Construction not Instruction

There’s a current craze for teaching coding in schools and computer science classes are back in fashion in a big way. (I don’t know what schools are squeezing out to make room for this but it’s probably the usual suspects). 

A 2016 Gallup report found that 40% of American schools now offer coding classes – up from only 25% a few years ago and I’m sure that number is even higher now. In 2015, New York’s Mayor DeBlasio announced that all of the city’s public schools will be required to offer computer science to all students by 2025. Los Angeles has set a 2020 deadline and Chicago has promised to make computer science a graduation requirement by 2018. 

The reason for all the programming proliferation is said to be economic. The argument is that teaching kids coding and computer science will help them land good jobs. Well – we’ll see how all that plays out over time.

The fact is that the majority of these children will not be working in IT in the future. So what is the point of all the investment?

Here’s an analogy from another era: Typing. Learning to type and taking typing was a good career skill for those who would become typists. Such jobs don’t exist anymore but typing – keyboarding – remains a useful for almost everyone. (Whether it should be taught or merely learned though doing is another debate. And that debate is rather like the one over the value – or otherwise – of teaching handwriting.)

Learning to type or typing to learn?

Typing for typing’s sake – to reproduce mechanically and efficiently the words and work of other?

Or typing as a means of creation, collaboration and communication?  I.e  typing a poem; the great American novel; a love letter; a complaint to Congress; instructions for how to boil an egg; or the results of your groundbreaking research study on migratory birds.

Teaching computer science and the skills of coding may spark an interest in some students who may then go on to find lucrative employment in the industry. There is a real case to be made for the serious introduction of computer science for those with interest and aptitude. And a strong case for giving all students some exposure to the potential of coding to spark that interest and aptitude. And knowing how anything works – and trying it out – is always useful.

But it is unrealistic to assume that including coding in the curriculum will lead to careers as expert programmers and software engineers.

It is realistic to imagine students who learn coding will have a greater understanding of programming – what it is, what it does and what it might do.

Students should learn coding in order to do something – to create enhanced dynamic and personal artifacts – animations and 3D objects. It is a way – like composing with words and music or any kind of art – to make thinking visible. It is another and powerful tool in the box of creative expression and learning. It is about making, doing, solving problems and learning by construction not instruction.

Helping students experience coding as a satisfying, chosen and intriguing experience and as something you

• do with others to create something
  • that solves a problem
    • is aesthetically pleasing and/or useful and
      • therefore of value in the world

          would be a good use of time in school. 

The featured image is a detail from ‘Tongues’ by Biggs and Collings, 2016.