Career Oriented Code Curriculum for Middle School and Up.

Schools are starting to realize that a code curriculum should be real-world focused.  That means students come away with both conceptual, and practical coding skills. Unfortunately, many courses/solutions offered today only offer conceptual learning.

… There are no jobs in block based coding, or in using code snippets to move a character around a screen.

How to easily teach both conceptual and practical coding

The best way to accomplish this, is through a web design and development based curriculum. The argument for teaching code with the web languages (HTML, CSS and JavaScript,) can be summed up as follows:

1. HTML and CSS are visual, and so very engaging.
2. School don’t have to buy special software to create websites. In fact, there are many free optionsthat can be used to teach with.
3. You can build websites on any type of computer. Even older computers are more than powerful enough for web coding and programming. Windows, Mac, Chromebooks, Linux computers … can all be used.
4. Web design and programming skills are in high demand. Students come away with skills that have economic value, whether they enter the job market, become freelancers or start a company of their own.

Besides the teaching advantages of HTML, CSS and JavaScript, the web coding languages are only gaining in popularity in industry. Not only are they used to create websites and web apps, with popular libraries like React Native and PhoneGap, web based coding languages are starting in take over mobile app creation.

Conclusion

Because of the aforementioned advantages:

1. Web languages teach both conceptual and practical coding.
2. Works on any computer.
3. Fun and engaging for students.

… I personally believe web based coding courses will become the preferred way to teach code in the classroom.

Thanks!

Stefan Mischook