{"id":22522,"date":"2014-08-06T10:28:46","date_gmt":"2014-08-06T14:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=22522"},"modified":"2014-08-06T11:16:27","modified_gmt":"2014-08-06T15:16:27","slug":"where-should-programming-fit-into-florida-school-requirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/08\/06\/where-should-programming-fit-into-florida-school-requirements\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Should Programming Fit Into Florida School Requirements?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_22500\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Students at the CodeNow workshop in Miami learned to program simple games, such as asking users to quickly match words and colors.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/08\/8-4-CodeNow1.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-22500\" alt=\"Students at the CodeNow workshop in Miami learned to program simple games, such as asking users to quickly match words and colors.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/08\/8-4-CodeNow1-300x225.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/08\/8-4-CodeNow1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2014\/08\/8-4-CodeNow1-620x465.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">John O&#39;Connor \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students at the CodeNow workshop in Miami learned to program simple games, such as asking users to quickly match words and colors.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Lots of people think teaching students computer programming is a good idea. But where coding fits in schools is a difficult question.<\/p>\n<p>Is it a science? A language? Career training?<\/p>\n<p>Florida lawmakers proposed, but did not approve, letting students substitute coding for foreign language or physical education courses required for a high school diploma. The idea is also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.charliecrist.com\/policy-positions\/education\">tucked into the education plan<\/a> of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist.<\/p>\n<p>Students can use computer science or programming to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myfloridahouse.gov\/Sections\/Documents\/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=_h5101er.docx&amp;DocumentType=Bill&amp;BillNumber=5101&amp;Session=2014\">replace a math or science requirement<\/a>, but not for math courses higher than Algebra 1, nor science courses such as biology, chemistry or physics.<\/p>\n<p>So where does programming fit? And does it squeeze out other subjects?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a really interesting debate,&#8221; said Ryan Seashore, founder of CodeNow, <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/08\/04\/computer-programming-camp-offers-lesson-in-logic\/\">a group which holds coding camps in Miami and other cities<\/a>. &#8220;You can look at whether it&#8217;s a science, whether it&#8217;s a foreign language or whether it&#8217;s like an elective. But for me, it&#8217;s however we can get it into schools. Wherever it fits. Wherever you have the talent. All that matters is getting it in front of these kids.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>A bigger problem, Seashore said, is finding folks with coding experience willing to teach.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s why CodeNow has focused on weekend sessions outside of school, so they can bring in working programmers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/08\/05\/why-taking-more-breaks-can-help-students-get-more-done\/\">Why Taking More Breaks Can Help Students Get More Done<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/08\/04\/computer-programming-camp-offers-lesson-in-logic\/\">Computer Programming Camp Offers Lesson In Logic<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/02\/03\/computer-programming-could-count-as-a-foreign-language\/\">Computer Programming Could Count As A Foreign Language<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2014\/01\/22\/entrepeneur-brings-tech-education-to-minority-students\/\">Why A Business Owner Is Teaching South Florida Students To Write Computer Code<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2011\/10\/4290846294_c9483c6494_m-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/topic\/stem\/\">Explaining Florida&#8217;s STEM Education Plan<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s such a highly sought after skill that if you have a (computer science) degree,&#8221; Seashore said, &#8220;you can easily go get a really well-paying job. It can fit anywhere in school, it&#8217;s just finding the talent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Few argue that coding isn&#8217;t an important subject. But many advocates say just because programming is a hot industry right now, it shouldn&#8217;t be considered more important than other subjects.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/stacie-nevadomski-berdan\/computer-science-is-not-a_b_4823691.html\">Foreign language teachers argue coding is more a math skill than a language skill<\/a>, and shouldn&#8217;t replace foreign languages. Some languages &#8212; Chinese or Arabic &#8212; are also highly sought after by employers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bridgetotomorrow.wordpress.com\/\">Florida State University physics professor Paul Cottle<\/a> thinks students should learn to code and thinks it should be required to earn the <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/04\/22\/how-florida-high-school-graduation-requirements-will-change-in-2013-2014\/\">new scholar designation<\/a> on a high school diploma or to <a href=\"https:\/\/bridgetotomorrow.wordpress.com\/2014\/07\/29\/floridas-bright-futures-scholarship-program-an-alternative-to-using-test-scores-to-determine-eligibility\/\">get a Bright Futures college scholarship<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But he wants to make sure programming isn&#8217;t emphasized over other sciences. Computer scientists will need physicists and others to develop new computing breakthroughs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The biggest mistake the Code.org people are doing is basically cannibalizing the physical sciences,&#8221; Cottle said, referring to <a href=\"http:\/\/code.org\/\">one of the largest nonprofit efforts to teach programming<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers listened and made sure students couldn&#8217;t exchange the highest-level math and science courses for computer programming. But lawmakers told Cottle they&#8217;re also concerned about adding more requirements in order to graduate high school.<\/p>\n<p>Florida requires students to take eight elective courses to graduate high school. Lawmakers should add a programming or computer science requirement, Cottle said, and reduce the number of electives.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Coding or math or science is really a false choice,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lots of people think teaching students computer programming is a good idea. But where coding fits in schools is a difficult question. Is it a science? A language? Career training? Florida lawmakers proposed, but did not approve, letting students substitute coding for foreign language or physical education courses required for a high school diploma. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":22500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[971,1062,1070,1082],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22522"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22522"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22526,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22522\/revisions\/22526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}