Decades ago, many saw coding as a “strange hobby” meant for geeks who tinkered with computers in their basements.
However, over the past several years, coding has progressed from a hobby to a critical career skill. Employers have shown their interest in paying a bonus for employees' work with coding and programming skills.
Also, we cannot deny that technology now dominates most industries. Being a computer illiterate will not cut him/her off anymore. Moreover, learning to code appears to be the buzzword now.
Whether you are a teacher, a marketer, a mom, or a business owner, from Bill Gates to Obama, everyone is urging young people to try. There are different reasons to explain why coding is an important skill; and worth adding to your toolbox.
Here we bring some 'must-know' reasons for a teacher's need to code.
Computational Thinking
Years ago, Steve Jobs said, "I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer because it teaches you how to think. For instance, I view computer science as a liberal art."
In layman's terms, he meant good coding knowledge would give you technical knowledge and a new way to approach your work.
To encode efficiently, a programmer must use logic. They must see a significant problem and efficiently divide it into smaller pieces. This is known as decomposition and is one of the critical characteristics of computational thinking.
Moreover, learning how to program makes your attention to detail rocket. After all, when a single lost hyphen or a missing time can ruin your entire code, you become pretty adept at checking your work.
Problem-Solving
Understanding computers and learning basic coding makes it possible to understand better how things work.We already know that solving problems is a useful characteristic in general life. We all want to find the best possible solution to the problems we encounter and know that programming can help them throughout their lives. This means that you can improve your life through coding and begin to be aware of your actions, results, and necessary changes; that is, you are developing full consciousness. That is one of the main reasons why coding is critical for learning.
Excellence
One problem can have hundreds of solutions in coding, from the worst to the best. Consequently, the simple act of writing lines does not represent coding. Still, it takes into account: the correct use of resources, improvement of the loop, speed, amount of code lines, reusability, scalability, clarity, etc.
As a teacher, you can focus on these quality measures, use tools to analyze them and, therefore, extend the benefits of coding teaching beyond this simple" it works." That is called competitive programming (Inside this competitiveness, you can encourage excellence by organizing challenges to make your students compete for prizes, such as a gamified framework, granting badges, and maintaining a leaderboard.) Coding also helps expand creative thinking skills.
Jobs Opportunities
In this highly evolutionary age, new and innovative technologies are happening every day, and the demand for experienced programmers is high, and career opportunities are emerging every day. Coders are the future and are in great demand in every industry. Given the difficulty of finding qualified programmers and innovation in teaching methodologies, their salaries can also be high.
Transversality
A good thing about coding is that it is a cross-sectional topic. Once you have learned the basics and begun writing lines of code, you can solve different problems from other topics. For instance, in Math: it can help solve and draw an equation, calculate zones and volumes, explore fractals, calculate Pi decimal places, in Physics: use simulation formulas, in Chemistry: Adapt chemical reactions to create Valencia and symbol tests, in social studies: Application of statistical analysis to datasets; and more in other subjects.
Persistence
Computing is one of the few professional disciplines in which it is quite acceptable to fail almost constantly. Not only is failure instantly recognizable—that is, a program "breaks" and does not work as intended—but you literally cannot succeed until all the errors have been corrected. Even the simplest programs require a coder to understand and solve a set of issues; otherwise, the code will not work as intended.
Most professional developers spent many days and nights going through Stack Overflow, fighting in vain to find the most effective way to link the pieces of an application into a cohesive whole.
Ask any developer what "null pointer dereferencing" is – they will shudder with frustration, remembering hours spent trying to find an elusive bug. Nonetheless, with all this frustration and failure comes a real-life character advantage: persistence.
Real-life Benefits
Teachers, as educators, are constantly learning. Learning to code differs from in-class sessions to continuing professional development (CPD) sessions. Code arguably helps you think differently when approaching problems and learning new material. This results from practicing skills such as asking for help, persistence, and reflecting on your work, all valuable skills for teachers. Moreover, code can help teach other curriculum areas or for personal use. Beginner coders can try out projects, including programming: a random number generator, a calculator, a weight conversion tool, a survey form, a personal portfolio page, a website, and the list goes on…Whether this is to promote a side hobby, experiment and learn a new skill, or think differently, there are many personal benefits to learning how to code.
Know the technological functions
Lastly, good coding knowledge is simply understanding the functionality of our technologies daily. Since technology has become an essential part of life, mainly in the last couple of years, technology can continue to connect with each other. It is the way we can continue to learn, and it is the way we can continue to enjoy ourselves. Thus, it is fruitful to understand the expertise of technology.
What are your views? Should teachers learn to code?
