Computer code frees us to think in new ways: BBC News – Viewpoint

A nice piece describing reasons to learn code.  What makes this one particularly noteworthy is how it talks about art, architecture, and aesthetic — learning to code as a way of connecting to our world.

Both aesthetic and rooted in physics, sturdy yet beautiful, containing both purpose and artistic intent. Code is now a core part of the architecture of the world we live in.

It both powers and shapes finance, business, and entertainment; it is embedded in our homes and in our pockets. And so “architecture” feels like the appropriate metaphor for the skills needed to master it: for architecture both shapes its inhabitants and is shaped by them.

Computer programs can make people more efficient in day to day life

It can’t really exist without people inside it. And we can’t separate code from people; from the people who write it; from the people who are shaped by it.

via BBC News – Viewpoint: Computer code frees us to think in new ways.

NPR piece on Scratch

Thanks to Guy Haas for the link to this!

While the programming languages are simpler than the ones used by professionals, they’re still teaching kids the foundations of computer science, according to Karen Brennan of Harvard Graduate School of Education, who helped develop the Scratch program at MIT’s Media Lab.

“They were learning how to test and debug, they were learning how to break down problems,” Brennan told Here & Now. “They started seeing the world in a new way, that computers weren’t something that other people did or other people think about, but computation becomes something that they can use to express themselves, that they can solve problems.”

via Computer Programming For Kids 8 And Up | Here & Now.