Coding II Reflective Blog Post

 This post is written as a final reflection for the course Coding II: Introduction to Microcontrollers, as part of a Master's program at Dominican University. 

One thing I learned in this course that I would consider to be very important is how much of the future is going to be operated by robotics. The videos and articles we read throughout this course talked about how many jobs have been modified or replaced by robotics, and how many will be impacted moving forward. Some even suggested that robotics could represent the end of the majority of work as we know it-I'm not completely certain I agree with that mindset, but I do agree that robotics is something that will be impacting much of my, and my students' lives, moving forward. For example, it might not be long before humans are no longer driving cars, working manual jobs, doing cleaning around our learning spaces, or many other things that seem commonplace in today's world. Taking this into account, this course did teach me how important robotics and coding is to what students' lives will look like, and the jobs they might have as they enter into the working world. This means that providing opportunities for students to become literate in coding and robotics, even if I don't specifically teach these courses, is very important. I think it also means that as an educator, I should continue to try to keep up with advancements in robotics and coding, because it will help me achieve a greater awareness of these important disciplines, which I can then pass onto my students, and also take into consideration when I am planning my lessons.

I could also imagine incorporating a number of things from this course within a robotics course in my school. My school is actually incorporating coding and robotics as an elective, and I could imagine Edison being a main component of that curriculum. Since Edison is affordable, and has pre-loaded programs in addition to ones that can be written, plus the extensive library of student worksheets and lessons to work through, Edison would be something that a lot of students could end up working with within that program. I could start such a class with students using the pre-loaded programs to understand the basics of coding (in addition to using Edison's extensive video library), and then branch out into the student worksheets to build out students' coding skills. Having a greater understanding of Edison's capabilities would allow me to apply my learning in the capacity as a teacher/facilitator, helping students improve their understanding of coding as well. Similarly, expanding my own knowledge would allow me to use Edison to create more extensive projects (such as modifying Edison with Legos and linking multiple robots together). This could be used as more of a hook to get students interested in coding itself, or as support I can provide students as they work through such complex projects.