"Lets Teach Kids How to Code"

In the Tedx Talk "Let's teach kids to code," Mike Resnick stresses the importance of teaching children how to code. Resnick talks about how coding allows children to learn important concepts like the process of design, how to take an idea and turn it into a project, how to experiment with new ideas, how to collaborate with others, how to find and fix bugs when things go wrong and how to persevere when things aren't working well. These types of things are relevant beyond the realm of coding. These skills that children learns will help in every field, they are useful for everyone. Resnick addresses the fact that many people think that children have become "digital natives" however, in reality they are not. Yes, they spend a lot of time playing video games, playing on the internet and texting, but, that does not mean they are fluent in computers. Resnick says that even though students may not grow up to become professional programmers the things they learn through coding will help them in every aspect of their life. Not just in the work force but in day to day life they can apply the skills that they learned from coding and apply it to everyday activities and challenges.

As Resnick makes clear in his TedxTalk, coding is taking classrooms all over the world by force. There is no doubt in my mind that I will be using Resnick's website "Scratch" inside my classroom. Scratch is a great tool for both students and teachers to utilize in the classroom. Teachers can create interactive games for their students about math, language, english, history or science and they can be accessed through the Scratch website. Teachers can also use this as a way to teach students how to code. Resnick says that he actually used Scratch to send a Mother's Day card to his mom and that the card actually inspired his 83 year old mother to create her own Scratch wishing him a happy birthday later that year. I think that the creativity that Resnick's website inspires is great and something that will help prepare this generation for their futures.

Scratch

Scratch is very easy to use! Much like code.org, students code by dragging blocks to create certain actions. The actions are divided on a side bar pertaining to what they do, for example, motion, pen, sound and they even have one called data which allows creators to make their action. Everything that students need to create their project is right on there on the page and very easily accessible. Students can test their progress of their creation by pressing the green flag in the upper corner which allows them to their character go through the actions that they coded. Once a creator is satisfied with their Scratch they can share it with their friends and teachers, it will be on the scratch website and people can play their game and look at their coding.