Why The Need To Learn Coding? How Does It Benefit Your Child?
In our earlier blog post on Why Is Coding The New Literacy For Your Child, we discussed how our children grow up interacting with new technologies, but a lot less so of creating and expressing themselves using these new tools. In this article, we explore how coding education can benefit your child’s development.
Technology has become so commonplace today, it’s hard to ignore its existence. As mentioned in our first article, children born after 1997 (or 1998 as when Google was first invented), are known to be Centennials, the Digital Natives of today’s world. Yet, we still come across this question of: “Why is it so important that my children should learn to code?”
“While teaching your child how to code, not only will it help them understand the various technologies they are using, you’re helping them develop Computational Thinking.”
Our Educational System is Still Playing Catch-up
Looking back on 10 years ago, various educational systems largely ignored the immense growth of computing, technology and the Internet. Instead, opting to teach students how to make simple slide-shows in a PowerPoint, or create a locked down Blogger site. This created a large group of people who were aware of technology and knew how to use it, but were not aware on how to harness it to create or innovate.
Although in recent times, computer programming courses become available in schools, there is still a long way to go as we’re still debating on what are the various teaching methods to teach these young people. But thanks to thousands of contributors online, resources on the Internet such as MIT’s Scratch and Code.org have become available, along with the development of “Code Schools” much like ours, that allow you to take over the wheel and give your child the opportunity to learn the proper skills since young.