Should My Child Learn to Program a Computer?

Revisiting the Role of Computer Science in K-12 Education

Tyler W. Rinker

"Should my daughter learn to program a computer?"

Position

Given that the demand for those who are fluent in computational language(s) is growing and the potential impact of thinking computationally on learning and cognition, I will argue that parents must advocate for K-12 schools to fulfill the obligation to reintroduce instruction in computer sciences to the curriculum if our children are to be competitive in a global economy.

Support

Programming...

secures your child's future
improves cognitive thinking and problem solving
motivates

Computers in Education: Historical Overview

The Command Line 70s-1984

A Nation at Risk

I changed the world. What am I?

Graphical User Interface (GUI) Changed Everything

Programming is Obsolete

Programming is that you again?

‹ ›

No One to Meet Societys Programming Demand I

Cooper et al. (2010), Lockard & Wolf (2012), Noss (2013),

No One to Meet Societys Programming Demand II

No One to Meet Societys Programming Demand III

No One to Meet Societys Programming Demand IV

Digital Natives?

"These digital natives may be able to technically manipulate the latest devices, but their capacity to wield such devices critically, creatively, and selectively is decidedly less potent." (Wing, 2006, p. 62)

...Enter Computational Thinking

Computational Thinking

Wing (2006) first defined computational thinking as...

solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior, by drawing on the concepts fundamental to computer science. (p.33)

urla <- "http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/2012"
states <- sapply(state.name, function(x) gsub(" ", "_", x))
content <- lapply(1:50, function(i) {
  urls <- sprintf("%s/%s_Summary_12.xls", urla, states[i])
  out <- try(gdata::read.xls(urls, 1, skip=5, header=TRUE))
  if (inherits(out, "try-error")) {
    if (states[i] %in% "Arizona") {
      urls <- gsub("Arizona_Summary", "Arizona_Summery", urls)
    } else {
      urls <- sprintf("%s/%s_Summary_12.xls", urla, toupper(states[i]))
    }
    out <- try(gdata::read.xls(urls, 1, skip=5, header=TRUE))
    if (inherits(out, "try-error")) {
      return(NULL)
    } else {
      return(out)
    }
  } else {
    return(out)
}})

Computational Thinking Enhance Other Subjects

Clements & Gullo (1984); Cooper et al. (2010); Flawn (2005); Grover & Pea (2013)

Programming Motivates

Programming provides...

Holmes (2002); Pea & Kurland (1984); Wing (2006)

Instant Feedback

The computer is a taskmaster that will only accept excellence in form and immediately rejects inadequate work, either by not performing or by not producing the desired outcome. For the child, there is intrinsic motivation built into attaining power over this demanding machine. Gabler (1984)

Conclusion

"Should my daughter learn to program a computer?"

References

Douglas Clements, Dominic Gullo, (1984) Effects of computer programming on young children's cognition. Journal of Educational Psychology 76 (6) 1051 - 1058-NA 10.1037/0022-0663.76.6.1051

Stephen Cooper, Lance Pérez, Daphne Rainey, (2010) K-12 Computational Learning. Communications of the ACM 53 (11) 27-29-NA 10.1145/1839676.1839686

U.S. Department of Labor , U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics , (2012) The 2010-20 job outlook in brief. Occupational Outlook Quarterly 56 (1) 1-46-NA

T. Flawn, (2005) Foundations for success: {T}he final report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel.

G. Gabler, (1984) Tough New School Taskmaster: {T}he Computer. The New York Times p. E22-NA

Shuchi Grover, Roy Pea, (2013) Computational Thinking in {K}-12: {A} Review of the State of the Field. Educational Researcher 42 (1) 38-43-NA 10.3102/0013189X12463051

Neville Holmes, (2002) Computers, programming and people. Computer 35 (3) 112, 110-111-NA 10.1109/MC.2002.989943

Yasmin Kafai, Quinn Burke, (2013) Computer programming goes back to school. Phi Delta Kappan 95 (1) 61 - 65-NA

C. Lockard, Michael Wolf, (2012) Occupational employment projections to 2020. Monthly Labor Review 84-108-NA http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2012/01/art5full.pdf

Amanda Noss, (2013) Household Income: 2012. 1-7-NA

Roy Pea, D. Kurland, (1984) Mirrors of Minds: {P}atterns of Experience in Educational Computing. New Ideas Psychology 2 (2) 137-168-NA http://www.stanford.edu/~roypea/RoyPDF%20folder/A18_Pea_Kurland_84.pdf

Jeannette Wing, (2006) Computational Thinking. Communications of The ACM 49 (3) 33=35-NA 10.1145/1118178.1118215

Edward Yourdon, (2004) Outsource: {C}ompeting in the Global Productivity Race.