11 Big Trends of 2016: Part 8 of 11

Programming, Robotics and the Maker Movement

On her eighth point in her blog post from 12/31/15, Susan Patrick, President and CEO of iNACOL, says that "programming and innovative designs can and will change the world." She also mentions that it is as important in the rural parts of the United States as it is in the tech capital of the U.S., Silicon Valley.

Up until my participation in the iNACOL Online and Blended Learning Symposium, I knew that binary numbers were made up of zeroes and ones. I didn't know anything more about them than that, but by participating in a hands-on workshop where my peers, video, and some drill and practice taught me about them, I am in a mid-level of understanding about them.

From the We Are Teachers blog, they have this to say about the maker movement:

"The Maker philosophy prepares kids to solve problems their teachers never anticipated, with technology we can’t yet imagine."

In 1987 when my dad brought home our first computer, a Commodore 128, I am pretty sure that he didn't think that 29 years later we would be wearing technology syncing to our smartphones and tablets. As I look ahead to 2045, there will be many problems that I never anticipated and technology that I can't imagine right now. 

It is time for schools to embrace the Maker Movement, Programming and Robotics so that our children (in 29 years) will be able to solve the problems that we haven't imagined and use technology to solve the world's problems.