What is Coding? Overview and Mindsets
Call it programming, software development, or coding, you are referring to the same thing. The real question here is understanding the concept of coding. As mainstream as the skill or profession has become, most people still do not have a clear understanding of what coding is. For some others, they have an over-bloated opinion about coding and coders, no thanks to movies that have always created the impression that coding has to do with you wearing big glasses and hitting away on your keyboard while scrolling through an infinite loop of binary numbers. It’s fun to watch, but that is not coding. Here we want to explain what coding is in clear terms. Whether it’s about adults or kids, coding is coding, and you’ll understand it a lot better when we’re done.
What is Coding?
Coding is simply the process of writing computer programs (Instructions) that enables the computer to complete a task. In other words, coding is the process of writing instructions for your computer called a code. Your computer doesn’t understand English or Spanish or any other language you can think of; the only language it understands is code. Even when you are issuing instructions to your computer in the English language, behind the hood, those instructions are converted to codes that the computer understands.
Coding is ultimately to solve problems. More kids are beginning to embrace the concept of coding, and they are having fun doing that, at least here at Geeklama, they do. It goes beyond the serious faces we see in movies when the coder taps a few keys and declares, “I’m in.” Kids at Geeklama use their knowledge of coding to solve problems regularly. See our courses here. To further understand the concept of coding, you need to appreciate algorithms and the coding mindsets.
What is an Algorithm?
The algorithm is another buzz word flying around in the technology space that makes coding sound like it’s rocket science. We’re glad to tell you that it’s not as complicated as it sounds. Algorithms are simply a step-by-step process of solving a problem or completing a task. The algorithm is to coding, what recipe is to cooking.
Chefs figure out a recipe before they start cooking. Likewise, coding requires that you figure out the algorithm before jumping on a computer to write codes. There are fun games that help kids understand algorithms.
Coding Mindsets
Coding requires a mindset, and we believe that most of these mindsets come naturally to kids. Let’s look at the three major mindsets necessary to learn and excel in coding.
Curiosity
The hunger to know more and why. Kids always try new things readily and ask why things work a certain way. Even when you feel you have answered their question, they still ask you, “why.” This is a trait that coding requires. The quest to understand why things act the way they do.
Creative confidence
Kids are not scared to sketch, draw, create, and build anything that rents an apartment in their minds. To learn and excel in coding, you don’t necessarily need to be “creative,” you just need to have creative confidence, which is the willingness and courage to try to create.
Ambitious optimism
Coders are optimists. You must believe that you can solve a problem and make the world a better place for it. You must always believe that there is a way this thing would work. Just like kids, impossibility should not exist in your mind.
Coding is fun and intellectually stimulating. Exposing yourself or your kids to the world of coding will open up their minds and provide them with the ability to think through every other life’s problems. Our program at Geeklama is designed to help kids embrace coding skills and set up a foundation for breaking into the world of tech.
