By: In the first part of our series, we highlighted how technological disruption, technology fluency and how coding is the new language of business are key reasons why your kid should learn to code. In the second part, we outline how coding impacts the development of creative problem solving capabilities, influences their ability to communicate their ideas, teaches how to flex kid's entrepreneurial muscle, and provides membership in the technology community. In the final part of our series, we dive into how coding helps kid understand the tech-enabled world around them, provides a continuous learning & development platform & helps teaches them the skills to positively impact the world:
8. Understand their tech-enabled - Technology is in our homes, in our cars, on our roadways and in our workplaces. You would be hard pressed to find something that you engage with on a daily basis that has not been impacted by technology. With a world that has so much technological innovation and enhancement, kids will often wonder 'how does AirPlay work' or 'how does Google Maps work' or 'how does the hotel room card open the door'. As parents, one of the greatest gifts we can give our children is to help them understand the world in which they live. However, it's not good enough for them to simply rely on us to explain how things work. Ultimately, we want them to have an independent, internalized view of the world. The best way for them to get to that idealistic state is to go on a journey through the wonderful world of technology and learn how to build all sorts of hardware and software projects. And just like the kid who helps out with their parent’s home improvement projects, she won't be intimidated the first time there is a need to unclog the bathtub drain as an adult. Or, perhaps the modern example of resetting the wireless network to keep the stream of information flowing into the home.
9. Continuous learning and development platform - Although lots of progress has been enabled and facilitated by technology, there is still a lot more whitespace out there. New languages, frameworks and platforms will need to be invented in order to solve the problems of tomorrow. As a result, kids will need to get skilled at learning new things, unlearning old things and re-learning coming things. The dynamic nature of technology development facilitates this process. And those who excel at this will become the leaders of tomorrow because they have developed an adaptive nature to the world that will certainly be different and require a constant focus on learning, development and ultimately rapid application of that skill.
10. Bending the universe – At some point, we are going to figure out how to travel through space and colonize another planet or go for a visit to our neighbors we may be millions of miles away. There is no doubt that whatever solution we invent for space travel, there will be a heavy component of technology that is embedded within that solution. Can you imagine if your kids had the knowledge to be able to build upon the information that is being created right now at SpaceX or the years of research that has been conducted at NASA and synthesize that down to figure out how we might be able to travel in space? That would be incredible. Or, if you think about problems that are closer to home that have eluded solutions for decades in the medical field. With the knowledge to be a creative problem solver, solutions that are going to be developed by this next generation will literally bend and re-shape the universe in ways that will be simply breathtaking.
What other reasons do you think it is important for kids to learn to code?