The major skills students acquire by learning how to code is the ability to think logically !
And because computers are unforgiving, they get immediate feedback when they make errors, which helps them to acquire critical thinking skills !
The good news is that it’s not hard to learn how to program.
There are 6 simple steps
Think logically
Prepare a flowchart
Write the pseudocode
Select an algorithm
Write the program
Run it !
This seems intimidating, but remember that algorithms are like recipes, and there are basically only 4 kinds.
1. Order, prioritise, list or rank. Google ranks search results
2. Classify, sort, categorise or group.
3. Correlate, link, or associate
4. Filter, or isolate
The good news is that there’s lots of code which children can study , so they don’t need to start from scratch. Other people have done the hard work, and have generously shared it with you, so you can build on their efforts.
There are plenty of online courses, designed especially for children. And as they learn, hopefully they will teach you as well !
Dr Malpani,
You have written that children do not need to start from scratch. Actually they do.
(Pun intended as “scratch” is name of free coding tutorial website provided by MIT)
That’s clever !