Diving into the world of coding extends far beyond mastering programming languages and typing out code snippets. The advantages of coding extend into various realms, fostering holistic growth in students.
Here are a few benefits of coding that have nothing to do with coding:
Creativity
Coding unleashes a world of creativity where students can craft their own digital masterpieces—be it crafting video games, animated films, or immersive digital art. It's a canvas for creating unique designs, animations, narratives, and entire digital worlds.
Problem-solving skills
Coding nurtures problem-solving skills by prompting students to tackle real-world challenges. Through coding, students learn the art of breaking down complex problems into manageable steps, honing their analytical abilities along the way.
Teamwork
Collaborative coding projects provide valuable lessons in teamwork, emphasising project management, effective communication, compromise, and negotiation. Kids really enjoy learning anything when they are connected with people like them to work on their ideas.
Presentation Skills
At the end of each project, students are encouraged to do Beta testing. Student give presentations on their project that they built to their parents and friends. This helps kids understand the real world cycle of development and testing environment.
Learning Mindset
The right way of teaching coding is to not always give the students the right answer to a question. I encourage the use of trial and error to find a way to solve the problem in front of me. Experimentation allows to remember the answer better. It also allows us to be ok with not knowing the answer and to have a go at searching and having an educated guess. We learn that there is no single answer and often there are many possible answers.
Empathy
When we design a product for others to use we learn about user experience. We learn about the psychology of people using our product, their experience and how to make their experience as easy and pleasant as we can. This requires us to have empathy for others.
A team of my students who were concerned about people in the community who are lonely in Pandemic. So they decided to build "Connect Right", an App which checks for your mental health and connect you with likeminded people looking for help as well.
Resilience
Creativity, problem solving, learning and building things is not easy. Students often need to spend time and effort to puzzle out problem. However, in the end, when they solve the problem, they get to feel a sense of achievement, the greater the problem the greater the joy. These are really valuable benefits of coding that have nothing to do with coding.
Authentic learning
Unlike passive learning methods, coding immerses students in hands-on, experiential learning, culminating in tangible products they can proudly share with others.
Finding Like-Minded Peers
Not all children are into sports, music and other mainstream interests. You can make friends with like-minded people, other children who enjoy being creative, building technology, solving problems and being innovative.
Boosting Confidence
As students conceptualise an idea and gradually bring it to life, the thrill of progress propels them forward. Witnessing their imagination materialise into a tangible, functional model elevates their confidence, fuelling their determination to delve deeper into their pursuits.
In essence, coding transcends the mere act of writing code, offering plenty of benefits that shape well-rounded individuals. Have you experienced any other surprising benefits of coding? We'd love to hear your insights!
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