Teaching Kids to Code
Before you dive in to the rest of the KNILT mini-course, Teaching Kids How to Code (When You're Not Sure How to Code Yourself), how do you feel about the idea of teaching your students to code in class?
Have you done any coding yourself?
What questions do you have about learning to code yourself?
What questions do you have about teaching your students how to code?
I love the idea of teaching coding to my class. I've never done any coding myself but after reading the breakdown of computation thinking, it sounds similar to critical thinking. One of the college writing classes I teach is "critical thinking" in which we break down the logical thinking process. Within that course, we study the logical fallacies and how to avoid errors in logic. The coding process sounds like a logic problem. Questions that remain about coding for me include how does a code become the polished software interface we see when we interact with the program? The questions I have about teaching coding is how to learn more about the connections between critical thinking and coding. Thanks for a great introduction to coding!
Quote from Guest on May 13, 2020, 4:31 amI love the idea of teaching coding to my class. I've never done any coding myself but after reading the breakdown of computation thinking, it sounds similar to critical thinking. One of the college writing classes I teach is "critical thinking" in which we break down the logical thinking process. Within that course, we study the logical fallacies and how to avoid errors in logic. The coding process sounds like a logic problem. Questions that remain about coding for me include how does a code become the polished software interface we see when we interact with the program? The questions I have about teaching coding is how to learn more about the connections between critical thinking and coding. Thanks for a great introduction to coding!
Sincerely,
Adrienne O.
I love the idea of teaching coding to my class. I've never done any coding myself but after reading the breakdown of computation thinking, it sounds similar to critical thinking. One of the college writing classes I teach is "critical thinking" in which we break down the logical thinking process. Within that course, we study the logical fallacies and how to avoid errors in logic. The coding process sounds like a logic problem. Questions that remain about coding for me include how does a code become the polished software interface we see when we interact with the program? The questions I have about teaching coding is how to learn more about the connections between critical thinking and coding. Thanks for a great introduction to coding!
Sincerely,
Adrienne O.
Quote from Guest on May 13, 2020, 4:31 am"The coding process sounds like a logic problem."
Coding is very much based on traditional logic! When you get to having your program make decisions, the processes follow if/then/else patterns, which I'm sure you cover in critical thinking.
"Questions that remain about coding for me include how does a code become the polished software interface we see when we interact with the program?"
This depends on the language! In HTML and CSS, the files are saved as plain text, which the browser will then interpret as a website because of the .html and .css file extensions. For these, you only have to save the code you write as an .html or.css file for them to be opened correctly by a web browser.
For something like Flutter, a program will compile the code, which is basically translating it into machine code, which is what is run by the actual device. This would create a file that can be installed on the computer or device, just like the apps you download and install from the App Store, Google Play, or similar.