Decoding More Coding

When I think back to the second F2F session, I remember thinking how helpful it was to be surrounded by so many people with such great ideas across such a wide variety of topics and challenges. The activities and conversations amongst the group provided me with many avenues to explore as I gather information to support my action plan moving forward.

Originally, my action plan was to explore how virtual reality technology could have an impact in the classroom. Although I’m proceeding with implementing a high-end VR setup for our school in March 2017, at the F2F, I decided to change my action plan to “How might we best implement coding into our Junior and Middle School?”  as this has been a hot topic of conversation around our school.

Sensing the experiences and resources in the room, I felt that this action plan was more appealing to me. Immediately, during the first few activities, I was already receiving amazing feedback and great resources to explore as it pertains to coding.

Currently, and for the last two years, our school offers coding clubs in the Junior School and Middle School which have been a great success so far. However, when looking at how to implement it into the curriculum in a broader, “in class, for all students” context, I realize there are many more aspects to consider. I need to “decode” all of these aspects into a manageable plan! Luckily, using the tools and processes I learned in the last F2F, I feel more confident in doing so.

My “user” was our school’s Curriculum Coordinator. When I posed the question to her, “How might we best implement coding into our Junior School and Middle School?” she provided me with fantastic insight about things we will need to look at as we explore this initiative.

The following were some major themes and questions we will look at moving forward:

1. Research – What are other schools doing? What are their goals? What ages do they start at? Are they using coding to enhance existing curriculum? or, Is coding an additional subject all together?
2. Define Our Goal and Purpose –  Why is coding important to our program?  How can we best communicate this goal and purpose to our teachers? If we are to get “buy in” from our teachers, a clear, well defined purpose is essential.
3. Professional Development – If teachers are to incorporate coding into their teaching, they will need to be well versed on what exactly coding is and how it can be used. What level of PD will be required? Are there current teachers who can assist in training because of their existing knowledge in coding? What are the costs and timing implications for this training?
4. Develop Continuum – How can coding skills be built upon as students progress from year to year? How can we evaluate such a continuum from year to year, grade to grade?
5. Feedback and Communication – How can we best communicate this initiative  to our parents? It is important to explain how coding is being taught and its benefits to our students. A method for obtaining feedback is also very important. What is working? What isn’t? How can we refine as we progress?
6. Share Successes – All those involved from students, teachers, admin and parents need to be made aware of successes from this initiative. Sharing and communicating successes drives motivation and innovation.

These are just some of the questions and themes we will be exploring as we move along with this idea. I’m pretty sure there will be many more!

As I have been researching various coding apps, languages, lesson plans, implementations etc., I’m realizing that potentially, coding can could be applied in conjunction with the SAMR model. There could be ways to use coding at the each Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition levels of the model. This is what makes the initiative very interesting to me since coding can act as a technological tool itself to accomplish other learning objectives when applied to the model. Many possibilities!

I look forward to building upon on my action plan at the next F2F session as I’m sure even more helpful ideas and considerations will be discussed!