Here, we’re going to focus on how to teach code well.
How do we teach coding, algorithms, and software design? How do people learn web development, data science (the computer-y parts), or how to build a mobile app? How do we track the proliferation of online courses, large and small? And, what’s the best site to send to your cousin to help them practice CSS?
We’ll cover lots of learning theory as it applies to learning computers. But theory will only take us so far - we’ll also get into the nitty-gritty of the context of coding education, both for schools and for students. As we explore the the learn-to-code landscape, we’ll try to figure out how to help more people make sense of computers (and all those funny bugs and error messages).
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About Me: I recently left Flatiron School, where I wore a few hats in the Software Engineering program - Lead Instructor, Master Teacher, and Learning Experience Designer. Before that, I was a Product Engineer at Fin, and an instructor with Google’s CSSI. I’ve been thinking about how we learn and teach computers since I was a Counselor at TIC summer camp and read Mindstorms. In undergrad, me and some friends built umd.io, and I wrote my undergrad thesis on evaluating to code tools.
Not everyone needs to learn to code, but everyone should have access if they want it.