MILL VALLEY, Calif. — Seven-year-old Jordan Lisle, a second grader, joined his family at a packed after-hours school event last month aimed at inspiring a new interest: computer programming.
加州米尔谷——上个月，7岁的小学二年级学生乔丹·莱尔(Jordan Lisle)和家人参加了一场人满为患的课外活动，活动旨在为学生培养一个新爱好：计算机编程。
“I’m a little afraid he’s falling behind,” his mother, Wendy Lisle, said, explaining why they had signed up for the class at Strawberry Point Elementary School.
“我有点担心他会落在别人后面，”他的母亲温迪·莱尔(Wendy Lisle)说，这是他们报名参加斯特罗伯里波因特小学(Strawberry Point Elementary School)这个辅导班的原因。The event was part of a national educational movement in computer coding instruction that is growing at Internet speeds. Since December, 20,000 teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade have introduced coding lessons, according to , a group backed by the tech industry that offers free curriculums. In addition, some 30 school districts have agreed to add coding classes in the fall, mainly in high schools but in lower grades, too. And policy makers in nine states have begun awarding the same credits for computer science classes that they do for basic math and science courses, rather than treating them as electives.
一场全国性计算机编程教育运动正在不断扩大，此次活动就是其中的一部分。根据网站，自去年12月以来，从幼儿园到12年级，共有2万名老师开设了编程课。是一家由科技行业支持的组织，提供免费的课程。除此之外，大约30个校区已经同意在秋季增设编程课，主要是高中，但也包括低年级。九个州的决策者已经开始给计算机科学课设定与数学和理科等基础课程相同的学分，不再将其作为选修课来对待。
There are after-school events, too, like the one in Mill Valley, where 70 parents and 90 children, from kindergartners to fifth graders, huddled over computers solving animated puzzles to learn the basics of computer logic.
相关的课外活动也在开展，比如在米尔谷的这次活动。活动中，从幼儿园到五年级的90个学生和70名家长围在计算机旁，通过动画智力游戏来学习计算机逻辑的基本知识。It is a stark change for computer science, which for decades was treated like a stepchild, equated with trade classes like wood shop. But smartphones and apps are ubiquitous now, and engineering careers are hot. To many parents — particularly ones here in the heart of the technology corridor — coding looks less like an extracurricular activity and more like a basic life skill, one that might someday lead to a great job or even instant riches.
这是计算机科学教育的一个显著改变，几十年来，计算机科学一直受到冷遇，地位与木工课等职业技能课程相差无几。但如今，智能手机和应用程序无处不在，软件工程方面的就业机会炙手可热。对于许多家长来说——尤其是居住在科技走廊核心地带的家长——编程不像是一种课外活动，更像是一种基本的生存技能，说不定哪天可能让你得到一份不错的工作，甚至一夕暴富。The spread of coding instruction, while still nascent, is “unprecedented — there’s never been a move this fast in education,” said Elliot Soloway, a professor of education and computer science at the University of Michigan. He sees it as very positive, potentially inspiring students to develop a new passion, perhaps the way that teaching frog dissection may inspire future surgeons and biologists.
编程教学的普及虽然刚刚开始，却呈现出“前所未有之势——教育领域从未有过如此迅速的行动”，密歇根大学(University of Michigan)教育和计算机科学教授埃利奥特·索洛韦(Elliot Soloway)说。他认为这是一个非常积极的现象，可能会激发学生们培养新的爱好，或许就像学习青蛙解剖可能会让更多孩子立志成为外科医生和生物学家那样。But the momentum for early coding comes with caveats, too. It is not clear that teaching basic computer science in grade school will beget future jobs or foster broader creativity and logical thinking, as some champions of the movement are projecting. And particularly for younger children, Dr. Soloway said, the activity is more like a video game — better than simulated gunplay, but not likely to impart actual programming skills.
不过，一些人也对让儿童过早接触编程的做法发出警告。目前还不清楚，在小学讲授计算机科学的基本知识是否会对未来的工作有帮助，也不清楚这能否培养学生总体上的创造力和逻辑思维。索洛韦说，尤其是对年幼的儿童来说，这种活动更像是视频游戏——比模拟枪战高级一些，但不太可能学会真正的编程技能。Some educators worry about the industry’s heavy role: Major tech companies and their founders, including Bill Gates and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, have put up about $10 million for . The organization pays to train high school teachers to offer more advanced curriculums, and, for younger students, it has developed a coding curriculum that marries basic instruction with video games involving Angry Birds and hungry zombies.
一些教育专家对这个行业的大举投入表示担忧：一些大型科技公司及其创始人，包括比尔·盖茨(Bill Gates)和Facebook的马克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckberg)，已经为投资了大约1000万美元（约合6255万人民币）。提供资金培训高中老师，让他们能够讲授更高级的课程，此外，对于年龄更小的学生，该组织还开发了一套专门的编程课程，把基本的教学内容融入到了《愤怒的小鸟》和《植物大战僵尸》等视频游戏中。The lessons do not involve traditional computer language. Rather, they use simple word commands — like “move forward” or “turn right” — that children can click on and move around to, say, direct an Angry Bird to capture a pig.
这些课程不讲授传统的计算机语言，而是使用简单的文字指令——比如“前进”或“向右转”——孩子们可以通过点击和移动的操作，让一只小鸟抓住一只猪。The movement comes with no shortage of “we’re changing the world” marketing fervor from Silicon Valley. “This is strategically significant for the economy of the United States,” said John Pearce, a technology entrepreneur. He and another entrepreneur, Jeff Leane, have started a nonprofit, MV Gate, to bring youth and family coding courses developed by to Mill Valley, an affluent suburb across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.
这项活动并不缺少硅谷的那种“我们正在改变世界”的营销狂热。科技创业者约翰·皮尔斯(John Pearce)说，这对美国的经济具有战略意义。他和另外一名创业者杰夫·利恩(Jeff Leane)创办了非盈利组织MV Gate，把开发的适用于小学生和家庭的编程课程带给米尔谷。米尔谷是一个富裕的郊区，与旧金山之间隔着金门大桥。Parents love the idea of giving children something to do with computers that they see as productive, Mr. Pearce said. “We have any number of parents who say, ‘I can’t take my kid playing one more hour of video games,’ ” he said. But if the children are exploring coding, the parents tell him, “ ‘I can live with that all night long.’ ”
皮尔斯说，家长们乐于看到孩子们在电脑上做他们认为有意义的事。“无数家长对我们说，‘我不能让我家孩子再玩电脑游戏了’，”他说。但如果孩子们在研究编程，家长们告诉他，“‘编一晚上我也没意见。’”The concept has caught on with James Meezan, a second grader. He attended one of the first “Hour of Code” events sponsored by MV Gate in December with his mother, Karen Meezan, the local PTA president and a former tech-industry executive who now runs a real estate company. She is among the enthusiastic supporters of the coding courses, along with several local principals.
这个想法吸引了二年级学生詹姆斯·米赞(James Meezan)。他和妈妈参加了12月份由MV Gate支持的“代码时刻”(Hour of Code)活动。他的妈妈凯伦·米赞是当地家长教师联谊会(PTA)主席、前科技行业高管，目前经营着一家房地产公司。她和几名当地校长都非常支持编程课程。Her son, she said, does well in school but had not quite found his special interest and was “not the fastest runner on the playground.” But he loves programming and spends at least an hour a week at CodeKids, after-school programs organized by MV Gate and held at three of Mill Valley’s five elementary schools.
她说，她的儿子在学校表现很好，但是没有找到自己特别的兴趣，也“不是操场上跑的最快的那个”。但他喜欢编程，每周至少花一小时参加MV Gate组织的课后项目CodeKids。该项目已经在米尔谷的五所小学开展。James, 8, explained that programming is “getting the computer to do something by itself.” It is fun, he said, and, besides, if he gets good, he might be able to do stuff like get a computer to turn on when it has suddenly died. His mother said he had found his niche; when it comes to programming, “he is the fastest runner.”
八岁的詹姆斯解释说，编程就是“让计算机自己做事”。他说这很有趣，此外，如果他做的好，说不定能够让计算机突然死机的时候自动重启。他的妈妈说，他发现了自己的兴趣点；在编程上，“他是跑的最快的那一个”。Well into the session, the youngsters were digging in, moving basic command blocks to get the Angry Bird to its prey, and then playing with slightly more complex commands like “repeat” and learning about “if-then” statements, an elemental coding concept.
活动过程中，现场的孩子都全情投入，移动着基本的指令模块，让愤怒的小鸟抵达目标，然后使用稍微复杂一些的命令，比如“重复”，并学习“if-then”语句——一个基本的编程概念。The use of these word-command blocks to simplify coding logic stems largely from the work of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, which introduced a visual programming language called Scratch in 2007. It claims a following of millions of users, but mostly outside the schools.
使用这些文字命令块来简化编程的逻辑，这很大程度上源于麻省理工学院媒体实验室(Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab)的研究成果。这个实验室2007年引入了视觉编程语言Scratch。该机构声称，这种编程语言已经有数百万用户，但大多数都是学校以外的用户。Then, in 2013, came , which borrowed basic Scratch ideas and aimed to spread the concept among schools and policy makers. Computer programming should be taught in every school, said Hadi Partovi, the founder of and a former executive at Microsoft. He called it as essential as “learning about gravity or molecules, electricity or photosynthesis.”
后来，2013年出现了，它借鉴了Scratch的基本想法，旨在向学校和决策者传播这个概念。创始人、前微软高管哈迪·帕尔托维(Hadi Partovi)说，每个学校都应该教授编程。他说编程非常必要，就像“学习重力或分子，电学和光合作用”一样。Among the 20,000 teachers who says have signed on is Alana Aaron, a fifth-grade math and science teacher in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. She heard about the idea late last year at a professional development meeting and, with her principal’s permission, swapped a two-month earth sciences lesson she was going to teach on land masses for the curriculum.
称，已有2万名老师注册该项目。曼哈顿华盛顿高地社区五年级的数学和自然科学老师阿兰娜·亚伦(Alana Aaron)是其中之一。她去年在一个职业发展会议上听说了这个项目，在获得了校长同意之后，她放弃了原本打算教授的长达两个月的关于陆地的地球科学课程，将其换成了的课程。“Computer science is big right now — in our country, the world,” she said. “If my kids aren’t exposed to things like that, they could miss out on potential opportunities and careers.”
“计算机科学现在很重要——在美国和全世界都是如此，”她说。“如果我的学生们没有接触到这样的东西，他们可能会错过潜在的机遇和工作机会。”