VIEWS & OPINION


Cracking the code – how Microsoft is helping millions of students develop computer science skills Comment by MICHELLE DAUPHINY BECKER, Minecraft in Education, Microsoft


In this age of unprecedented technological advancement, our lives increasingly benefit from and rely upon computers and machines, often without a thought for how software and apps are developed. Take Facebook, WhatsApp and Minecraft; they all began with just one line of code and yet they are now used by billions of people of all ages, globally, as part of their daily lives. At Microsoft, we want to empower every


young person to realise their own potential by learning about computer science, so that they can develop and hone creativity, critical thinking and problem solving – all skills required to survive and thrive in our tech-fueled world. One way we are connecting with our next generation of digital citizens is through Hour of Code. We built a tutorial last year in partnership with Code.org called Minecraft Adventurer – so far more than 30 million students have coded in Minecraft with the Hour of Code. So this year we added a second tutorial called Minecraft Designer. Our aim is to demystify the concept of coding, and show that anybody can think computationally and learn the basics of programming.


Minecraft is a game where users break and


place blocks to create wonderfully imaginative worlds. Microsoft developed Minecraft: Education Edition to take the game from the sitting-room to the classroom in a natural way that inspires creativity and channels passion in a secure online environment. The open nature of the game and broad appeal makes it ideal for a variety of subjects and educational settings, including STEM, history, geography and art, among others. Today, schools around the world use Minecraft


as a platform to aid learning. Speak to any one of them and you’ll be inundated with anecdotes about curriculum projects that have been brought to life using Minecraft. Have a project about the Titanic? Why not build the ship? Reading a book on the syllabus? Great, have the students build the fictional worlds in Minecraft that they’re reading about on paper. The opportunities are endless and the only limit is your imagination. More than that, Minecraft: Education Edition is


aiding the art of communication – be that with computers, people or machines. At its heart,


Minecraft is a highly teachable technology that, along with whichever school project it’s being used in, is discreetly introducing technology skills in parallel. And this brings us to the importance of coding


in tomorrow’s world. Currently, there is a shortage of digital skills in the workplace which will continue to grow if not addressed at a grassroots level. PISA data taken from 20 countries including the UK, shows that, on average, only 30% of fifteen year-olds have had experience of programming a computer. Consider, also, the gender gap where, globally, fewer than 1 in 5 computer science graduates are female in OECD countries. Small wonder, then, that women represent just a quarter of technical workers. Minecraft and coding tutorials go a long way


in helping pupils develop these crucial skills in a way that is fun, relatable and sparks their curiosity. As technology-based learning continues to grow in the classroom as a tool to assist wider teaching methods, we’ll continue in our commitment to introduce coding to as many young people as possible.


Making skills relevant to the workplace Comment by PIERRE DUBUC, co-founder OpenClassrooms


The digital skills crisis facing the UK is well documented, yet the ways in which government, education and businesses are tackling it remain somewhat uncertain. The crisis is one of the biggest strategic threats facing major developed economies, and earlier this year the Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee revealed that over 12million adults in the United Kingdom lack basic digital skills that are now essential for being a part of the workforce. 750,000 jobs are expected to go unfilled by 2020 due to the shortfall of these skills, and an estimated £63bn is being lost from the overall GDP of UK as a result of it. The government has begun making, and implementing, plans to tackle


this issue but there is still much work to be done. The new computer curriculum in schools, taking over the soon to be scrapped ICT programmes, aims to give students the necessary technical skills to prepare them to enter the workplace. However, such programmes themselves face an uphill battle due to the already widespread lack of digital skills; just 25% of teachers are confident in teaching the new curriculum and just 35% of these teachers hold degrees relevant to the course. The issue is compounded by a lack of resources, with over a fifth of the computer equipment in schools being out of date and ineffective. It is clear, then, that alternative routes need to be found to open up


digital skills to all. Much greater cooperation is required between various stakeholders – government, employers and educators – to create a syllabus that teaches real, in-demand skills, and which provides multiple learning pathways that provide the widest possible access and different learning path to suit every student. The work being done to move the school curriculum into the future, and prepare the next generation of workers for the digital hurdles ahead is essential.


January 2017 Quite simply, technology has developed much faster than nations’


ability to provide access to digital skills learning programmes. Access is only one side of the coin, however: we must make sure that the skills we teach are actually relevant to the workplace: that they have a direct link to employment. But digital technology is changing job roles, and the skills required to fill them, so rapidly that educators cannot be expected to keep constant pace with these developments. That’s why it’s so important that we have much closer collaboration between the education sector, and the businesses who will be hiring these students in a few short years’ time. I agree with W.B. Yeats who said that education is not the filling of a


pail, but the lighting of a fire; but employers are not just looking for passion – they are looking for candidates that have achieved proven mastery of a set of relevant digital skills. That is why meaningful, recognised qualifications are so important – and why the lack of these is hampering our attempts to solve the skills crisis. OpenClassrooms aim to play our part in tackling the skills gap by


working with the business community and academics to design comprehensive paths that deliver project-based approaches ensuring a practical link that meet the needs of today’s businesses. Having worked with both governments and businesses, including partners such as Microsoft, IBM and Google, we believe that close collaboration between educators and businesses is the best way to solve the ongoing skills crisis. If we can combine the pedagogical expertise of teachers with the coalface experience of employers to design comprehensive courses that enable students to master these skills, then we will be giving our wards the best possible chance for future success.


www.education-today.co.uk 15


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