts with his project. What I am trying to get across is that just knowing how to code is not the end all be all for getting a career or getting into a good college. As Fast Company just wrote an article “Why Learning To Code Won’t Save Your Job” where they explain that “when technology increases productivity, a company has a new excuse to eliminate jobs…So continues to hollow out the middle class” (Rushkoff, 2016). My 7th grade ELA/SS classes are pushed to get all the required material in and I believe that the problem solving that is required when writing a sound argument with proper citations and grammar could make you a better coder. And as we are all blinded by this idea that we all should code, “it turns out that digital technology merely accelerates this process (of fewer jobs) to the point where we can all see it occurring. It’s just that we haven’t all taken notice yet—we’ve been busy coding” (Rushkoff, 2016). I suppose my argument is not that the skill of coding is not valuable but that creating a logical argument, and explaining your thinking in writing is also important and could end up being the reason my students keep their jobs.
Rushkoff, Douglass. “Why Learning To Code Won’t Save Your Job.” Fast Company. 25 Mar. 2016. Web. 07 Apr. 2016.
