Computer Science Education: games

Very recently POTUS announced his new plan, Computer Science for All, that aims to put funds (4B) and support into technology and computer science programs throughout K-12 education. My initial thought is yes, yes, and yes! I firmly believe and support the need to start this sort of programming at earlier ages, especially to girls and minorities. Even as I came to a more technical career field later in life, I’ve always been interested in computers (I loved my AppleIIe and Nexus that we had growing up in the late 80’s and early 90’s) and I wished I would have had exposure to the field earlier. In fact, I really wished I would have have had the personal and educational support in math, science, engineering, and problem-solving that is so foundational in today’s jobs. We need to get the idea out of our heads that computer science and information systems is “scary” and only the nerds and geeks can do it.

I’ve been keeping my eye out there to see for the next generation how can we support these skills from the early years. I’ve been happy to see some games on the market that lay the foundation for this and I’ve very tempted to try out a few myself. Here are my favorites right now:

• Botlogic.us – Online computer games by age level that build basic programming skills, sequencing, and logic. It’s great for adults too! If you want a board game version, Robot Turtles is something very similar.
• CodingFarmers – This is the product of some very savvy teenagers and a kickstarter campaign. It teaches programming and into to Java. Their nonprofit Mathandcoding offers other programming and web design courses to kids in California. Hope they expand!
• Kano – Or, build your own computer! Of course, more on the pricey side and other additions to make your kid’s computer functional, but well worth it if your child is into the more engineering side of things.

I hope that computer science built into the curriculum will help the next generation compete in a ever-changing workplace. I know learning logical sequencing, problem-solving, and programming languages can only help.