What is Coding?
Coding is the way humans giving instructions to the computer. Computers do what they have been told to.
Why Coding?
Let's go back a little bit into the history of the Industrial Era. We already know that nowadays, and since the 2020s the era we call it as an Industry 4.0, so in conclusion, we have been going through from 1.0 to 4.0's era.
Here is what I know about each of the Industrial Era:
- Industrial Era 1.0 - The Industry focused on how to produce something with manual laborers.
- Industrial Era 2.0 - The focus has been shifted into mass production, this era when humans started to think using ideas, and machinery which was still manually operated by humans.
- Industrial Era 3.0 - The focus has been shifted once again into the efficiency of the production process. In this era, the computer has been used to increase production efficiency and the major role of the computer was as a helping tools.
- Industrial Era 4.0 - The Era of Automation, the role of the computer has been shifted from as a helping tool to a replacement of the laborer, with the development of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) which is the computer just need some people to help them to understand, and they learn how to produce things, and then they just operate almost non-stop.
With the A.I.taking major role of manual labors, people in the older generation need to be retrained to attain new skills, meanwhile the new generation needs to be prepared.
A newborn baby nowadays will be a native with technology. They are being born in an era where technology has been developed at incredible speeds.
The Next Generation
We as a parent have to prepare our kids to control the technology, so in the future, they won't be controlled by technology. By studying coding, they will learn how to code, think, analyze and experience themself about how to comport themselves when facing a problem.
With this practice, they surely will get benefits such as:
- Critical Thinking
- Design Thinking
- Computational Thinking
- Tenacious
- Discipline
- Problem Solving
- Creativity
- Logical thinking
- Structured
- Enable them to communicate their idea with the computer
When to start?
The next question is when is the best time to start to learn to code?
Start early without the device, parents can teach their sweetheart with boardgames. Start with a puzzle, so the kids will be able to see a pattern.
And then when they are ready and able to acknowledge instructions, you can try the specially made boardgames for coding such as Robot Turtles, Code Monkey Island, Code Master Board Games.
In these games, parents will take a role as computer, and guide their kids, what will happen if they program the computer their ways.
And, after they can read and write letters and numbers, you can start using their screentime to play coding games on your devices using online platform or apps such as Tynker (Free and Paid version available), Scratch (Free), Code.org (Free and Paid available), etc.
In the early stage, start with visual block coding, it was designed to be fun and easy, especially for kids. For older kids, perhaps in third or fourth grade when they already able to logically thinking, they can start to learn how to make simple games using Adobe Flash, Unity, etc. In this phase, they will start to use a text coding mode.
Later on, depends on their personality and development, they will start to learn about making a web, making games, and many other serious things to do.
BUT, take note that learning to code, doesn't mean that they will be automatically being led to be a programmer. They can be whatever they want, their main purpose of their learning session is just to know how to communicate their thought into their devices. And preparing their characteristic for future purposes.
Tips for Parents and Guardians
Their development also depends on how you treat them.
- Spare your time to play code with your beloved kids, take advantage of their limited screentime (around 1.5 hours max a day) to introduce them to gamified coding materials.
- Introduce them to a schedule of their routines.
- Give them a challenge to provide them with a competitive mindset.
- Give them positive motivation if they failed in what they're doing.
- When they're being tucked, just give them a clue to solve their own problem, and not by giving them the answers if not needed.
The Conclusion
Coding is a must to prepare our futures. Not just for kids, but also for people who think that they're stuck in their careers. Better to start late than nothing.
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