If this is the Second Coming of Coding
Will There Be Rapture or Rejection?
Peter Albion
University of Southern Queensland
Coding grabbed headlines in 2015
• Federal Parliament
• Shorten to Abbott
• Will you “support coding being taught in every primary and secondary school?”
• Abbott to Shorten
• Will kids go to work as coders at age 11?
• Later confirmed coding was in the national curriculum
• Queensland launched Advancing Education
• #codingcounts + coding academy
• Fast-tracking Digital Technologies subject
• Robotics focus
Coding, programming & computational thinking
• Coding is the headline grabbing buzzword
• Programming specifies the logic of a solution
• Coding expresses that in a suitable language
• Coding is a subtask of programming
• Terms often used interchangeably
• Computational thinking is broader again
• Key idea in Australian Curriculum: Technologies
Can teachers teach coding?
• Former Chief Scientist
• Primary teachers are not sufficiently prepared to teach coding
• Proposed solutions
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Attract higher quality students
Boost STEM courses in teacher preparation
Improve professional development
Recruit specialist teachers to mentor
• No short term solutions here
http://www.afr.com/news/policy/education/are-teachers-ready-to-teachcoding-ian-chubb-doesnt-think-so-20151210-glkibe
• Teachers are concerned about learning to code before teaching it
• Risks turning kids off rather than on
Why teach coding?
• Common answers
• Future employment
• Development of logic & problem solving skills
• Trucano (2015): Coding to learn rather than
learning to code
• Supporting learning across the curriculum
• Chubb (2015): Future-priming vs future-proofing
• Prepare to take advantage of technological change
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https://flickr.com/photos/harlowheslop/16587677387
shared under a Creative Commons (BY-SA) license
History of coding in Queensland schools
• Some of us were around schools in the 1980s
• 1975: Coding arrived with computing in mathematics syllabus
• Few schools had computers
• Mark cards, send away, wait, debug, repeat
• Shift to programmable calculators
• More agile cycle
• 1978: Microcomputers began to arrive in schools
• Apple ][, Commodore PET, Tandy TRS80, Ohio Scientific
• Lacked commercial software, coding in mathematics
• Few enough for state-wide annual report of inventory
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https://flickr.com/photos/39908901
@N06/7078658229 shared under a
Creative Commons (BY) license
First coming of coding for all
• Logo – based on Lisp, a list processing language
• Developed by Papert from 1967
• Version for Apple ][ in late 1980s
• Popularised in 1980s on microcomputers in schools
• Papert saw computers teaching kids
• Argued kids should teach computers
• Power of learning by teaching
• Need to clarify ideas and express them clearly
• Computer as endlessly patient learner
flickr photo by Benjamin Chun
https://flickr.com/photos/benchun/
5502826711 shared under a Creative
Commons (BY-SA) license
Papert & learning
• Constructivism based on work with Piaget
• Children learn language & more by immersion
• Favoured ‘microworlds’ for learning by immersion
• Turtle microworld embodied geometric and mathematical ideas
• Floor turtle was mechanical and expensive
• Transitioned to computer screen
• Constructionism
• Learning is best demonstrated by building some artefact
flickr photo by Tom Morris
https://flickr.com/photos/tommo
rris/2584829655 shared under a
Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA)
license
Rise & demise of Logo
• Logo was extended and used into the 1990s
• Early Lego robotics
• LogoWriter and other variants
• Few teachers or schools got beyond simplest uses
• Drawing shapes
• Few teachers knew of more uses
• From mid-1980s application software took focus
• First coming of coding was rejected
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shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
Second coming of coding for all
• Coding persisted and expanded into 1990s and
beyond
• Specialised subjects in secondary schools
• No widespread adoption in general education
• 20teens: Renewed interest in computer science in
schools
• Friedman (2006) argued transdisciplinary workers needed
some coding
• Corporations are interested in securing future workforce
• Governments are concerned about future of economy
• Curricula are being revised to include
• Programming, coding, computational thinking
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https://flickr.com/photos/caius/2300154566
shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
ACT – Digital Technologies
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Creating digital solutions as focus
Computational thinking as key idea
Elements of programming and coding as core for all
Curriculum review (Donnelly & Wiltshire, 2014)
• Sceptical about inclusions and Australia leading but other
countries are doing it
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/technolo
gies/digital-technologies/structure
Coding enthusiasts
• Sterling (2015)
• Coding is central to modern technology
• All should understand possibilities
• Some will need proficiency
• Compared to place of Art in education
• Cultural significance but only some are artists
• Opposed to laptops, smartphones are enough
• That genie is out of the bottle
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shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license
Coding sceptics
• Merkel & McNamara (2015)
• A little bit of coding may be dangerous
• Misrepresents IT with simplistic approaches
• Encourages ad hoc tinkering
• IT requires systematic software engineering
• Structured team work
• DT curriculum is futile
• Demands too much of learners and teachers
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https://flickr.com/photos/palbion/19670
594729 shared under a Creative Commons
(BY-NC-SA) license
Educator view
• Stuckey (2015)
• Taught Logo in mathematics curriculum
• Learned BASIC years ago
• Early microcomputers had few options
• Very limited applications software
• No longer codes
• Knows very few who do
• Not creating digital solutions?
• Response
• Focus on logic & computational thinking
• Leave coding outside the classroom
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Commons (BY-NC-ND) license
Coding as new literacy
• Political slogan – does it hold up?
• Stuckey (2015) argues for science as new literacy
• Coding tucked under
• Literacy suggests necessity for daily life
• Is that the issue?
• Much of schooling has limited everyday utility
• Valued for broader benefits
• Important that teachers and students see value
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under a Creative Commons (BY-SA) license
Visual programming
• Scratch, Snap!, Tynker, etc.
• Scratch from MIT Media Laboratory
• Papert’s group & Logo
• Puzzle piece format avoids syntax errors
• Supported by online community
• Millions of shared projects
Is history repeating?
• Logo foundered
• Teacher skills limited potential of applications
• Creating digital solutions?
• Risk remains
• What problems can limited coding solve?
• Scratch community may help
• Sophisticated projects offer ideas
• Useful code is complex – can teachers support it?
Neither rapture nor rejection is sane
• Rapture
• Coding is the new literacy
• Multilingual or lingua franca?
• Critical literacy is needed to assess the claims
• Coding is key to future employment & prosperity
• Many workers in IT industries do not code
• Rejection
• We have sufficient coders and don’t need more
• Too few teachers are prepared
• It’s all too hard
A sane response
• Falls between extremes
• Society needs coders
• Coders need colleagues with other skills
• Visual design, process analysis, etc.
• Knowledge of coding, programming, computational thinking
• Enables understanding value & implications of code
• Recognising problems with digital solutions
• Understanding risks and benefits
• Second coming of coding
• Depends on understanding value for all
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04006386 shared under a Creative Commons (BYSA) license
The value of coding
• Learned BASIC & other languages as hobbyist
• Developed applications to support administration
• Taught IPT, Logo, HyperCard, etc.
• Occasional coder
• Residual value
• Learning new applications
• Raising expectations about quality in systems
• Seeing potential digital solutions
• Spreadsheets, macros, etc.
• Enhancing use of technologies
• Wing (2006) computational thinking
• Universally applicable attitude and skill set
Digital natives & immigrants
• Digital natives & digital immigrants based on age (Prensky, 2001)
• Discredited view (Bennett et al., 2008)
• Not necessarily age related
• Technologies change rapidly
• We are all perpetual digital immigrants
• The digital natives are not coming to save us
flickr photo by Minnesota Historical
Society
https://flickr.com/photos/minnesota
historicalsociety/5096894782 shared
under a Creative Commons (BY-SA)
license
Digital visitors, residents & renovators
• Alternative metaphor with choice (White & Le
Cornu, 2011)
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Visitors come with purpose and depart quickly
Residents are comfortable and settled
Builders create digital spaces (Jones, 2011)
Renovators adapt digital spaces to suit
• We need some builders – engineers,
programmers, coders
• Most of us need skills for renovation
• Mere coding is not sufficient
• Computational thinking is fundamental to digital
solutions
flickr photo by Steve Dorman
https://flickr.com/photos/60060337@N02/12245266863 shared under a
Creative Commons (BY-NC) license
Creating digital solutions
• Digital Technologies
• NOT about making every child a programmer/coder
• Developing computational, design and systems thinking
• Creating digital solutions
• Implies working with real problems & needs
• Requires teachers who create digital solutions
• Challenge
• Assist teachers to become digital residents & renovators
• If not rapture, at least not rejection
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https://flickr.com/photos/palbion/28946449805 shared
under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license
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