While preparing for a PLC last week, I noticed this in my Facebook newsfeed.
Adorable, right? And marketed brilliantly to moms and dads like me. If it weren't for the price tag, I probably would have pre-ordered it immediately. And that got me thinking. How much does this device truly promote creativity, coding and computational thinking? Or, is it simply a toy polished in edtech jargon and marketed to parents who would love to see their kid grow up to be the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg?
Yesterday, I noticed that the New York Times had a debate going about whether to teach coding in schools. Some columnists mentioned concerns about the trendiness of coding, developmental appropriateness, the validity "computational thinking", and the loss social and emotional learning. There was also the concern that art, music and physical education would suffer from the introduction of coding to the elementary school curriculum. While some of the concerns were valid, many seemed uninformed not only about the types coding tools available to young children, but also the nature of contemporary elementary education itself. Then there was the comments section. Ugh.
I have been teaching Hopscotch to my 3rd and 4th graders for the past 3 weeks. The energy and engagement in my classroom has been absolutely electric. I gave my students very few instructions. I taught them how to draw a line and how to make an object change direction. Their first assignment was was to draw a square. Next, they converted the square into a rectangle. Then they added a triangle to create a house. They added windows and doors to complete the house. Their final challenge was to add a sun to the sky. With this assignment, I've seen collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity on a level that is far above many of the other units that I teach. I watched my students cope with the failure of bad code and try again with smiles on their faces.
We reflected on the projects yesterday. I asked students why they enjoyed working with Hopscotch. Their answers were fantastic.
"It helps me to get better at problem solving. That's something I've never been very good at."
"Building the triangle helped me to understand more about angles. That helped me a lot in math."
"I liked trying to solve problems in my own way."
When I asked them if they ever got bored trying to debug their code, all but two students said no.
Considering that there is already a debate about coding in schools, it would appear that there has not been enough advocacy for computer programming. This is strangely shocking considering the success of the Hour of Code. But I'm not sure that the debate has been entirely honest or well informed.
A rich technology education program should have a variety of components including creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, digital literacy, digital citizenship and active computing. The ISTE NETS.S standards have served as a great roadmap for providing this kind of program. Coupling these standards with quality project based learning units, 21st century learning can happen in truly transformative ways. And that is the point. Coding promotes the essential skills of learning and problem solving. The need for these skills is not debatable.
Nobody could or should expect that teaching young people to code will produce the next Mark Zuckerberg. Nobody is advocating that our elementary schools become factories of young coders. However, 21st century learners are different. We need to understand that and start meeting students where they are at. Coding is one part of the equation, if we truly want to create 21st century schools.
