Cisco UK & Ireland Blog

To Create or to Code – that is the Question

1 min read



Should every child to be able to code. This is fast becoming a debate at all levels of education across the Globe.

For centuries Education has placed its focus on teaching students on how to make use of letters and numbers to be able to bob1speak, write and be understood. The recent introduction of STEM – science, technology, engineering and math has changed the way our children are educated and code must now be a part of any skills development.

There is a duty to students to allow them to understand the technologies THEY use, in THEIR lives each and every day. We need to be sure there exists the platforms to those building blocks from an early age and not just at advanced levels of Education.

If we introduce the ability to code into mainstream education, this can be an enabler for our children to be creative in their own world and with this creativeness will fare much better in the future and the careers they choose.

Many communities around the World are waking up to how this must be taken from a drawing board ideology and into the classroom, but adoption is slow. It is a little known fact that the education authorities in the UK have recently added Coding to the curriculum, starting from age 5 and going through age 16.

bob2The Web is awash with Sites offering Coding training, focusing on such branded areas, as iOS, Android, Javascript and more. These opportunities, coupled with Coding entering mainstream education will allow more and more people to shape the world they live in, be it by developing an App for a Smartphone or Tablet or looking into the world of IOT and how small devices, i.e. Rasberry PI’s with a little coding knowledge (Scratch) can result in true innovation.

Education needs to continue its evolution, focusing on building skills the youngsters of the world can then use to shape their futures. With STEM being implemented into main stream education, plus the introduction of teaching coding in classrooms, we shift those skills to be a better match for the World we live in today. They can take control of technology, rather than be a consumer and being controlled by it.

Authors

Bob O’Sullivan

Systems Engineer Manager

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