Ngā Matapakinga | Discussion
Interesting article but comments attached also make good reading... What are your thoughts?
https://www.tes.com/news/no-point-teaching-coding-says-pisa-chief
I think it's a matter of progress - as was the progressional development from the chiselled rock, to papyrus, to the feather quill to the computers we use today.
Yes to a focus on Computational Thinking and I like the diagram below (shared in Kia Takatū ā Matihiko pīkau (online course) in Computational Thinking: International perspective) which outlines the concepts and approaches needed for computational thinking. Having said that, I agree not all students will go on to be computer scientists (or programmers), but it doesn't hurt to think like one.
I think there are also specific elements of programming that a computer does, and may well need in the future. ie: sorting data, comparing variables. While text-based programming languages differ slightly, they still have those elements/rules in common. That's not to say computers might function very differently to how we understand them to work today...
I'm just starting my learning here too, so a good debate to have, thanks Anne 
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I think it's a matter of progress - as was the progressional development from the chiselled rock, to papyrus, to the feather quill to the computers we use today.
Yes to a focus on Computational Thinking and I like the diagram below (shared in Kia Takatū ā Matihiko pīkau (online course) in Computational Thinking: International perspective) which outlines the concepts and approaches needed for computational thinking. Having said that, I agree not all students will go on to be computer scientists (or programmers), but it doesn't hurt to think like one.
I think there are also specific elements of programming that a computer does, and may well need in the future. ie: sorting data, comparing variables. While text-based programming languages differ slightly, they still have those elements/rules in common. That's not to say computers might function very differently to how we understand them to work today...
I'm just starting my learning here too, so a good debate to have, thanks Anne
"For example, I would be much more inclined to teach data science or computational thinking than to teach a very specific technique of today."
- therein thankfully lies the difference between the English National Curriculum and our own!
"No point teaching coding" ... I understand why he says that ...
However, I believe teaching students computational thinking is essential. It transcends learning areas.