Giving Compass' Take:

• Redwood City School in Silicon Valley encourages students to learn computational skills and interact with different software, as well as work on social-emotional learning skills and problem-solving. 

• What are the challenges introducing technology in the classroom? Do the benefits outweigh the costs?

• Read about this school that is teaching early learners how to develop computation thinking skills. 

We don't know what jobs today’s children are going to have when they become adults, but we do know that technology is going to play a major role in whatever jobs exist.

According to research conducted by Dr. Marina Umaschi Bers at Tufts University, coding is fast becoming a form of literacy that students will need to understand and use, similar to reading and writing in English.  It stands to reason that the more exposure children have to computer technology, coding, and robotics, the more prepared they will be for the future.

In my role as an instructional science coach for the Redwood City School District, I lead the district’s STEAM program at John Gill Elementary School, a Title 1 school located in the heart of Silicon Valley.

A large portion of our students are also English language learners who speak more than 35 different languages at home, including Arabic, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Our computer science program has two goals. One is perhaps obvious: to provide our students with a variety of STEAM-related tools and resources to build a foundation in computer science. The other, less so.

We want to help students learn the social-emotional skills that our local business leaders tell us they want to see in their new employees. These are the soft skills like collaboration, communication and critical thinking, which students can develop through working in groups to solve complex problems—in this case, problems related to coding and robotics.

One phrase we often use in our district is, “It’s not about the robot.” What we mean is that computer science is not about the device or software. It's about what students are doing with technology to solve problems.

Through our computer science program, we hope our students continue to learn the skills they’ll need to participate in shaping the future of Silicon Valley.

Read the full article about robots teaching students by Bryan Flaig at EdSurge