Coding Course Reflection

 Coding Course Reflection


image source: PCmag.com

    
  • What are the 1 - 2 most important things you learned in this course? How will these things be part of your future work as a teacher or librarian?

    One of the most important things I learned in this course is that coding should not be taught independently of other courses. Coding works better if it is incorporated into classes that students are already required to take within the curriculum. Before taking this course, I thought computer science was more of a stand alone class. Now I understand that the skills leaned in computer science or programming classes can be applied to any class. I also learned that a person does not need to be a "math or science person" in order to excel in coding. Anyone can be great at coding and build the skills needed to become a programmer. This made me reflect on who is encouraged to take computer science classes and who is not.

  • What are 1 - 2 things you need to learn next to build upon what you learned in this course? How will you learn these things?

    I will need to learn more about different coding languages and how they differ from one another. Scratch was a great introduction to the structure of coding and how certain aspects function (Ex: loops and variables). However, I still don't understand the differences between programs like Python, Java, etc. I can learn these things by signing up for another coding class or exploring them on my own. There are many free resources available online. Now that I have a foundation for what programming is and how it works, it will be easier for me to learn these skills on my own.

  • What are 1 - 2 programming apps, tools, or resources you learned about in the course? How have you already used these in your educational context or how do you plan to use these in the future?

    One of the resources I learned about is code.org. It is a free website that educators can use to teach coding in their classroom. I would like to explore this resource more and potentially ask my administration if this is something we could implement into the classroom. I have used coding before with an interactive STEAM project my class completed. This project used block coding to program lights, sound, sensors, and motors. I haven't used any of the resources I have learned from this course yet in my class, but I would like to continue to seek resources for using coding in my class.

  • What was something you found surprising in this course? Was there something you wanted to learn about in this course that was not covered?

    It surprised me that more women programmed in the past than now. I knew that computer science was a male dominated field, but I realize now that this has to do with access to programming classes, stereotypes, and the need for more role models. Reflecting on this makes me want to implement coding in classes even more. Although we learned Scratch and Python, I would have wanted to learn about more programming languages. 

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