Why Kids In Preschool Will Be More Qualified To Code Than You

It is now clear that technology itself is the future of the human race. Everything and anything either already does or will shortly incorporate some sort of technological aspect into its workings. Technology can be found in every industry, in every market all across the globe. It is inarguably the most important industry in the world — if only for the fact that all other industries have technology as their backbone and could not function without it.

For this reason it seems to make sense for us to groom ourselves and — more importantly — the youth to flourish in the aforementioned technology sect. With the industry growing as rapidly as it is and infecting all other aspects of our lives, it would only make sense that people would focus their energies on learning the skills needed to make it in the technology world.

Statistically speaking, if you want to be successful and want to have the easiest route of becoming successful, then you should pick a career that has the highest demand for people with the skills needed in that field. Likewise, you want to make sure that you are not attaching yourself to a trend within a field that is likely to fade over time, but rather to the infrastructure of the industry — the architecture itself, if you will. What do we call the architects of the technology world? Coders.

Coders code. They imagine, they build and create. Every piece of software on the planet (or off the planet) was created by a coder using code. From 99-cent calculators running the simplest of software to supercomputers computing incredibly complex mathematical equations, a coder has had some influence. Coding is the engineering of the intangible; it’s playing God on the most miniscule of levels. You can literally create virtual worlds to explore or create the programming behind computers, robots, and machines that function within the physical world.

Coders are needed in every industry on almost every level. Whether it’s the creation of the actual product or simply the marketing, branding or presentation of the product, there is some coding involved. The problem is that with such a relatively novel and rapidly expanding industry, the demand for coders is much higher than the available supply.

It doesn’t exactly make sense that although we have a relatively certain idea of what industries will have the most growth in the future we (by ‘we,’ I mean our government) has not yet incorporated coding into our educational system. Sure, you can take classes in college…but we should be starting much, much younger. But the question arises: how young?

Those behind Play-i believe that we can start as early as age 5. “We launched Play-i to make programming fun for children as young as 5 years old, translating the research on tangible computing into products accessible to young children,” say the founders. How are they planning on accomplishing such a feat — a feat that has the U.S. government scratching its head while doing its best to find an appropriate approach to the nation’s lag in this rapidly growing field?

“We’re doing that by creating the interfaces and interactions that engage every child, even a preschooler, by meeting them at their cognitive ability and motor skills.”

In other words, the company is creating coding “lessons” that will cater to each age’s cognitive abilities — a.k.a. to their level of thinking. However, the genius behind the concept lies in the form of delivery of the lessons themselves:

“We figured the best way to bring programming to children is — to let them play. Remember how you felt when you played as a child — the fun, the joy, and pure happiness? In our user testing, we’ve seen Play-i products consistently ignite the same feelings in children while they absorb programming concepts, explore their own logic, and try and try again — and succeed.”

This is unquestionably an innovative way of teaching kids to code — no argument there. But who exactly is behind this project and do they have the credentials to make it work? Well, the founding team does seem to consist of some heavy hitters. Vikas Gupta once worked for Amazon. He later founded Jambool, which was acquired by Google in 2010, and prior to taking on this new project, was Google’s Head of Consumer Payments.

Mikal Greaves was the VP at Frog Design and was also the co-founder and COO of Chromasum — a startup building clean energy products. Saurabh Gupta led the iPod software team at Apple from 2006 to 2102 before jumping ship to join the Play-I team. And Imran Khan was previously the CMO at Eloan and most recently led marketing for Symantec’s $1.8 billion global online business.

“I think everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer because it teaches you how to think.”—Steve Jobs, The Lost Interview

Even the advisors come with years of experience; Dr. Vibha Sazawal, for example, received her MS (2000) and PhD (2005) in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Washington in Seattle and devotes her time to researching connections between abstract concept designs and concrete systems — particularly in the areas of tangible programming by children and advanced tool use by professional programmers.

Play-i is fairly new — only being founded in November of 2012 — and fairly small only having 7 employees. However, they already have closed $1 million seed round on May 3, 2013, which was led by Google Ventures and by Madrona Venture Group. They are now set for a crowd-funding campaign that is set to launch in September/October and hope to bring coding to the youths of America in the near future.

This novel way of interactive learning may be the best answer that our country has to making sure we stay atop of the constantly expanding technology industry. It is sure to open up new opportunities to potentially millions of children in the future as well as bring countless innovations for years to come. Make sure to check out their website www.Play-i.com and keep tabs on the company — chances are that you will be hearing more about them in months to come.