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Creative Economy

VIEW: Teach kids creative computing skills

updated
February 22, 2021
Published on:
April 25, 2017
January 5, 2021

view: Prepare kids for jobs market with creative computing sKills

Children should be equipped for the demands of the future jobs market by teaching them about problem solving and computational thinking through the power of play-based learning.

So runs the argument of a new book, 'Hacking the Curriculum: Creative computing and the Power of Play', by games industry leader Ian Livingstone CBE and the educationalist, Shahneila Saeed.

The book sets out the case for the importance of teaching creative computing in modern schools and offers advice for teachers on how to improve their provision of learning in relation to critical digital skills.

It has won praise from Ed Vaizey MP, the former minister of state for Digital and Culture, and Eben Upton CBE, the co-founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Mr Livingstone, who co-authored the influential Livingstone-Hope Next Gen review which recommended changes in ICT education policy and advised the Government on the introduction of the current Computing curiculum in 2014, described problem-solving and computational thinking as "meta skills for the fast-changing digital world".

He added: "It is vital that we encouage creativity, diverse thinking and risk-taking in children, giving them the digital-making skills and an entrepreneurial mind-set, so that they might become job makers instead of job seekers."

Ian Livingstone CBE
(Above: Ian Livingstone CBE, pictured at the h.Club 100 Awards).

As the co-founder of the games retailer, Games Workshop, the former chair of the games company, Eidos, and chair of the games company, Playmob, Mr Livingstone is a well-known figure in the games industry. He is opening Livingstone Academies in association with Aspirations Academies Trust.

The book's co-author, Shahneila Saeed, has worked in education for 20 years, and is Head of Education at Ukie and Director at Digital Schoolhouse, powered by Playstation. She was also a founding board member for Computing at School, and part of the Government working party to propose a new Computing Curriculum.

More details on the book, published by John Catt Educational, can be found here.

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