As a school media specialist who teaches technology not only to students but also to teachers and administrators, Hour of Code is my thing. I have been leading the charge for coding in my building and my district for many years. However, in this environment of high pressure, high-cost testing, I am beginning to get some pushback from the already overburdened and time-pressed teachers. I am asked, “Why should we spend time on coding with students when they are not being tested on it?” Aside from making my heart weep, I understand their point.
In my mind, coding is another sort of writing. I find that the organizational skills needed to produce code also produce understandable plotlines and reports with a logical sequence. Modern coding games such as The Foos help even the youngest learners to understand cause and effect and to think about the sequence. Computer code is the language of the future. Specific programming languages and tools come and go, but the concept of writing code will continue.
makingthinkinglearning 