Everything in today’s world has been dominated by technology and has been for some time. This generation has gotten increasingly interested in coding. Coding is a fun multi-disciplinary activity that actively engages the mind and carries a lot of huge benefits for children. Coding in the classroom is linked to enhanced problem-solving and analytical reasoning. Students who learn how to code have a “natural capacity and motivation to design, hypothesis, explore, experiment, evaluate, and draw conclusions. Schools, educational institutions, governments, and extracurricular activity centers all across the world are introducing coding for children into their lesson plans and activity schedules. According to research, coding exercises the brain’s different regions and helps students develop their situational analysis, decision-making, and communication skills. Through coding, all of these exercises will show students how to sharpen their problem-solving abilities. Students must develop their problem-solving abilities in order to excel in the classroom, in their personal and family lives, and in the workplace.
Teachers are aware that learning to code has many advantages for children, that it is the new lingua franca and the language of the future, and that it is a skill that will be in high demand in the job market in the future. Coding is crucial for children of all ages, not just those who plan to study computer science and information technology in school and pursue careers in the field. for both present and future generations, the ability to code is quickly becoming a necessary literacy skill. Why is that so? Mostly because technology is all around us, and since computers and other gadgets can’t communicate with us using our language, we must instead utilize the machine code that they can understand, which is written in binary or hexadecimal.
Reasons why coding is important in the classroom
- First of all, coding is fundamentally a creative process where something is created from nothing. children’s creativity improves when they are forced to employ their imagination, talent, and skills all at once when starting from scratch. Children that are curious and imaginative can develop their creative thinking skills through coding.
- Additionally, teaching children to code is a pleasant and enjoyable activity. For instance, websites like code.org provide children with a variety of games, workouts, and riddles. This is meant to catch their attention, and it does it very successfully because youngsters are fascinated by how computers, games, and websites operate and coding is like magic.
- Moreover, zeros and ones are used in the construction of computers, and coding involves processing mathematical operations. Children are learning how to solve problems by applying calculating techniques, logical techniques, and other mathematical procedures. Thus, it aids children in developing their computational thinking.
- Not only this, more practice than theory is needed in coding. By doing, children pick it up. All programmers use a variety of coding environments, including PyCharm, Visual Studio, and others. Kids can use tools like those mentioned above to practice their programming skills while they are still learning. In light of this, learning to code is useful.
- Children are taught that they can create anything they desire in life when they learn to code, provided they put in the effort to see it through. Their perception of what is feasible in both the virtual and general real worlds is stretched by this. They start to think and consider problems in more complex and “crazy” ways, giving challenges that they might not have otherwise given any thought.
I had never attempted coding or even considered Makerspace before this course. It is a novel concept to me and I will use this concept to teach my students in class. I think that it is the best way to teach mathematics in the classroom. I learned many things about the use of coding and Makerspace in the classroom for making teaching-learning effective. It helps students to develop creative and problem-solving abilities. But the use of coding is not an easy task for every teacher and student as well because gamification sometimes distracts the students. Gamification has sometimes been taken too far, resulting in children or students spending more time playing video games than learning how to program. Despite the increased participation of the pupils, this paradigm still lacks a problem-solving or practical coding component. Kids who are unable to apply their knowledge to coding or who are quickly side-tracked by video games are something I’ve observed. Moreover, the secret to learning to code in practice. I’ve come across a few courses that are solely concerned with instruction and completely neglect the practice component. All of a child’s learning efforts will be for naught if they don’t use the code they learn and see the effects. Most significantly, many students struggle to put what they learn into practice and eventually forget. There are numerous practice sites, but either the student is unaware of them or lacks the drive to go there and continue not only this lack of engagement is the third reason that is very challenging for teachers. It’s difficult to keep children interested in coding, especially one that’s online or unguided.
In conclusion, It’s reasonable to assume that one of the most beneficial pastimes for children to take up is coding, especially given that it can foster their ability to persist, communicate, be creative, and engage in higher-order thinking. Yes, teaching students to code will prepare them for job choices that could be financially rewarding, but it also gives kids access to a wealth of other opportunities. It is a straightforward reality fact, Technology and computer programming are advancing and becoming more essential to our daily lives with each passing day. Only 15 years ago, the vast majority of people lacked cell phones, and the bulk of life was centered around paper products. In just a decade and a half, even young children are proficiently learning how to use iPads and computers. Again, as more and more time passes, it is a simple fact of life that computer programming will be essential for corporate success. Teaching children about these abilities will not only make it easier for them to understand and use coding and computer programming in general, but it will also provide them a significant advantage moving forward in their lives