Tag Archives: schools

Coding Education, Education

Why Many Schools Are Not Making Investments in Coding

Investing in coding would seem like common sense at this point. However, schools in all parts of the world who have the ability to make that investment are refusing to do so. Consider a recent article for Computer Weekly titled “One-third of schools admit to making no investment in coding training for teachers.”

Claire McDonald of Computer Weekly writes, “One-third of schools admit they have not invested any money in training teachers to deliver the new computing curriculum, according to research. Freedom of information (FOI) requests by enterprise software company MapR have revealed that the support teachers are receiving is inconsistent across the country, with some schools investing nothing in training and others investing more than £3,000. Paul Tarantino, director at MapR Technologies, said: ‘Last year the government pledged £3.5m on new curriculum training. But this information shows that it’s simply not being filtered down so that every young person has a trained teacher. It’s shocking to see such a huge discrepancy in what was said in the run-up to the election compared to what these promises have translated to on the ground.’ Of those asked, 22% were investing over £3,000 on training teachers to deliver the computer science curriculum, 33% spent between £500 and £1,000, while 11% spent between £100 and £500.”

To understand why making an investment in coding is so important, consider a recent article for Forbes titled “How The Coding Explosion Has Changed The Programmer Job Market.” Harsh Patel of Forbes writes, “In the past two decades, the landscape for computer science has changed. Part of this comes from a general increase in education availability: from traditional CS degrees to online learning and coding bootcamps like ours, nearly everyone has access to learn programming if they want to. The other part stems from the technology itself. In the 1990s, coding was based around singular purposes — enterprise applications, self-contained games and custom databases for corporations. In the 2000s, the rapid growth of always-on Internet connections and the emergence of smartphones added new layers of security, small phone-based apps, cloud-based interfaces and databases, and increasingly complex web environments. Now, software systems power everything from tablets to car systems to home appliances. As a result, the United States job market is undergoing a dramatic shift, such that by 2020 nearly one million coding jobs will be unfulfilled based on projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. With the field of computer science rapidly expanding, key traits for smart hiring in the field have changed from even just a few years ago.”

To prepare your child for this job climate where coders are in high demand, you need personalized coding education. At CodeRev Kids, we customize all of our lessons to fit your child’s expertise.

Our lessons emphasize computational thinking, which encompasses a wide range of programming concepts and languages. Students can choose from a variety of different tracks, including robotics, app making, and website development.

Although we are the most educational camp out there, we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, your child is both engaged and receiving a top flight education at the same time.

If you’re looking to take your child’s coding skills to the next level, check out our afterschool programs and fall classes!

Coding Education

Why Do Parents and Schools Disagree About Coding?

While parents across the country are pushing to get more coding in schools, recent research shows there is a serious disconnect between their sentiments and those of the schools. USA Today explores this in a recent article titled “Should students learn coding? Students, schools disagree, poll finds.”

Marco della Cava of USA Today writes, “Parents across the U.S. are eager for their children to learn coding and other computer-science skills, but their message hasn’t yet hit the in-box of school administrators. That’s the finding of a new Gallup study commissioned by Google that spotlights a potentially perilous economic disconnect as tech companies struggle to enlarge their engineering talent pools. In the works for 18 months, the survey, called ‘Searching for Computer Science: Access and Barriers in U.S. K-12 Education,’ polled 15,000 people ranging from students to superintendents. Among key and contrasting findings: while 90% of parents see computer science, or CS, as ‘a good use of school resources’ (and 67% say CS should be required learning alongside other core classes), fewer than 8% of administrators believe parent demand is high. They also cite a lack of trained teachers as a top barrier to offering CS courses. Three quarters of principals report no CS programs in their school.”

Meanwhile, in Kentucky, one businessman is certain that teaching coding isn’t just important for students’ skills; it’s necessary for our economy. WYMT 57 takes a look at this in a recent article titled “President of company says coding is a solution to the economy.” According to the author of the article, “The president of bitsource says that the company focuses on the technological needs of other entities, but also men and women in need of a job. Bitsource is new to Pikeville. The owners discovered a need for it when they were forced to search for business outside of the mountains. One co-owner, Rusty Justice, says it started with the need for a website, but then turned into something more. ‘We’ve always made our business in the coal industry and so we were looking for something to do to help these wonderful people we’ve worked with. We knew how talented and capable they were.’”

If you’re looking to provide your child with a quality coding education, your best bet is CodeRev Kids. At CodeRev Kids, we customize our lessons to fit your child’s specific needs.

Our students learn Computational Thinking, which encompasses a wide range of programming concepts and languages. Although we are known for saying we are the most educational tech camp out there, we also keep the focus on having fun. As a result, our students stay engaged while learning to blend creativity with technology.

With CodeRev Kids, students can choose from five different tracks, each of which begins with introductory concepts which then lead to intermediate and advanced topics. These tracks include everything from creating games to making apps to building robots.

If you think CodeRev Kids could be right for your child, get signed up today!

Uncategorized

Lack of Computer Science Education in Schools still a major problem

Check this link for a thorough description of the problem facing our students now:  http://www.computinginthecore.org/issues-solutions.

Basically, the United States is WAY behind in the field of Computer Science education, which happens to be the field that opens most doors in terms of finding work in the 21st Century.  As the above link describes, “No other subject will open as many doors in the 21st Century, regardless of a student’s ultimate field of study or occupation, as computer science.”

While some schools do teach basic computer skills, they lack the conceptual depth of instruction that is valued in the work place.  This is the gap that we fill.  We focus on computational thinking, advanced problem solving, and using logic to solve problems with unclear solutions and many possible outcomes, just the way actual problems in the real world usually function.

We have quoted Carnegie Melon’s computer science department below to provide a more complete definition of Computational Thinking.  Their site link is here:  http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~CompThink/

“Computational thinking is a way of solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior that draws on concepts fundamental to computer science. To flourish in today’s world, computational thinking has to be a fundamental part of the way people think and understand the world.

Computational thinking means creating and making use of different levels ofabstraction, to understand and solve problems more effectively.

Computational thinking means thinking algorithmically and with the ability to apply mathematical concepts such as induction to develop more efficient, fair, and secure solutions.

Computational thinking means understanding the consequences of scale, not only for reasons of efficiency but also for economic and social reasons.”