For some time now, my team has been preaching that digital citizenship lies not only within the confines of the media center but should also be prioritized in all other subject areas too. Each teacher needs to feel their responsibility to teach digital citizenship. If they do not, the importance of this falls on deaf ears as students are unable to grasp the relevance of digital citizenship. The same holds true for coding. If the value of coding is truly going to be felt within a school culture, then all teachers must own this responsibility. Recently, at SxSWEdu in Austin, Texas, I was surrounded by likeminded educators. I learned of some amazing projects in the works to encourage the integration of coding and core subjects.
Many questions come to light, however. How can a teacher be compelled to add one more layer to an already full plate? How can we influence the mindsets of teachers to ensure they understand the importance of just "one more thing"? How do we carve out the time for training and exploration of integrating coding into other subject areas? Will schools soon hire Coding Specialists as they have Tech Specialists? Does the necessity for coding skills demand this level of attention? There are so many unanswered questions but these are just a few of the ones circulating.
It is my belief that like with anything, we have to start small. Recently, I sat in on a Kindergarten team meeting and started by sharing the poor outlook on skill sets for meeting technology-related job demands. According to code.org, 512,720 computing jobs are open across the nation and there are only 42,969 computer science graduates to fill those jobs. This morning, I opened my 4th grade class by sharing similar statistics with the hope that this would motivate and inspire them to explore coding further beyond that of what we are doing in the classroom. While many of my students probably aren't thinking about their job prospects at this point in time, we have to start somewhere. Spreading the gospel on the importance of creating a culture of coding is a priority. Do you believe this to be true? If so, what are you doing to help this cause? Please feel free to share your comments.
Many questions come to light, however. How can a teacher be compelled to add one more layer to an already full plate? How can we influence the mindsets of teachers to ensure they understand the importance of just "one more thing"? How do we carve out the time for training and exploration of integrating coding into other subject areas? Will schools soon hire Coding Specialists as they have Tech Specialists? Does the necessity for coding skills demand this level of attention? There are so many unanswered questions but these are just a few of the ones circulating.
It is my belief that like with anything, we have to start small. Recently, I sat in on a Kindergarten team meeting and started by sharing the poor outlook on skill sets for meeting technology-related job demands. According to code.org, 512,720 computing jobs are open across the nation and there are only 42,969 computer science graduates to fill those jobs. This morning, I opened my 4th grade class by sharing similar statistics with the hope that this would motivate and inspire them to explore coding further beyond that of what we are doing in the classroom. While many of my students probably aren't thinking about their job prospects at this point in time, we have to start somewhere. Spreading the gospel on the importance of creating a culture of coding is a priority. Do you believe this to be true? If so, what are you doing to help this cause? Please feel free to share your comments.
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