With the increasing number of jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, the United States is more focused on STEM education than ever before. This focus is not exclusive to higher education and secondary schooling, but rather, it has trickled down to the very earliest learners, coalescing on the data that demonstrates that entry into the STEM pipeline should begin as early as preschool. Numerous scholars have argued that teaching technology – the “T” in STEM – to young children is vital in keeping up with 21st-century employment patterns. That is why coding,the process of assigning a set of symbols that can be interpreted by a computer or piece of software, is seen as the new modern literacy for today’s young children. Indeed, a number of digital applications (apps) that are designed to teach young children coding skills in a fun, game-like way have become popular in recent years. There’s Minecraft, Tynker, and ScratchJr, just to name a few. Heck, even Elsa and Anna from Disney’s Frozen have gotten in on the coding fun! The Hour of Code project on code.org allows users to join Anna and Elsa as they help make a winter wonderland by creating snowflakes and more through code.
Read more at: http://teccenter.erikson.edu/what-were-reading/pila_coding/