The move to integrate computer coding into Australian primary schools will come as no shock for many Canberra students, already embracing the digital skills shaping today's workforce.
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And unlike famed Harvard dropouts Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates, it means the next IT genius might create their new invention years before thinking about university.
Richardson Primary School information and communications technology co-ordinator Ben White introduced iTime for his year 5/6 students last year.
The program allows students to learn about any aspect of IT they are passionate about.
"Websites were very popular, which brought about the need to teach students the foundation skills of coding," he said.
"We explored HTML coding to build websites from the base up."
A spokesman for the ACT Education and Training Directorate said the new national digital technologies curriculum would be mandatory from 2017 for all ACT students from kindergarten to year 8, with elective options for years 9 and 10.
As part of the curriculum, agreed to by education ministers on September 18, coding will be introduced for all students from year 5.
Coding in its simplest form is creating the instructions to tell a computer or software application what to do.
"For year 5 and 6 students, elements of coding, including computational thinking, learning about digital systems that use whole numbers as a basis for representing data (such as binary code) and using algorithms to develop design solutions is included in the [new] curriculum," the spokesman said.
Year 5 Richardson primary student Cody Selig, 11, said he had already learnt coding for websites and apps, and getting hands-on was the best way to learn.
"Each student learns differently; I learnt by sitting in a small group with friends and a teacher and helping each other," he said.
And while children who have never lived in a world without Facebook look set to catch on quickly, the ACT government said it was confident teachers would have the skills to guide their savvy students.
"In 2016, to increase the level of expertise, professional learning will be offered to all ACT teachers to teach the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies curriculum in 2017," he said.
The new curriculum did not require specialist teachers and many were already skilled delivering a digital-focused curriculum, the spokesman said.
It is estimated schools would average about 20 hours per year on the entire digital technology learning area.
The directorate spokesman said the new learning area was supported by the ACT's existing technology investments in schools.
"Some schools have elected to teach the new content straightaway," he said.
