Yasmin Kafai helps Penn Alexander students learn basic computer coding

December 15, 2014 — A group of students at the Penn Alexander School are getting a new look at computer games. It isn't by playing them, though — it's by building them. 

An elective course, designed by Penn GSE professor Yasmin Kafai and overseen by doctoral student Veena Vasudevan, teaches students the basics of computer coding, as WHYY recently reported.

Coding should be considered part of "basic literacy" for today's children, Kafai told WHYY. 

"We all have to understand coding like we have to understand reading and writing. Very few of us will become writers and write the great book. That's reserved for a few, but all of us learn how to read and write to express ourselves, to participate," she said. "Likewise, I think you need to understand how the things you interact with on the screens are made."

You can hear WHYY's full story here