為何幼兒應該學習編程與玩機器人？

      這個問題直接切入。本篇整理幼兒學習編程與玩機器人的資訊(進行式)，暫不針對幼兒是否適合學習編程與機器人批判論述。
      在呈現資源整理之前，我先提自己的觀察與想法。從每個獨一無二個體的身心發展出發、好奇探索、素養學習、理解表達、協作創造、自我效能、後設認知...。這篇找到的資料匯集，多多少少都有談到。

      有人提出STEAM教育永遠不嫌早，家長們「不希望孩子落後」想法可能強烈。

      孩子成長到一定階段，不論是語言學習或者是五官感知，都會開展對周遭的事物感到好奇、對未知現現象加以操弄或提出問題。從家長到老師的齊心努力，首要提供他們一個支持、豐富可供探索學習的遊戲環境(遊樂場，Playground)。

      我最喜歡這篇「Coding, Playgrounds and Literacy in Early Childhood Education」，Marina Umaschi Bers教授串接編程、遊樂場與素養，並介紹了ScratchJr與KIBO兩項產品的研發、設計與上述理念之融合運作。這幾句著墨於孩子發展的能力面向多元完整：
      遊樂場是一種環境，旨在讓兒童參與各種發展領域（個人，社交，道德，語言，認知，運動等），同時享受樂趣。做為遊樂場的編程框架，提供一種方式來理解編程環境必須促進發展適當的體驗類型：問題解決，想像力，認知挑戰，社交互動，運動技能發展，情感探索，以及讓個人進行道德抉擇。

      編程能力為21世紀新的素養。編程能夠提供新的思維方式，以及溝通和表達思想的新方式，以及新的公民參與方式。孩子從消費者轉變為生產者，有意向、激情、渴望交流一些東西。這樣的表達媒介，透過富有創造力與表現力的過程，讓孩子們學會以新的方式思考，感受和溝通。

      關於養成創造力，從編程教育的角度來看，可以參考密契爾．瑞斯尼克（Mitchel Resnick）接受親子天下「和同伴一起玩出創意執行力」的採訪，在其著作「學習就像終身幼兒園：打造X人才，培養創意思考者的4P新教育」，也提及：他從維護Scratch社群的經驗，總結出養成創造力的「4P方法論」：Project（專案）、Passion（熱情）、Peer（同儕）、Play（玩樂）。

      我再從「Computer Science in Early Childhood Education」文中，看到一張很棒的圖像：

      在環境所提供的遊戲情境中，電腦科學處除了涵括數學、科學與素養的核心內容之外，更重要有五項學習：
1.社交和情感學習：兒童通過與同儕和成人的互動來培養社交和情感技能，這些對兒童的學習和發展產生重大影響。
2.模式：透過使用共同特徵（例如，顏色，形狀，大小）組織對象和資訊，幫助我們理解世界。
3.解決問題：幼兒在探索周圍世界並與之互動時，自然會在日常生活中參與解決問題的過程。
4.表徵：理解並以比喻或模擬形式表達來呈現想法與作品。
5.序列：從識字和數學來學習序列，再結合電腦科學的演算法。

      另外我也喜歡這個圖像「Benefit of Robotics STEAM Learning(忘了出處，Sorry！)

      最後，分享還在讀想品味的「15 Reasons Why We Should Be Teaching Our Kids To Code (為何我們要教孩子們編程的15個理由)」，這也是我下本文標題的參考，每個理由都是一位名人所言！以下是我試著歸類呈現，有興趣的您再細看原文喔！

      針對孩子們的角度(雖然他們應該還看不懂)，學習如何思考到達成你的夢想：
◎TEACHES YOU HOW TO THINK
"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

◎THINK ABOUT THINKING  
"Programming allows you to think about thinking, and while debugging you learn to learn."Nicholas Negroponte - Founder and Chairman Emeritus of MIT's Media Lab

◎GIVES YOU SUPERPOWERS       
"I believe technology should give us superpowers. Everyone should have the opportunity to learn to think, analyze, and create with technology."Hilary Mason - Chief Scientist, Bitly

◎UNLOCK CREATIVITY & OPEN DOORS
"Every student deserves the opportunity to learn computer programming. Coding can unlock creativity and open doors for an entire generation of American students. We need more coders -- not just in the tech industry, but in every industry."Mark Pincus - CEO and Founder, Zynga

◎BE CREATIVE, PROBLEM SOLVE AND LEARN TEAMWORK       
"Are you creative? Do you love problem-solving? Is teamwork a strength? Do you want to have the power to change the world? If "yes" to all of these, then computer science - programming - is for you!"Ed Lazowska - Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington

◎FEEL EMPOWERED, GAIN CONFIDENCE
"Learning to code makes kids feel empowered, creative, and confident. If we want our young women to retain these traits into adulthood, a great option is to expose them to computer programming in their youth."Susan Wojcicki - Senior Vice President, Google

◎HELP HUMANITY       
"I think if someone had told me that software is really about humanity, that it's really about helping people by using computer technology, it would have changed my outlook a lot earlier." Vanessa Hurst - Co-founder, Girl Develop It

◎ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS       
"If you can program a computer, you can achieve your dreams. A computer doesn't care about your family background, your gender, just that you know how to code. But we're only teaching it in a small handful of schools, why?"Dick Costolo - CEO, Twitter

      針對大人與未來世界的需求，為未來作好準備，需要好的人才，不希望被淘汰：
◎WE NEED TALENT           
"Our policy at Facebook is literally to hire as many talented engineers as we can find. There just aren't enough people who are trained and have these skills today."Mark Zuckerberg - Founder, Facebook

◎NEED FOR DIVERSITY AND MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES   
"We must work diligently to democratize computer science learning so that no group is denied access to this fundamental knowledge. Not only is this an issue of civil rights, but computer science as a field desperately needs diverse and multiple perspectives." Jane Margolis - Senior Researcher and Author, UCLA

◎WE ALL DEPEND ON TECHNOLOGY   
"Here we are, 2013, we ALL depend on technology to communicate, to a bank, and none of us know how to read and write code. It's important for these kids, right now, starting at 8 years old, to read and write code."will.i.am - Musician/

◎CODING IS THE NEW LITERACY
"Code has become the 4th literacy. Everyone needs to know how our digital world works, not just engineers."Mark Surman - Executive Director, The Mozilla Foundation

◎PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE 
"To prepare humanity for the next 100 years, we need more of our children to learn computer programming skills, regardless of their future profession. Along with reading and writing, the ability to program is going to define what an educated person is. Khan Academy

◎IT’S A NECESSARY 21ST CENTURY SKILL   
"All of the today’s kids will need—along with reading, writing, and arithmetic—a basic understanding of computation and the role that it plays across a wide range of disciplines. Coding is engaging and empowering. It’s a necessary 21st Century skill."Jan Cuny - Program Officer, National Science Foundation

◎YOU WON'T BE LEFT BEHIND      
"One hundred years ago, people were faced with the choice of learning to read or remaining illiterate laborers who would be left behind as have-nots in a rapidly modernizing world. In the coming century, being able to command the world that will be thoroughly computerized will set apart those who can live successfully in the future from those who will be utterly left behind."Yishan Wong - CEO, Reddit