Programming (@willrich45)

	Will Richardson (@willrich45)
2/27/13, 6:08 AM Hey @garystager (and others) Thoughts on this? What most schools don't teach - YouTube buff.ly/XFFK36 #edchat

Interesting chatter this morning about teaching programming. 

It seems a good idea ("program or be programmed" has been a theme on this blog before). No one should be surprised that Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerburg hold programming to be an essential skill; their businesses are built upon programming. 

I become concerned, however, when we accept and perpetuate calls to "teach programming" (or creativity or writing or problem solving or any other cognitive activity that requires more than superficial understanding). In these situations, we (educators including leaders) adopt pre-packaged curriculum that provides a recipe for teaching whatever is the latest "thing."

I understand this approach. Many of us are uncomfortable with the discomfort that accompanies the call that we teach what we don't know. We look for easy solutions that can be implemented quickly- a reasonable approach for those who want to stay employed. 

Unless our curriculum reflects the complexity of the programming problem-solving, the cognitive benefits will not occur. Students following a programming recipe to get a cat to walk across a screen will not learn to think. Students who take the procedures they learn in those initial recipe-following lessons and create their own programs will. 

I am not convinced our data-obsessed and standards-crazy schooling culture is prepared to allow such learning to occur. 

-- Gary Ackerman, Ph.D.