The document discusses the growing movement to teach computer programming and coding to children in schools. It provides examples of initiatives and programs in different places that aim to introduce coding in primary and secondary schools, as well as arguments for why coding skills are as important as reading and writing in the 21st century. Organizations discussed include Code.org, Code Club, Young Rewired State and Facebook programs to get more girls interested in engineering. The importance of teaching coding is framed as a way to develop critical thinking skills and prepare children for future jobs that may involve programming.

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Articles supporting children and coding
Angela Woolsey
Fairfax County Times
August 26, 2016
LEGOs symposium trains teachers in robotics and other STEM skills
Aimed specifically at educators and schools, LEGO Education provides products and curriculum designed
to teach students science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills.
“The LEGO group’s mission is really to inspire and help develop the builders of tomorrow,” LEGO
Education director of marketing Ken Yanhs said. “We’ve been doing in-classroom demonstrations,
community demonstrations [and] workshops for people to understand that it’s not just a toy. It’s actually an
incredibly powerful learning tool.”
http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/legos-symposium-trains-teachers-in-robotics-and-
other-stem-skills/article_c430f638-6bd8-11e6-8ee2-2396cab0335a.html
Victor Winter
vwinter@unomaha.edu
Wiki Science 2014
Bricklayer: An Authentic Introduction to the Functional Programming Language SML
vwinter@unomaha.edu
Bricklayer is an API, written in SML, that provides a set of abstractions for creating LEGO® artifacts
which can be viewed using LEGO Digital Designer. The goal of Bricklayer is to create a problem space
(i.e., a set of LEGO artifacts) that is accessible and engaging to programmers (especially novice
programmers) while providing an authentic introduction to the functional programming language SML.
http://wiki.science.ru.nl/tfpie/images/5/5e/Tfpie2014_submission_1.pdf
Issie Lapowsky
WIRED
March 20, 2015
So, Arkansas Is Leading the Learn to Code Movement
Arkansas may be one of the last states that comes to mind when you think of major hubs of tech
talent. And yet, last month, it became the first to pass a truly comprehensive lawrequiring all
public and charter high schools to offer computer science courses to students, beating better
known tech centers like California and New York to the punch.
http://www.wired.com/2015/03/arkansas-computer-science/
Eric Westervelt
NPR All Tech Considered
February 17, 2014
A Push to Boost Computer Science Learning Even At An Early Age
"Ninety percent of schools just don't even teach it. So if you're a parent and your school doesn't
even offer this class, your kids aren't going to have the preparation they need for the 21st
century," says Hadi Partovi, co-founder of the nonprofit Code.org.
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/02/17/271151462/a-push-to-boost-computer-
science-learning-even-at-an-early-age

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Dan Crow
February 7, 2014
The Guardian
Why every child should learn to code
Will every job involve programming? No. But it is crucial we equip future generations to think
about the world in a new
way. This is not primarily about equipping the next generation to work as software engineers, it is
about promoting computational thinking. Computational thinking is how software engineers solve
problems. It combines mathematics, logic and algorithms, and teaches you a new way to think
about the world.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/07/year-of-code-dan-crow-songkick
Rebecca Lindegren
Opensource.com
April 15, 2013
Teaching children how to code
Today's children tend to be passive consumers of software and web pages created for a profit by
private companies. Currently only 1 in 10 U.S. schools teach children to code, according to
nationwide research by programming advocate Code.org. If school-age children want to learn
how to code themselves, it is usually by their own initiative and on their own time. Recent
evidence suggests that a lack of students studying coding now could become a serious economic
problem in the near future.
http://opensource.com/education/13/4/teaching-kids-code
Josie Gurney-Read
November 11, 2013
Digital literacy 'as important as reading and writing'
Mark Surman, Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation, argues that skills such as these are
as important as learning to read and write. “Becoming literate in how the technical world works is
equivalent to reading, writing and maths. We need to look at this fourth literacy as mainstream,”
he says.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10436444/Digital-literacy-as-important-
as-reading-and-writing.html
Stuart Dredge
September 22, 2014
Kids coding at school: 'When you learn computing, you're thinking about thinking'
The Guardian
Stuart Dredge discusses the new mandated curriculum in Great Britain to teach computer
programming to children 6-16. He addresses the challenges the faculty have in learning new
subject areas and he talks about the educational value for children to be learning coding. He says,
“Also, think about other subjects. When you learn physics, you think about physics. But when
you learn computing, you’re thinking about thinking. About how thinking works. You have to try
to imagine how this computer is going to do something for you. There are lots of transferable
skills.”
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/22/computing-bcs-uk-computing-curriculum
Christopher Mims

3. 3
Aug 5, 2014
More on Computer Programming: Train Kids Early
Wall Street Journal D
Mims discusses the challenges we face in the United States to have enough qualified teachers to
teach computer programming to children. In Great Britain which launched a required program
teaching all 6-16 year olds computer programming is doing so with the use of the free online
learning platform Codecademy. He describes other models for teaching programming when there
aren’t enough classroom teachers to do so.
“Other online education startups employ a variety of other strategies: Treehouse and Code School
pair video instruction with quizzes and test programs, for example, and Thinkful matches students
with mentors for one-on-one tutoring.” These might be ways we provide guidance and instruction
in our library setting.
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/08/05/more-on-computer-programming-train-kids-early/
Sophie Curtis
November 4, 2013
Teaching our children to code: a quiet revolution
The Telegraph
In Great Britain, a revolutionary educational program is being launched whereby all children
from the age of 6-16 will be required to learn computer programming, “which until now has
consisted almost entirely of lessons in how to use Microsoft Office programs.” England is leading
the world in this transformation and, bizarrely, no one seems to know about it. The 2014
curriculum was announced back in July by education secretary Michael Gove, who said: "For the
first time children will be learning to programme computers. It will raise standards across the
board – and allow our children to compete in the global race."
Jessica Salter
November 23 2013
Coding for kids: schoolchildren learn computer programming
The Telegraph
Primary school children are staying on after class to learn the building blocks of computer
programming
This article details the afterschool code clubs that are forming across Britain.
Code Club: Code Club is a nationwide network of free volunteer-led after-school coding clubs
for children aged 9-11. We create projects for our volunteers to teach at afterschool coding clubs
or at non-school venues such as libraries. The projects we make teach children how to program
by showing them how to make computer games, animations and websites. Our volunteers go to
their local club for an hour a week and teach one project a week. codeclub.org.uk
Young Rewired State: Young Rewired State is a worldwide community of digital makers aged
18 and under. We introduce them to like-minded peers and expert mentors at free events, where
they use open data to build apps, websites and algorithms to solve real world challenges.
youngrewiredstate.org
Scratch: With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations —
and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn
to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in

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the 21st century. Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab.
It is provided free of charge. scratch.mit.edu
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10468460/Coding-for-kids-schoolchildren-learn-
computer-programming.html
Radhika Sanghani
November 24, 2013
The Telegraph
Facebook invests thousands to help school girls
In an attempt to attract more females into the male dominated field of engineering, Simon Milner,
Facebook's director of policy, spoke about Facebook's £100,000 investment and said: "This is our
biggest commitment into this area, other than hackathons and things like that. Being part of this
launch is part of our contribution to stimulating young people. We're doing our bit to get more
young people, especially girls, into engineering.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/10424734/Facebook-invests-thousands-to-help-
school-girls-code.html
Tasneem Raja
June 16, 2014
Mother Jones
Is Coding the New Literacy: Why America’s schools need to train a generation of
hackers
Computer scientists have been warning for decades that understanding code will one day be as
essential as reading and writing. If they're right, understanding the importance of computational
thinking can't be limited to the elite, not if we want some semblance of a democratic society. Self-
taught auteurs will always be part of the equation, but to produce tech-savvy citizens "at scale," to
borrow an industry term, the heavy lifting will happen in public school classrooms. Increasingly,
to have a good shot at a good job, you'll need to be code literate.
http://www.motherjones.com/media/2014/06/computer-science-programming-code-diversity-
sexism-education
Sonali Kohli
May 14, 2015
Quartz
America is failing its children by not teaching code in every high school
There are many reasons why American schools are poor at teaching coding—so many
that the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) published a 75-page report
(pdf) enumerating the. The biggest is that the public school system is decentralized.
Most public schools follow national teaching guidelines—the Common Core—and
complete standardized tests based on those, but US states and local bodies make
classroom-level decisions.
http://qz.com/340551/america-is-failing-its-children-by-not-teaching-code-in-every-high-school/