Computer Programming - Designing Interaction Across the Curriculum
Ways to Introduce the Foundational Language of Cyberspace and the Digital Age
Somewhere over the last few decades a basic form of learning and intuition building called tinkering (e.g., inquiry based learning) was lost then rediscovered (Brown, 2007; Foster, 2002). Digital technology has played a critical role in reopening to the world a behavior that was once more fundamental yet long extolled by leading educational philosophers including Dewey, Vygotsky, Piaget and Freire. Slowly the creators of the tinkering to discover forms of learning are enticing children and educators to re-activate this basic form of learning and intuition building that we also call constructive play. Our digital composition tools have played a significant role in this regard, and one type of composing is the most digitally powerful of all. Computer programming is the paintbrush that has composed every other form of "digital paint", creating our editors for everything from writing text to composing video to building robots and games and developing highly interactive social media, which in turn makes everything seen and experienced online. Writing computer code to build ever more complex designs from very simple ones is a key part of its power, as with the Turtle graphics design to the left. Computer programming has broad cross-disciplinary application and for many, a valuable career path.
These thoughts will introduce some of the fundamentals of programming, including information that will have you completing and running a Turtle Graphics computer program in a very short period of time. The next step is to pick one of several fine beginning points to learn a computer programming language. Good starter programming languages include Scratch, Python, Javascript, Lego WeDo and Lego NXT Mindstorms along with other resources that will be discussed below.
Introduction
Computer programming is the foundational language of cyberspace and the digital age. Not only has it found practical uses in serving as a tool maker for all the media tools of communication, but the process focused nature of computer programming has enabled it to serve as an ally in the processes of all content areas. This digital palette graphic on the left represents the wide range of tools now basic to communicating and turning our questions into problems being processed. Each palette element is now routinely part of Web pages, all made possible by programming, all elements of the transformation of what it means to be literate in the 21st century. The element of the palette most neglected by educational systems is computer programming, the paintbrush that has made all the rest of the digital palette possible. Wing, head of the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon, has argued that "(c)omputational thinking is a fundamental skill for everyone, not just for computer scientists. To reading, writing, and arithmetic, we should add computational thinking to every child’s analytical ability" (Wing, 2006, p. 33). However its integration with curriculum requirements for all students varies wildly by country. In the United States there are no such requirements in the Common Core curriculum standards adopted by 45 states; in Vietnam computer science and programming education begins in fourth grade and continues through high school (Fraser, 2013). No current survey of computer science programming education of other countries is known at this time but a quick survey of programmers at Google, Inc suggests that getting an introduction in elementary school is significant to the careers of many (Fraser, 2012).
The "turtle" drawing that began this article to emphasize the power of modular thinking was created by tinkering or playing with the geometry commands within the Logo programming language. Many of the Logo languages features as well as primary concepts of computer science and computating thinking can be introduced and learned in minutes. Within minutes the product of this learning and programming can produce an image and have it inserted into a page visible on the Net.
Not only does computer programming help create the many forms of information for display on the page, it is also pushing the concept of page through a rapid transition to something much broader and deeper; the page has become a computer, capable carrying out all the basic roles of a computational engine. Since 1995 Web pages increasingly have carried out special purpose functions for a page with a programming language called Javascript, the only language integrated into all the major Web browsers. Since 2010 with the new standard for Web pages, HTML5, all the elements of a page can be manipulated and directed by the programming language.
As literacy is the capacity to understand and compose what goes on a page, the digital age continues to move the goal posts for fluent literacy ever higher for all of us. But as that bar is raised, the opportunities for those becoming fluent continue to rise. Those opportunities are not just personal, they are global. Vanessa Hurst is the co-founder of GDI (Girl Develop It). Among other technology leaders who speak in the short ten minute film below, she noted: "I think if someone had told me that software is really about humanity, about helping people by using computer technology, it would have changed my outlook a lot earlier" ("What Most Schools Don't Teach, 2013).
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has noted the importance of teaching the foundational grammar of 21st century thinking (Brown). Programming is unfortunately
one of those most neglected of cyberspace skills in the general school
curriculum and tinkering is all but invisible during the school day. Fortunately there are many fun web sites, serious toys and downloadable programming applications that teachers can use
to show students something new to them yet so basic to the 21st century, and to encourage and support inquisitive learners in this area (Papert, 1980/1993) . Computer science and programming skills play an increasingly important role in 21st century problem solving. Such activity can have direct relevance
not just to in math and science and other STEM topics, but to problem solving in language arts and social studies and any other content area.
The award winning media and society critic, Douglas Rushkoff, takes a more defensive position, arguing that computer technology has become so central to world culture that there are just two options, options that are the title of one of his books, "Program or be Programmed". Do we direct technology, or do we let the technology masters direct us? "Choose the former and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make" (Rushkoff, 2011).
Rushkoff's narrow decision tree must be taken with a "grain of salt", a bit of skepticism, as his book does not consider nor answer an important question. What percentage of problems, scaling from simple to really important, are computable problems and which are not? Put another way, should I find a computer program to solve or help with this problem, write the program myself or find programmers who can write such a program? This is the first decision that every problem solver must consider now that computer technology is so widely available; however, the class of uncomputable problems is much bigger than many might believe (Houghton, 1989). In short, the field of computer programming and computer science has an important place in our culture, but it cannot solve all problems. Yet applying the logic of computer science thinking more widely to the problems that can be addressed would still provide significant improvement to our lives and culture. The application of computer science to the problems that are possible to address has played a critical role in the active and growing part of the economy.
What is quite obvious for those who take the time to become aware is that there are many good and fun options for teaching computer programming to any age of learner. There are also many ways to show its relevance to all content areas. If you
pull together a collection of sensors, mechanical devices, and programming
languages you generate many high interest topics for students, from understanding cyberspace to basic electronics to robotics. Programming is also an important part of using sensors whether part of a robot
or not. Such study also create new reasons to learn to read and write better. These topics
lead to important career skills for many and important scientific and intellectual knowledge for the rest.
Computer Programming Careers
Programming can be done with written text or images as software and it can be done with
hardware. To engineers, hardware is just a kind of frozen software. To
an electronics engineer, software is just a slow kind of hardware. That
is, wires, solder, sensors and computer chips are continually designed
by electronics engineers to carry out a variety of computer programs. Programming is also an important part of using sensors whether part of a robot
or not. This also indicates that computer programming has wide application into all areas of life. Whether there are vast opportunities within the careers of computer science or merely good opportunities is a matter of some debate.
Using statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Science Foundation, the College Board and the Association for Computing Machinery, Code.org reports that
the United States is short some several hundred thousand people with computer
science training to work in this career area. Projections of need (graph on right) have run to
over a million positions in the United States alone by 2020 (Code Foundation, 2013). However, the "Bureau of Labor Statistics' notes that ....(e)mployment of computer programmers is expected to increase 12% from 2010 to 2020, about as fast as the average for all occupations," the website states. "Since computer programming can be done from anywhere in the world, companies often hire programmers in countries that have lower wages" (Claburn, 2013).
Clearly there is pressure from the executives and investors who fund the Code Foundation initiative to increase the availability of programming talent for their companies. What is not noted in this analysis is that the programming drought for big business and corporations is made even more challenging by the wide ranging number of computer science and computer programmers who have become independent contractors and entrepreneurs, starting and running their own businesses and organizations.
Children
and adolescents could greatly benefit with earlier and more exposure to
a variety of computer science ideas that incorporate
elements of programming. How this knowledge becomes more widely known and used is a growing issue. We are also seeing the beginnings of countries requiring programming instruction to begin in first grade in Estonia (Olson, 2012) and efforts that swing back and forth from active to inactive to active in American education (Papert 1980/1993; Hertz, 2012).
Let's Program, Now!
Web Turtle Programming Online - Assignment 1
Because most adults and students have had so little to exposure to actually
programming a computer, the first step in showing its relevance is to demonstrate
how easy and fun it can be to learn a few simple programming commands which can
do interesting things visually.
Click this link to explore Bill Kendrick's Web Turtle web
site using the directions below. Consider while using do this programming that it is happening with a Web page and its interconnection with a server.
Use the Web Turtle site to create and test simple programming ideas to
see the relationship between numbers, patterns, geometry, direction following and programming skills. Though it does not have a random number generator it includes a set of input
buttons on the programming page.
Just this one simple web site and the geometry of its Logo programming
language can be used to teach a wide range of math concepts that must be
taught in grades K-8.
When you visit this site, follow the directions there to get the programming screen active. Note the 2 column table which has directions in English, sometimes referred to as pseudocode, then in the programming language. This is a classic model of good programming practice, and good language arts practice in actually writing directions.
It is easier
to follow the directions on the first screen by printing it or if you have a big enough screen to put the windows for the directions side by side with the Web site. Then under
the table with the examples is a direction to "Start a New Drawing." Click this link, then type
in the Web turtle directions from the print of that previous screen (or you can copy and paste). Tinker. How can you make the image bigger or smaller?
Having finished that activity, it is time tinker, that is to experiment, to learn from what happens.
Create something other than a square.
Change
the numbers in the computer program just tried to make the turtle draw different shapes, such as triangles,
hexagons and octagons. Do these variations a couple of times.
Print out your finished Web Turtle picture.
Copy your programming instructions in the web turtle language and
paste it into a word processor. Save your file and print it out. Could you copy the image into Word and print out both the computer program and its output, the picture?
Staple any multiple sheets together to hand-in to your instructor.
In class, copy and paste your program into an email message to a class partner who should copy from email and paste into their Web Turtle web programming page to see it work.
There are many examples at this site of different programs and programming features to try and to modify. Explore the "Play with an Example" link and the "Available Commands" link.
Programming Knowledge
This web site and its Logo programming can be used to learn and to teach
some of the most basic concepts in programming:
primitives,
loops,
branches,
procedures or sets of commands (e.g., called different things in
different programming languages such as subroutines or objects) and
arrays.
Primitives are the most basic commands in programming that carry out some
single function and are then combined into ever larger arrangements. Loops
are commands that cause a procedure or step to repeated over endlessly
or until some condition has been met which then allows the next procedure
to begin. Branches create an if condition, which does one thing under one condition and if the value or values change then does something else. Procedures are the sets of directions, the paragraphs and sections of computer thinking. Arrays are sets of stored numbers that are used by different procedures.
The next activity that should be carried out at the Web Turtle site
is to learn to create a subroutine, a named procedure that can be used over and over again. Think of it as another programming paragraph. Below you'll see two "paragraphs", a main routine and subroutine.
Web Turtle Programming Online - Assignment 2
; Example 2 - Make A Square using a Subroutine
REPEAT 1
GO SIDES
NEXT
END
# SIDES
REPEAT 4
DRAW 100
RIGHT 90
NEXT
RETURN
Note that the resulting image should be the same as before. The # SIDES section is teaching the concept of a subroutine. The set of code above it down to the END statement is the main routine. Do you understand the purpose of the symbols ; and #? Can the computer teach you? What happens if you leave them out? Tinker.
With these few skills and short vocabulary (commands) much more complex images become simple to make. Next, return to the first Web Turtle
page and visit the Examples page. See the second example, called Squares.
This set of directions is a procedure that can be given a name, such as
square as seen is the Web Turtle page's example. The computer can remember this and later
simply giving the command "square" will cause the steps to be recalled and
completed where ever the turtle is located. That is, in these simple examples, several major programming concepts
have been introduced. The image to the right was made by using this composition model of the Squares to instead create a triangle and rotate the triangle until the rotation completes the shape. Can you tinker (experiment) to make the shape smaller and larger? Have the subroutine make different shapes? Add a new line to the main routine that will cause a turn after each square is drawn. Change REPEAT in the main routine to 3 and also try larger numbers.
So what? Thes examples are important because they demonstrate a fundamental idea in problem solving. Break the problem down and solve one small part of the problem, then go back and tackle the next step. The capacity to create a named special set of directions is similar to the capacity to create a lego brick or any other unit, item or activity that needs to be used repeatedly yet in creative ways to solve a problem. This intellectual skill is critical in solving many problems, whether completing a design or saving the world. Other commands extend this capacity in powerful ways.
The concept of branches introduces another key concept, "what if?" Branches use command sets that begin with IF and set the value for some
condition. For example, when the loop has been completed five times, drop
out of the loop and move on to the next command. To see a programming example of a branching
command that can be typed in, click the Available Commands button on the
opening page of the Web Turtle site. There you will see the IF command format.
If you are interested in an extra credit programming challenge, here
is one:
Can do you it? Use one the page's input boxes and an IF command. Here are the directions in English. If the Input 1 is equal to 8, repeat the subroutine that many times. Next, change the Input 1 value to something else and run the program again.
The IF command is also where a sensor's input would be used. There are
many possible examples for sensor use that a wide range of students can understand. Here are some examples. IF the sensor reports that the robot has stopped at a wall, turn the robot's wheels
90 degrees and try to move again. IF the sensor detects smoke particles,
direct the buzzer to sound the alarm. IF the sensor reports a temperature
that has climbed over 103 degrees, call the doctor.
Here's one last thinking/programming concept, arrays. Arrays are containers for holding a large set of variables. As an example,
a spreadsheet is a two-dimensional array in which each cell name is a variable
name that can hold some value, whether number, formula or text. Arrays
could be one dimensional, two, three or more. Arrays are not covered in
the directions at the Web Turtle site. However, arrays can still be demonstrated. There could be an array written down on a piece of paper whose values were entered using the Input command options.
The analytical thinking required for effective programming is also very close to the
types of thinking required for effective teaching. Programmers carry out
plans of actions in a process that would seem very familiar to anyone who
has every planned instruction for a class or an individual. Programmers
break a problem down into sets of procedures (analysis), much as a teacher
breaks an instructional event down into a six point lesson plan or an IEP
(Individualized Educational Prescription) that they can understand, and then give more detailed information and directions to a class.
In a similar fashion, programmers plan in their native language whose plans can easily be shared with other planners then the programmer type up the
steps for the computer to follow using a more detailed language that the computer can understand
(synthesis). Teachers type up or talk out the steps for students to follow
using language that they can understand. Programmers watch the computers
operation to see where the computer fails to do what was intended and then
they continue to change its directions until the computer can meet their
goals. Teachers do something very similar.
Programmers have the advantage
in that computers do not have independent minds or wills of their own.
Computers will follow the directions that they are given precisely and
promptly with very little error checking; this is not so with those human beings that we teach. Educators
have additional challenges that involve leadership and motivation skills.
With proper motivation and skills, human beings that run into problems will invent new commands
for themselves that enable them to work around bad directions and keep
going.
Programming Assignment 3 - Integrating Standards and Computer Programming
Look at the Common Core State Standards, the NC
Course of Study math competencies or art or science competencies and
figure out a way to teach one or more of those competencies using this
Web Turtle site.
In a word processing file, enter the grade level and content area competency and your explanation of how Web Turtle programming could be used in teaching that competency. Upload this file into Blackboard in the Web Turtle Programming assignment found on the Course Content page.
Decisions, Decisions
Which language to learn? The above Web Turtle activities provided a quick, free and easy way to gain some introductory experience with a programming language. Turtle graphics is just a small part of the first major programming language aimed at children and beginning programmers, Logo. The invention of the Logo language was led by Semour Paper, a collaborator and student of Jean Piaget, who was co-founder of the artificial intelligence and media laboratories at MIT. Most important to the discussion here is Papert's book Mindstorms, first released in 1980, then a second edition in 1993, which explored his work in teaching mathematics by learning and thinking with Logo's playful computer programming language. The title of the book is central to his sense of the opportunities that programming knowledge promotes, mindstorms. Since Logo, multiple languages and systems have been invented to teach programming to all ages. They all owe much to the heritage of Papert's work.
Your work with NXT Lego programming knowledge will continue elsewhere. The decision you must make here for the next 4 weeks is which additional programming language to learn beyond NXT Mindstorms. Pick one. Three choices below are well supported with supplemental and tutorial resources: Scratch, Python and Javascript. Scratch and Python instruction below have resources that emphasize a premium level of the Interaction element of the digital palette. That is, they teach the language by teaching the programmer to design and create computer games. Javascript teaching is supported by a strong set of screen movies at Khan Academy's incredible site.
Scratch
http://scratch.mit.edu/Scratch is free and this page provides the links to download versions for the Mac, Linux and Windows operating systems. It extends Logo from a text command driven system to a simple graphical interface in which multimedia elements and actions are assembled like snap-together Lego building blocks, blending animated images, sound and video. It is perhaps the best of class choice for primary grades through middle school for a free introduction to computer programming. Free instruction and lesson plans are available at http://learnscratch.org/.
The graphic novel Super Scratch Programming Adventure!: Learn to Program By Making Cool Games by The LEAD Project is an excellent starting point for this learning which is available in both paper ($14) and Kindle editions $9.99 and available on all platforms). ScratchEd is an online community that supports and extends Scratch learning.
Designed especially for those age 8 and older, Scratch allows anyone to create their own animated stories, video games and interactive artworks. First made available on May 15, 2007, this "drag and click together" type of composition parallels the design of the programming composition model used by the Lego WeDo and NXT Mindstorms languages and incorporated into the Lego Robotics competition. Many examples of applications written by kids in Scratch can be found at Squeakland (http://www.squeakland.org/).
Python
Python, a free language to download, may be best used with middle grades and up, but younger students have been able to work with it as well, as the books below indicate.
“Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python” is a also free (as in "open source") and a free eBook (as in, no cost to download), http://inventwithpython.com. "Each chapter gives you the complete source code for a new game, and then teaches the programming concepts from the example. “Invent with Python” was written to be understandable by kids as young as 10 to 12 years old, although it is great for anyone of any age who has never programmed before. The second edition has revised and expanded content, including a Pygame tutorial to make games with graphics, animation, and sound."
At a slightly higher level of skills, many web page creators are inserting free Javascript programs directly into their web pages or building highly interactive web applications with Seaside.
The ability to run the Javascript programming language is built in to most web browsers. The best and most complete online learning environment for learning Javascript is found in Khan Academy's Computer Science tutorials. This programming can be learned and done totally online without downloading and installing any computer application.
Combined with other tools Javascript can be used to implement gaming activities. For example, "HTML5 Games: Creating Fun with HTML5, CSS3, and WebGL". This book shows how to build 2D and 3D games with HTML5 combined with CSS3 and WebGL tools. These can be used "to create beautiful, unique, engaging games that can be played on the web or mobile devices like the iPad or Android phones".
The Web Site Code Hero takes Javascript to even higher levels by teaching Javascript programming as a game while learning how to write code that will build computer games using the Unity3D gaming engine which provides 2D and 3D image control for a wide range of games for all mobile and desktop platforms.
Numerous other sites are available for teaching the basics of javascript. Western Carolina University now teaches Javascript in its Computer Science 130 course. Javascript skills were essential in creating the thousands of online calculators at Martindale's site. For more, search the web and libraries for "javascript" and "javascript tutorial" to find further helpful information on the topic of javascript programming.
Javascript Source "The JavaScript Source is an excellent JavaScript resource with tons of "cut and paste" JavaScript examples to insert in Web pages. All for free!" http://www.javascript.com/ with cut and paste scripts.
Logo
There are free and commercial versions of Seymour Papert's superb work. Some resources include:
rLogo is an easy to learn programming
language also designed for the World Wide Web
StarLogo (specialized for teaching modeling, simulation, complex systems, decentralized
systems) See also Adventures
in Modeling by V. S. Colella et al. (book/CD ROM).
There are other good beginner programming resources as well, which are expensive compared to free, but excellent and within reach of many school budgets. Some involve significant community support and are widely used. Over ten-thousand teams from around the world participate in team competitions which use programming and robot systems to directly involve K-12 students in different age level divisions. There are primary grades, 4th-8th grades and high school divisions. This knowledge and experience is often used to motivate and recruit students for STEM activities and careers. RoboGals, a global and college aged professional organization, takes particular advantage of the high interest level for robotics.
One of the most famous organizations with the goal of teaching about sensors, robotics and interaction is FIRST League, for children ages 9-14. A new theme is created for the competition each year, which have included climate change, energy, oceans and many more. As seen in the picture on the right, the robotic playing field mat and Lego bricks are used to created a 4' by 8' creative play space to try out various programs designs for the robot. (Clicking the picture leads to a more detailed story.) This space is also used to compete in time trials to show how well their robot designs have been programmed to carry out a range of tasks. Teams must also research the topic and prepare a skit or presentation that describes a solution for the theme of the year, and demonstrate to judges their teamwork based problem solving skills.
A product from Lego aimed at primary age students and uses a simpler drag and drop programming language is WeDo Robotics. Where the Lego Robotics Kit builds a device that needs floor space to safely move, the WeDo device is tethered to a computer via a USB cable and stays on a student desk or table.
Some WeDo design examples from a child's perspective might be better explanation than text. Can you see correlations to standard curriculum topics?
Lego WeDo Venus Fly Trap (9 seconds)
Lego WeDo Robotics - Space Shuttle Launch (2 min)
CHERP
CHERP (http://ase.tufts.edu/DevTech/tangiblek/research/cherp.asp) is "a hybrid tangible/graphical computer language designed to provide an engaging introduction to computer programming for young children in both formal and informal educational settings. With CHERP you can create programs for robots like the LEGO Mindstorms RCX and Lego WeDo, as well as the KIWI research prototype. CHERP was developed with funding from the National Science Foundation ( NSF grant # DRL-0735657 ) by the Developmental Technologies Group at Tufts University."
Code
The Web site Code.org is a non-profit foundation dedicated to growing computer programming education. It is currently building a national database of programming coursework. It provides lists of resources for teaching programming across a wide range of ages and situations, a Twitter feed of ideas, a review of market/job potential and a rationale for the value of computer programming.
Interaction
Interaction is one of the elements of the digital palette at which computer programming excels. At its most basic, interaction is the trading of and processing of information between participants. The participants can also be thought of variables. These participants (variables) might be a computer and a person playing a game. They might be multiple computers buying and selling stock on an exchange without any direct human intervention. The interaction might also consist of a peripheral piece of hardware, such as sensor, in interaction with a computer that passes the information on to a person's mobile or smart phone via the cell phone system. Interaction can also be as simple and subtle as a comment box on a blog posting or in a Web page.
Observing and tracking the interaction between variables is at the heart of science's ability to create chains of cause and effect that have led to our engineered medicines, cities, transportation, the Internet and much more. Where scientists can find relatively low levels of interaction either in terms of frequency of interaction or depth of interaction, it can find persistent outcomes which lead to the ability to control and predict.
Where interaction levels become high, computers can be used to collect observational data and help humans communicate about phenomena, can sometimes provide short term analysis and feedback that is still useful.
Weather Predictions
As turbulence or interaction increases even highly refined computer predictions begin to fail. They cannot help predict in many situations when there are no reliable rules.
Long Range Weather Predictions
In shorting, coding, computer programming, has an important role to play, both in learning to use them effectively and to learn the limitations of computing power. As with larger culture, both the arts and the sciences have found effective and useful roles for the programming knowledge of digital literacy.
Conclusion
Having actually tried a computer programming language is a critical first step in understanding the computer's abilities and shortcomings. With not much effort it is easy to quickly advance and find simple uses of computer programming that can be applied to many teaching and personal settings. However, in between novice knowledge about computer science and coding and a robust professionally effective computer application, there is big step which requires significantly more knowledge than this basic introduction provides. Fortunately there are many ways to find the paths to such knowledge for those that are interested.
Young, Jeffrey R. (December 14, 2007). Tinkering 2.0. Chronicles of Higher Education. Interview with John Seely Brown, Available on December 11, 2007 at (videoclip) http://chronicle.com/media/audio/v54/i16/seely-brown/
Somewhere over the last few decades a basic form of learning and intuition building called tinkering (e.g., inquiry based learning) was lost then rediscovered (Brown, 2007; Foster, 2002). Digital technology has played a critical role in reopening to the world a behavior that was once more fundamental yet long extolled by leading educational philosophers including Dewey, Vygotsky, Piaget and Freire. Slowly the creators of the tinkering to discover forms of learning are enticing children and educators to re-activate this basic form of learning and intuition building that we also call constructive play. Our digital composition tools have played a significant role in this regard, and one type of composing is the most digitally powerful of all. Computer programming is the paintbrush that has composed every other form of "digital paint", creating our editors for everything from writing text to composing video to building robots and games and developing highly interactive social media, which in turn makes everything seen and experienced online. Writing computer code to build ever more complex designs from very simple ones is a key part of its power, as with the Turtle graphics design to the left. Computer programming has broad cross-disciplinary application and for many, a valuable career path.
but the process focused nature of computer programming has enabled it to serve as an ally in the processes of all content areas. This digital palette graphic on the left represents the wide range of tools now basic to communicating and turning our questions into problems being processed. Each palette element is now routinely part of Web pages, all made possible by programming, all elements of the transformation of what it means to be literate in the 21st century. The element of the palette most neglected by educational systems is computer programming, the paintbrush that has made all the rest of the digital palette possible. Wing, head of the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon, has argued that "(c)omputational thinking is a fundamental skill for everyone, not just for computer scientists. To reading, writing, and arithmetic, we should add computational thinking to every child’s analytical ability" (Wing, 2006, p. 33). However its integration with curriculum requirements for all students varies wildly by country. In the United States there are no such requirements in the Common Core curriculum standards adopted by 45 states; in Vietnam computer science and programming education begins in fourth grade and continues through high school (Fraser, 2013). No current survey of computer science programming education of other countries is known at this time but a quick survey of programmers at Google, Inc suggests that getting an introduction in elementary school is significant to the careers of many (Fraser, 2012).
Using statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Science Foundation, the College Board and the Association for Computing Machinery, Code.org reports that
the United States is short some several hundred thousand people with computer
science training to work in this career area. Projections of need (graph on right) have run to
over a million positions in the United States alone by 2020 (Code Foundation, 2013). However, the "Bureau of Labor Statistics' notes that ....(e)mployment of computer programmers is expected to increase 12% from 2010 to 2020, about as fast as the average for all occupations," the website states. "Since computer programming can be done from anywhere in the world, companies often hire programmers in countries that have lower wages" (Claburn, 2013). 
There are many examples at this site of different programs and programming features to try and to modify. Explore the "Play with an Example" link and the "Available Commands" link. 
With these few skills and short vocabulary (commands) much more complex images become simple to make. Next, return to the first Web Turtle
page and visit the Examples page. See the second example, called Squares.
This set of directions is a procedure that can be given a name, such as
square as seen is the Web Turtle page's example. The computer can remember this and later
simply giving the command "square" will cause the steps to be recalled and
completed where ever the turtle is located. That is, in these simple examples, several major programming concepts
have been introduced. The image to the right was made by using this composition model of the Squares to instead create a triangle and rotate the triangle until the rotation completes the shape. Can you tinker (experiment) to make the shape smaller and larger? Have the subroutine make different shapes? Add a new line to the main routine that will cause a turn after each square is drawn. Change REPEAT in the main routine to 3 and also try larger numbers.
