Espresso Coding – A New (and Simple!) Way to Teach Computer Coding

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog article about a new piece of hardware that I was very impressed with called the Raspberry Pi, which is essentially an exposed motherboard with the processing capability of an iPhone 3, and available to buy for only £24. All you have to do it plug in a TV screen and a mouse and you have a ready-to-use computer. Amazing!

The Raspberry Pi is ideal for helping people to understand a bit more about coding, as it uses an open source operating system that allows you to see how the different processes happen. I think that these are the kinds of skills that children should be learning in their ICT lessons, as the world is so technologically focused these days that this is the kind of knowledge that could really help this generation. This is why I was really interested to hear about Espresso Coding, which is a new service that teaches KS1 and KS2 pupils how to code very simple apps through a variety of simple lessons.

“[Espresso Coding] includes a comprehensive scheme of work linked to the 2014 curriculum, 78 step-by-step lessons and tablet-friendly activities, 100s of short, helpful video guides and a bespoke website where up to 500 apps per school can be published and shared.”

The course aims to help pupils to “understand what algorithms are and how they are implemented as programs on digital devices, execute programs by following a sequence of instructions and write and test simple programs and use logical reasoning to predict the behaviour of simple programs.”

The purpose of this service is to provide teachers with everything they need to effectively teach the basics of computer coding, even if it is completely outside of their skill set. Everything in the lesson plans fits in with the goals set out in the national curriculum and I think this is a really great way to bring computer coding into the classroom. And it’s free for schools until October 2014!