This blog post will serve as a reflection of my learning and teaching practices with respect to my recent NVU graduate course titled “Coding in the K-12 Classroom”. My mission statement will guide my reflections to the material and concepts we research each week.
Coding Mission Statement for HCS.
“The mission for coding at HCS K-8 school is to provide practical and meaningful ways to integrate computer science into the school curriculum. We will encourage students to learn, create, and experiment with coding in a platform that is engaging. We will encourage experimentation, learning from mistakes, and collaboration among peers. Our goal is to make coding fun, engaging, relevant to the ultimate purpose of developing real projects that are meaningful and make a difference. Our coding experience will ultimately encourage students to reach out, borrow, enhance and share code with peers around the world and encourage collaboration, while also ensuring personal privacy.”
Reflections from Module 1: Coding in Education
There is a good deal of energy around the idea of offering STEM classes and activities in K-12 classrooms. Many studies have shown that learning to code creates opportunities for computational thinking.(1) As Nick Morrisson of Forbes Magazine notes, “Teaching kids to code opens a door to understanding the technology that we use as consumers every day. However, teaching code is more than just understanding technology, […] At a basic level, it improves problem-solving and thinking skills, and having digital skills will improve the chances of being employed in the future.”
Computer Science is not compulsory, nor mandated in the Vermont curriculum. Initiatives to teach coding vary from school to school, with more robust school budgets (note: inequity across schools) being able to afford Tech Integrationists. But even in those schools, there is not time allotted in the curriculum for Computer Science and STEM. So, the challenge of creating and implementing a program are immense. No people; little funding; no time.
My plan for teaching coding in elementary schools is to develop strong relationships with my teachers, demonstrate the connection between coding and our curriculum, and implement a year-long coding course at a couple grade levels. In addition, I will encourage Hour of Code activities to all teachers for choice time. I will follow the ISTE standards for students.
Module 2 – Employing the design thinking process.
The Design Process (aka Design Thinking) helps students follow a plan to first identify a real problem and then follow iterative steps to problem-solve using empathy, creativity, brainstorming, collaboration, analysis, building, testing, re-evaluation, and ultimately finding a solution. It allows students to realize that there is no one correct answer.(2)
This process supports tenacity and commitment to solving a problem. Iterative steps in debugging code will also help students communicate and explain the purpose of their code as well as document their code with notes.
Module 3 – The role of games in coding.
I believe that scaffolding gaming platforms to teach coding ensures engagement and a collaborative learning environment with opportunities for trial and error.(3).
My experience over the course of the the importance of finding platforms that make learning coding skills implicit to the activity. By the end of the year, 9 year olds will move from block coding to Javascript and Python, creating real apps and sharing them with their peers. By making coding fun and engaging, the learning outcomes are remarkable.
Module 4 – How robots make it “real’.
Tangible robots and robot simulations are a powerful engagement tool for students. They transform a coding activity from a 2D to 3D environment which is captivating for students. Next week, my fourth graders will transition back to blockly coding with the Dash robot for a rich experience of mapping an itinerary with the robot across the US, using metric measurement, angles and degrees, cardinal directions, and geography.
As with programming, learning with robotics offers a plethora of targeted curriculum skills such “collaboration/teamwork, communication, creative thinking, and critical thinking/problem-solving skills, also referred to as the 4Cs. (4) Additionally, students who learn programing with robotics gain problem-solving and design-thinking skills that we see in the engineering/design learning process steps including design, brainstorming, creating, testing, proving, and sharing, followed by a repeat in these iterative steps as needed to improve the results.
Module 5 – The transition to text coding.
My teaching style supports Papert’s Constructionism Theory of learning that builds upon previous learning by association and experience.(5) A nice transition from code.org, moves into Scratch.mit.edu, then into BitsBox (javascript) in a kid friendly platform. At this point, the students are beginning to see that they can grab and share code from previous projects. The demands of accurate syntax will stop them in their tracks, but now they also have the tenacity to keep trying and simply debug the code. At this point we are delving into coding with purpose, such as making digital cards and apps that they can share.
Module 6 – Introducing website coding with HTML.
I have come to the conclusion that only a small handful of my grade-four students would be able or interested in creating an HTML web page from scratch. There are a number of platforms for websites that have attractive interfaces and are so easy to manage such as Adobe Spark Pages, Google Sites, and even WordPress or other hosting platforms for the over 13 crowd. Those ‘others’ definitely offer the opportunity to tweak the html on the page. So I would argue that if an older student is interested in website design and passionate about sharing information, a course in HTML would be very helpful. Coding in HTML made me do quite a bit of web searching to find suggestions for the correct code and syntax. Once my young coders have acquired comfort with text coding in Javascript or Python, they will also have learned how to seek out answers to finding open source code on the web to create and develop their own website. I may consider a step-by-step, experiential HTML project with partners and opportunities for peer leadership would be best to ensure a successful outcome.(6)
Assessment rubrics for all coding classes will be based on a 1-4 scale. Additionally, students will be assessed not only on their ability to write the program, but also their ability to communicate the significance and development process of their project.
This course has helped bolster my own coding program and offered great resources for IDE platforms. Having spoken about the hurdles of rolling out coding to the K-12 classroom in terms of time, money, people and and non-mandated curriculum, I recently learned that the University of Vermont will be offering a new minor in Computer Science, as well as a CS endorsement for licensed teachers. This is encouraging news and a huge step towards training educators to teach computer science in our schools.
- RESNICK, MITCHEL, and NATALIE RUSK. “Coding at a Crossroads.” Communications of the ACM, vol. 63, no. 11, Nov. 2020, pp. 120–127. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1145/3375546.
- Scheer, Andrea, et al. “Transforming Constructivist Learning into Action: Design Thinking in Education.” Design and Technology Education, vol. 17, no. 3, Jan. 2012, pp. 8–19. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=eric&AN=EJ996067&site=eds-live.
- Yasmin B. Kafai, and Quinn Burke. Connected Code : Why Children Need to Learn Programming. The MIT Press, 2014. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=nlebk&AN=815362&site=eds-live.
- Eguchi, Amy. “Educational Robotics for Promoting 21St Century Skills.” Journal of Automation, Mobile Robotics & Intelligent Systems, vol. 8, no. 1, Mar. 2014, pp. 5–11. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=edb&AN=94617419&site=eds-live.
- Pierce, Margo. “21st Century Curriculum: Coding for Middle Schoolers.” T.H.E. Journal, vol. 40, no. 5, 1 May 2013, pp. 20–23. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=eric&AN=EJ1017813&site=eds-live.
- VICKERY, JACQUELINE. “Youths Teaching Youths.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 57, no. 5, Feb. 2014, p. 361. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=edb&AN=94086567&site=eds-live.
Eyes Open Wide 