[LINK] Let's pause before drinking the 'coding in schools', Kool-Aid

[Chris Johnson]

Aaah the nostalgia. I also have some machine level cred, and used
switches to store the bootstrap loader for a 1970s Data General Nova...
aaah. But in the context of K-10 school level education and in 2015 the
term "coding" has come to
mean something a lot simpler than what computing pioneers did. Neither
is it programming or software development with an IDE.
Much of coding is in simple algorithms using sequencing, conditionals,
and repetition,
over simple numbers, arrays, and turtle graphics or the equivalent,
and the "code" is often constructed and expressed graphically, in toy
sandpit environments.
The idea is that "coding" in school is introductory in nature, having a
similar relationship to professional programming and software
development as the school-level subject of mathematics - arithmetic and
elementary algebra  - have to the mathematics of calculus, linear
algebra, formal algebraic theory or computational methods.
The goal of having coding in the school curriculum is that by learning
to use and create simple algorithms, and by manipulating data
representing measurements of other things being studied in school,
children get some of the notions of computational thinking. This has the
hope of implanting an awareness of computing that involves some notions
of processes, data and communications networks, beyond the almost pure
magical explanations that a second or third generation digital native
otherwise gleans from using consumer devices and services.

Chris Johnson MACS CP