Hello there OC parents! Did any of your kids come home this week talking about how they got to “play” computer games in class? Have no fear! This week, in honor of Computer Science Education Week, many of our OC students took part in the LARGEST LEARNING EVENT IN HISTORY! Lead by our Directory of Technology, Ken Yeh, our students joined more than 100 million learners in 180 countries worldwide as they learned computer programming skills by taking part in the Global Hour Of Code.
“Coding is a valuable thing to learn, even if you have no plans of ever being a programmer or app designer because it works on a number of important skills,” says Mr. Yeh.
Coding can teach valuable skills such as:
1. Problem solving, by helping students understand how to break big problems into smaller “chunks,”
2. Communication, since coding is the art of communicating instructions in a structured way to achieve a result,
3. Computational thinking and logic,
4. Attention to detail, because a single missing symbol or punctuation mark can break syntax and cause a program to fail,
5. Perseverance and troubleshooting, since programs never work on the first (or second, or third) try!
Mr. Yeh observes, “Coding is a great way to empower students to create–and not just consume content–on a computer. It’s the modern version of taking apart a clock or radio to understand how it works. If you take apart a digital device nowadays, you don’t really get much because all the functions are hidden within the microprocessors. But a student who is interested in coding can “take apart” the software that runs the device and gain an understanding of what makes it work.”
At Ontario Christian, we offer students the opportunity to take part in creating world-changing technology. What better way to do that than to inspire our students’ curiosity and creativity through coding their own program! Whether they learned how to guide a player to harvest resources in Minecraft, or make Elsa ice-skate in different geometric patterns in Frozen, our OC students had a blast! Coding offers a wonderful opportunity for kids to problem solve, break large pieces of information down into smaller chunks, and begin to learn a new language – the language of computers! We would love to hear YOUR children’s stories of their Hour of Code here this week.
If you would like to learn more, please visit the page we have created with a range of resources for learning how to code (http://ifli.ocknight.org/hour-of-code). They can continue these wonderful skills anytime, anywhere!
Here are some highlights from this fun academic adventure!