Forget Foreign Languages and Music. Teach Our Kids to Code

J. Paul Gibson began to teach programming classes for teens out of frustration. A computer scientist at the National University of Ireland, he had by 1998 become shocked at the ineptness of his students. "I was seeing 18- and 19-year-olds having trouble with basic programming concepts that I myself had learned when I was 12," recalls Gibson, who taught himself to code on a Sinclair ZX81. "I realized they hadn’t seen any programming in school at all up to that point. So I thought maybe one of the problems we were having is that they were coming to it too late." As word of Gibson’s classes spread, primary schools in the Dublin area sought his services too.

By the early 2000s, Gibson was using game-design puzzles to teach rudimentary Java to 8- and 9-year-olds. His success with that age group made him wonder: How young is too young to begin coding?

By Brendan I. Koerner

Full Story: http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/09/ap_code/

Code Montana http://www.codemontana.org

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One excellent reason for learning to code – I don’t think it’s been mentioned yet – is the wonderful technology theme called the Internet of Things.

There are a host of Open Source Hardware platforms that enable people/students/kids with very limited knowledge in electronics to design & create their interactive objects – quite literally taking any physical object, giving it a virtual identify and enabling it to sense and communicate – Arduino if my favorite.

This is probably the Most Amazing 16 minute video on the power of Imagination, creativity & learning to code:

Massimo Banzi: How Arduino is open-sourcing imagination http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoBUXOOdLXY

By Michael Wayne