The International Schools Review Forum

Which international school will be the first to go tech free??

With all the tech warnings from 60 minutes to the NYTimes to the Waldorf school in Silicon Valley it seems almost inevitable??

Any guesses??

None. This tech free movement isn't gaining enough traction for it to become a big influence.

Kids as young as 6 are already being exposed to coding concepts. Coding during primary age is more likely to become mainstream (if it isn't already).

None, Pop.Ed that will amount to nothing, IE is still playing catch up with C21 and technology integration in the classroom, 1:1 programs are still the goal.

Not going to happen.

I remember 'coding' - or programming as it was called - when I was at school several decades ago.

I went into our school's new maker space and design lab and looked at some of the stuff the kids were doing. It looked remarkably similar to stuff I'd seen years ago, but with a slightly more '21st century' package.

It's all a load of nonsense - after all, any coding done by a 6 year old now will be totally irrelevant once they're 26. Looks good on the school prospectus though.

@shadylane

A lot of that maker stuff is just playing with expensive toys.

@shadylane
a lot of that maker stuff is what I played with in my dad's basement in the 80's.

There is more learning happening when kids learn to code than simply learning a particular coding language. Whether its applicable 20 years from now isn't the point.

mysharona wrote:
> There is more learning happening when kids learn to code than simply
> learning a particular coding language. Whether its applicable 20 years
> from now isn't the point.

Yes, and I'm sure that I benefitted from it immensely when I did it 30 years ago or so. It's not new - I really wish people would stop pretending that it is.

As for it really benefitting young children, the latest research is far from encouraging. I'm sure that 30 years from now, the idea of giving a 6 year old an ipad to play with all day will be put in the same "I can't believe that they used to do that" category as smoking in an enclosed space with babies, or putting gin in a baby's bottle of milk to get them to sleep.

I dont think its going to take 30 years.