Coding is the new literacy! Many tools (apps, platforms, language programming, robots, toys, cards) are dedicated to teaching programming to the youngest. They are easy to use and provide a lot of knowledge. We can mention ScratchJr, Scratch, Logo, crumble, BeeBOT, Edison the robots, etc. There are much more. Coding is an essential part of programming. But what is programming?
Programming is designing and writing a set of instructions (a program) for a computer in a language the computer can understand. This can be simple, such as the program to make a robot toy trace out a square, or incredibly elaborated, such as the software used to forecast the weather.
Programming is a two-step process.
First, you need to analyze the problem and design a solution. This process will use logical reasoning, decomposition, abstraction, and generalization to develop algorithms to solve the problem.
Secondly, you must code these ideas in a specific programming language on a computer. This is what we call coding, and we can refer to the set of instructions in the program as ‘code.’
Programming motivates learning computer science. It is a fantastic experience when a computer does what you ask because you’ve written the precise instructions (code) to make something happen.
Programming also allows you to test your ideas while coding and see the results. That represents immediate feedback if something works and allows you to correct and try again. It doesn’t matter the times you fix and test. The important is that you get the results you wish.
What should programming be like in schools?
It’s a controversial question. While many think it is correct, many others believe it is not.
What do I think? I think it is a vigorous activity for the students, and like we learn anatomy, not all of us are doctors. We can learn to program and choose our preferred career in the future.
The computational thinking we acquire while learning to program it will be helpful in our future life. But is it possible to teach computational thinking without coding and vice versa? Yes, but the two seem to work best hand-in-hand.
Computational Thinking
Teaching computational thinking without allowing pupils to try out their ideas as code on a computer is like teaching science without doing any experiments.
Similarly, teaching coding without helping pupils understand the underlying processes of computational thinking is like doing experiments in science without any attempt to teach pupils the principles that underpin them.
The new computing curriculum of many countries reflects this, which states that students should not only know the principles of information and computation but should also be able to put this knowledge to use through programming.
One of the national curriculum objectives for computing is to analyze problems in the computational term and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs to solve problems. It is not only motivation in the state of big countries, but this is a worry of the investigator, university, etc. So they created many tools to help kids in the learning programming process.
Which language is suitable for which key stage?
And now, which language should I use with my kids? The answer is not easy but let’s analyze each group and mention suggested tools.
Final Tough
So programming is an exciting activity. You can create a game, design a website, solve a common problem or get a general idea of how the computer works.
If the kids understand how the computer work, that gives them more open thinking and helps in many other subjects.
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