Extra! Extra! Code all about it!
We’ve launched coding classes this summer where we can introduce your kids to the basics of coding in a gamified manner. In these courses, your kids can start to develop the skills necessary to navigate the fascinating and indispensable world of computer language that all but runs the world today.
At Mentorhood, it’s no secret that we absolutely love mathematics. We live and breathe bar models and word problems, all in service of the intuitive and complex world of mathematics that governs every aspect of our universe.
We specifically love teaching mathematics to young learners because we get to inspire confidence in an often intimidating subject area. A foundation in mathematics is monumental in preparing kids for their futures in our complex world.
And coding is not such a far deviation from that core passion. Coding, like engineering, physics, or data analysis, is another expression of applied mathematics. Coding essentially uses linguistic-like principles to translate mathematical logic that a machine can understand into an interface that’s useful to a human user. It’s communication science that turns formulas into desired outcomes.
These days, there is a huge push in education towards coding and computer science right along with the STEM fields that have been all the rage for the past decade. We believe that this emphasis is not only on schedule, but it’s absolutely vital.
In this digital age, coding is inescapable.
Inescapable
Our kids are growing up in a world where computing is synonymous with daily life. Nearly everyone has an executive assistant in their pockets, chock full of functionality that is continuously being upgraded through programming. Schooling and work is made more efficient with digital assistance, and commerce is made possible on a global scale because of the internet: businesses can reach new markets, coordinate global logistics, and perform international banking transactions. And when the day is done, we unwind with the help of a streaming service for music or video.
So much of this technology wasn't possible just a few years ago. And behind the screens of our fancy new tech is a world of intricately orchestrated programming, testifying to the human ingenuity in this field. Programmers today not only need to know how to write script for today’s technological demands; graduates of computer science—if they want to be successful—will need to be willing to constantly figure out how to stretch the bounds of our capabilities in order to make the human experience just that much more efficient and entertaining.
Efficient E-Commerce
Nearly everything to do with transactional enterprise these days is dependent on web applications of some sort, or other forms of digital technology. From designing e-commerce widgets to building a coordinated system of POS devices, programmers are at the heart of transacting commerce worldwide.
International trade also creates a need for international banking abilities, and systems like SWIFT are quickly being replaced by more user-friendly money-moving applications. Online banking has been upgraded to mobile banking, and people are increasingly handling their investment decisions from their pockets or computers, rather than from the other side of a financial advisor’s desk. And would the cryptocurrency revolution have been possible without brilliant minds engineering the server systems, mining applications, and digital tokens that allowed people to interact with the concept? Certainly not.
It takes an extraordinary team of people with extreme specialty in app development, digital technology, and computing science alongside expertise in finance and global markets in order to create the modern platforms we download on our phones and laptops today. While computer coding can be a specialty in and of itself, the market for people who develop expertise in coding alongside another field will only continue to grow.
Everyday Entertainment
The days of party games and boards games and card games are certainly not gone, but our leisure time is increasingly being divided among tactile and digital activities.
How does our handheld device or our online gaming account display the information behind a game and allow our interaction with it? How did the process of collaborating with other gamers become more and more streamlined into our gaming lives? Everything is programmed; everything is continuously adapted to consumer needs. The platforms where we enjoy our games are becoming more and more proliferated, and keeping up with this requires more than just knowledge of how to create what you envision in computer language. It requires an innovative spirit willing to problem solve, be creative, and figure out new ways to code along the way.
Streaming services for music and video are also a brand-new technology, relatively speaking, enabling massive databases of digital information to be organized in an interactive and useful way. No longer do we need CDs and DVD players to read what’s written on a physical disk; digital content has been converted into information that any computing device can process. And if that weren’t enough, users expect a custom experience. Streaming services, search engines, and social media run on elaborate algorithms that enable users to experience the service in a way that is personally pleasing to them. As technology becomes increasingly integrated with the individual, the coding know-how behind these platforms will need to become increasingly sophisticated.
Stepping out from behind the screen itself, think of all the computing brilliance that goes into making all that content in the first place. Video producers, movie makers, and audio engineers alike depend on high-quality, flexible software programs that allow them to be both reliable and inventive.
Not-So-Formulaic Solutions
Our digital age is hyper-focused on creating efficiencies, increasing ease-of-use, and closing loopholes. Coding is the mechanism through which all of those technological ideas come to life. Human creativity needs to be translated into precise language that a machine can digest and properly translate further into the interfaces we expect to see. Coders use formulas to solve problems that are far from formulaic and develop solutions that are even less so. Coders are constant troubleshooters, tweaking technologies until the desired outcomes emerge. And creative coders are able generate solutions before the problems even come up, creating success for themselves and the organizations they are part of.
Oh, and by the way—a strong, foundational confidence in mathematics can do nothing but bolster the success of our future computer whizzes. The ability to fit multiple ideas into the same box based on a set of rules, or to break down a situation into organized parts to solve for more information is a critical strength in both coding and math.
Coding and mathematics, like any language, is best leveraged when users achieve fluency.
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