IET: Schools will be key to making BBC coding initiative a success

Responding to the BBC’s plans to help get the nation coding, the IET believes school involvement will be crucial.

Prof Will Stewart, Chair of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Communications Policy Panel, said: “There is a real need to get more young (and older) people to learn about computer coding and to gain a full insight into the concepts of communications between modern computing devices including smartphones and remote services.  The potential here is enormous and the BBC announcement is welcomed, though we need to make sure the school backup is also in place. The BBC micro initiative in the '80s showed that such efforts can be very helpful.

"We need to be teaching simple computer programming in an interactive and interesting context. This could be achieved by programming robots or computer controlled models or setting design challenges in conjunction with the design and technology curricula, and by developing apps that run on smartphones or dedicated platforms such as Raspberry Pi.

“Consistent and high quality teacher support will be particularly important, but It is clear that at present there is still a shortage of teaching staff with the necessary knowledge and practical expertise. For computing, a greater focus on skills such as programming and algorithms (this is a bit broader than 'coding') will place greater demands on the abilities of teachers. In particular, it may be challenging to deliver this effectively in the early years when there are fewer opportunities to engage specialist teachers. The availability of suitable programming tools and other resources would also be critical to the success of teaching these skills." 

"We welcome the BBC's support – 2015 is hardly too soon for this initiative."