Coding coming to B.C. schools

[oneh2obabe]

Grade 6 to 9 students in British Columbia will soon be learning computer coding as a mandatory part of their classes.

The Education Ministry has announced plans to spend $2 million to train teachers and develop a curriculum, while another $2 million will be set aside to buy equipment and resources.

The ministry said learning to code will teach students how to analyze a problem, determine steps to fix it and come up with directions so a machine can carry out those steps.

It's hoped a curriculum can be developed by next year so students can start learning coding by September 2018.

Premier Christy Clark and Education Minister Mike Bernier made the announcement Friday while students in Grades 4 to 7 showcased their coding and robotics projects.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.3631720

[Urbane]

Great topic. As I understand it the new curriculum was developed as a joint venture between the government and the BCTF (and others - see quote from BCTF site below) so posters can keep that in mind before they drift into political comments. When I first heard about the coding it struck me as a good idea and I haven't heard any arguments against it. I'll be interested to read the comments on here.

From the Ministry site re the new curriculum:

The world is changing. Parents want their kids ready to succeed. So do teachers. So do we.
That's why it's critical that we refine our education system, designed in the last century, so students can succeed in the 21st Century.

We didn't do this in a vacuum - B.C.'s curriculum has been designed by a team of B.C. educators based on solid research, extensive consultation, and classroom successes from around the world.
https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum-updates

From the BCTF site:

Since 2013, teachers and Ministry of Education staff have been revising the BC curriculum. Teams of teachers appointed by the BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF), the Federation of Independent School Associations BC (FISBC), and the First Nations Schools Association (FNSA) have worked collaboratively, with Ministry staff facilitating, to update the K–12 curriculum.
https://bctf.ca/IssuesInEducation.aspx?id=5646

[I made you read this]

this is fantastic news, and it should have been done 10 years ago (at least)

[Smurf]

Sounds good to me. I can only see good from it, no negatives.

[LoneWolf_53]

Yes I agree with that sentiment too.

Wish I knew more about that area.

[Veovis]

I think this could be very 1101001101110014011101

[LoneWolf_53]

I think this could be very 1101001101110014011101

I hope that "4" was a typo.

[Veovis]

HA HA HA HA, it has to stay now.

Either that or that is the broken down code that caused all the blue screens of death over the years.

[Woodenhead]

Good stuff, about time.

What language(s), though? Or have they gotten that far yet?

[Caponata]

My understanding isn't that it's about the language per-say. It's more around foundational concepts of programming. I suspect the majority of it will be done in something like Javascript and HTML for web programming or C# for desktop stuff. It'll ultimately be down to the schools/districts themselves on how to implement the coding portion of the new curriculum.

[Glacier]

Most people took coding when I was in high school back in the 1990s, at least among the kids that were going to college. I guess they now think it's a good idea for plumbers and roofers to learn some code too. Not sure what they will take out instead. Maybe shop class.

[Osoyoos_Familyof4]

I think it's a good thing. But I've yet to see much in the way of how they plan to implement it and by whom (it's not a skill that many teachers have in their bag-of-tricks just yet). There doesn't yet seem to be many opportunities (at least here) to be teaching the teachers to teach it, or when in the day it's going to be fit in (and at the expense of what)?

At the risk of being a being Debbie-Downer, it does seem like a bit of BC Liberal election posturing when they come up with fantastic ideas about how to improve education with very little planning on exactly how to do it. What's the time-frame to implement it, and who's going to teach it and how (at least, outside of the lower-mainland)? Perhaps the larger urban areas have this figured out better than we do.

Again, great idea, but little action plan that I can see on how they're going to accomplish this.

[Jonrox]

There's a fantastic iPad game that introduces kids (and adults) to coding logic. I'd be interested on some of your opinions on it (especially those of you that have real experience coding). It's called Human Resource Machine. I think this would be a great tool to use as a part of the curriculum.

It's really cool because it has the mechanics of a game, but is a learning tool. It's presented kind of like a puzzle game, but is almost "tricking" players into learning.

[Woodenhead]

Most people took coding when I was in high school back in the 1990s, at least among the kids that were going to college.

I learned some coding back in high school in the late 80's, even (BASIC - I started on a Commodore VIC-20, then we got a lab full of Unisys Icon rigs). The idea has been around quite a while, but IDK whatever happened to that then-new curriculum idea since then. Not much, I guess - seems like it just turned into glorified "Keyboarding 101".

[Glacier]

We did keyboarding on typewriters in grade 4 back in the 1980s. Throughout school, I was exposed many times to programing. In high school, I took Information Technology which involved programming. What ever happened to that class?

It's almost like there's an election next year, and the government is trying to make it look they are doing an awesome job educating our kids.